Creating Happy Childhood Memories through Family Traditions

I was lucky to have grown up with lots of happy childhood memories … and lots of wonderful family traditions. Growing up on a farm 40 miles from the original Little Town on the Prairie encouraged traditions and positive family values. (See my post at Raising Figure Skaters on “Gratitude for Positive Family Values.” and my “Little House on the Prairie Unit Study.”) When my husband and I had children of our own, I wanted to help create similar happy childhood memories for our children.

Based on my upbringing, I focused on creating family traditions for each holiday. We typically found ways to incorporate each holiday into our homeschooling, and we were careful to observe the holiday each year even if certain traditions changed according to our children’s ages and interests. Here are the posts I’ve published so far on our family holiday traditions. (In 2013, I’ll publish posts about our Valentine’s Day and Easter traditions.)

• Starting and Nurturing New Year’s Traditions
• Family Christmas Celebrations through Epiphany
• Homeschool Valentine’s Day (Update)
• Homeschool St. Patrick’s Day
• Homeschool Lent and Easter (Update)
• Child-Led Patriotism
• Start the School Year with a Celebration!
• Birthdays as Homeschool Holidays
• Homeschool Halloween
• Homeschool Thanksgiving
• Homeschool Christmas

I took lots of photos along the way to help keep the childhood memories alive. Of course, I’m still working on getting those memories into photo albums! That’s been an ongoing project the last few years.

Through Total Yearbooks, I (FINALLY) completed a homeschool yearbook for my son’s years of homeschooling from 1991-2002! My daughter and I will create more happy memories completing her homeschool yearbook from 1991-2006 over Christmas!

Note: Here’s a post showing a bit of my finished yearbook along with a giveaway for a $50 gift certificate for Total Yearbooks. (The giveaway ends Thursday at 10:00pm MST.)

What are your favorite ways to create happy childhood memories for your children?

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This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting with the theme of Childhood Memories. This month our participants have talked about memories of growing up — their own or the ones they’re helping their children create.

Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Childhood Memories of Peace, Support, Joy, and Love — Amber at Heart Wanderings wants to make sure the majority of the memories that her children have as a part of their family are ones that are positive and help support the amazing people that they are now and will become as adults.
• Hand Made Baby Books — Destany at They Are All of Me talks about why baby books are important to her for preserving memories of her childrens first years, and shows how she made one by hand for each child.
• Can your childhood memories help you keep your cool? — Here’s To A Boring Year uses memories of being a child to keep her on the path to peaceful parenting.
• Inter-Generational Memories {Carnival of Natural Parenting} — Meegs at A New Day talks about her own childhood memories, and what she hopes her daughter will remember in the future.
• Snapshots — ANonyMous at Radical Ramblings reflects on the ways our childhood memories appear to us, and hopes her own daughter’s childhood will be one she remembers as being happy and fulfilled.
• What makes the perfect parent? — In a guest post on Natural Parents Network, Mrs Green from Little Green Blog reflects on camp follow and camp no-follow…
• In My Own Handwriting — Laura from Pug in the Kitchen talks about her journals and the hope that they will be able to keep her stories alive even if she isn’t able to.
• Candlelight, fairylight, firelight — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud re-discovers the ingredients for bringing magic to life, especially at Christmas.
• Making Memories (or) How We Celebrate Christmas — Rosemary at Rosmarinus Officinalis talks about creating new memories at Christmas, and the joy their adventures bring to her whole family.
• The Importance of Recording Feelings and Emotions and Not Just the Experience — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares why she puts pen to paper every day to record more than just her experiences as a mother and her daughter’s experiences as a child. Jennifer looks at the importance of capturing feelings and emotions that accompany the experience.
• Dredged up — Kenna at Million Tiny Things has been forced to recount childhood memories at bedtime, due to the failure of her middle-aged imagination. She resists, of course.

• Crafting Memories — Handmade is what makes the holidays special for Christy at Eco Journey In the Burbs, and she wants to create the same connection with her daughters that she remembers with her mother and grandmother.
• My Childhood Memories; beacons of light in the darkness — Stone Age Parent shares the impact of her childhood memories on her life as a parent today, listing some of her many rich childhood memories and how they now act as beacons of light helping her in the complex, often confusing world of child-rearing.
• 10 Ways I Preserve Memories for My Children — From video interviews to time capsules, Dionna at Code Name: Mama wants to make sure her children have many different ways to cherish their childhood memories. Dionna’s carnival post features ten of the ways she preserves memories; check out her Pinterest board for more ideas.
• Memories of my mother — Luschka at Diary of a First Child remembers her mother and the fondest moments of her childhood, especially poignant as she sits by her mother’s sickbed writing.
• Creating Happy Childhood Memories through Family Traditions — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now tells why family traditions are so important to her and her family and shares how she’s worked to create traditions for her children.
• Traditional Christmas Tree — Jaye Anne at Wide Awake, Half Asleep remembers the great times spent with her family driving for the Christmas Tree and the lessons learned.
• Wet Socks and Presents — Kat at MomeeeZen writes about her favorite Christmas childhood memory and why it’s so special. And she hopes one day her kids will also have a feel-good memory of their own to look back on.
• Stuff does not equal memories — Lauren at Hobo Mama learns that letting go does not mean failing to remember.
• A Child’s Loss- Will They Remember Dad? — Erica at ChildOrganics writes about their family’s loss of their husband and father. She trys to find answers to the question: Will they remember their Dad?
• Childhood Memories – Hers and Mine — Jorje of Momma Jorje wished for her daughter the same passions and experiences she loved as a child, but learns the hard way to accept whatever passions strike in her child.
• Holiday Non-Traditions — Erika Gebhardt enjoys her family’s tradition of not having traditions for the holidays.

 

Linked to The Mommy Club Resources and Solutions at Milk and Cuddles and Crystal & Co. , The Weekly Kid’s Co-op, Living Life Intentionally Linky Party, Sharing Saturday, Saturday Show & Tell, and The Sunday Parenting Party.