Life Stories – The Game of Memories for Family and Friends
Importance of Passing Down Family Stories
To identify and preserve the unique culture of your family, it’s history and intended legacy, you need to make sure that family stories are passed down through the generations.
But sometimes it is just plain hard to get the conversation going. How do you pull stories out of that great-uncle you see once a year or your Grandma when she is always busy working?
I’ve put a couple of articles over on FamilyMoneyValues.com with some ideas: Share Your Family History and Document Your Family Stories.
Games Are Great Tools
Sometimes though, it is just plain more fun to use a game.
I recently purchased one that intends to help us get those stories out. It is called LifeStories.
My seven year old Grandson and I recently played for about an hour and we both really enjoyed it. I learned some things about him and he learned some things about me! I can’t wait to play with the whole family!
About the Game
It’s a board game with tokens, dice, and cards to draw. It is a non-competitive game. The cards are grouped into Memories, Valuables, Etchings and Alternatives.
Each player takes a turn, rolls the dice and moves the appropriate number of spaces. If you land on one of the spaces with one of the card groupings, you draw a card and do what it says. If you don’t want to do what the card says you can then draw a card from the alternatives group. The alternatives group is mostly for young kids who don’t have a lot of stories yet to share. It lets them do other things, like sing happy birthday, instead. Some of the spaces just have things on them to do and you don’t have to draw a card. For example the first space on my board asks you “How many places have you lived? Which did you like the best? Why?
The memories cards have things like “Tell about your parents’ physical features” or “Describe the place where your grandparents lived”.
The Valuables cards have things like “What is one thing you like about yourself?” or “Would you like to travel in space? Why or why not”.
The Etchings cards have things like “Name 3 inventions that were developed in your lifetime.” or “What was the worst weather condition you have been in? Describe what happened”.
Each player gets dealt 6 Valuables cards which they read right away, decide which three to keep and pass the other three to the player on their left. When you land on a Valuables space, you draw from your own stack.
I reccommend Life Stories
I recommend this game for families to share stories. It could also be great for newlyweds to learn about each other and work or church groups to help get to know one another.
You might even want to get the cam corder or tape recorder going as the stories are being told!
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