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🕘 2 minutes reading time

Anxious about the latest viral epidemic making its rounds in Singapore? Many families are avoiding busy crowded areas like shopping malls, playgrounds and food courts like the plague.

If you have all three generations of the family cooped up at home and getting restless, why not turn it into an opportunity for the clan to get to know each other better?

Studies have found that close ties between children and grandparents benefit both sides. Close relationships with grandchildren allow grandparents to bridge the generation gap and keep themselves mentally sharp. Younger members can in turn draw on grandma and grandpa’s deep well of life wisdom to help them navigate their growing years.

Here are 3 fun yet meaningful activities to try your hand at.

#1 Collect family stories

Get the kids to play journalist and quiz their grandparents about their lives back in the good ol’ days! Turn these little snippets of memories and anecdotes into short stories to share.

Not only will junior get to practise his or her creative writing skills, ah ma and ah gong will be thrilled to have the opportunity to wax lyrical about their own growing up years – when policemen wore shorts, cars and buses had no aircon and the tallest building in Singapore was only 16 stories high!

Compile these personal stories – complete with photos or illustrations – into a scrapbook or a blog and share them at the next extended family gathering. It’s a rare chance for the younger generation to see history come to life, and a great opportunity for the seniors in the family to take the spotlight.

#2 Chart your family tree

If your kids (and you) have had a difficult time wrapping your head around complex family genealogy, here’s a chance for the elders in the family to school you on it

Charting your own extended family tree is a great way to untangle complex family ties and finally figure out how your ex-classmate (who is second auntie’s cousin’s son) is related to you.

#3 Create a family photo album

Dust off all those old family snaps and give them a new lease of life with the help of modern technology and social media.

Get the media-savvy kiddos to exercise their imagination, create little animated narratives around the pictures and upload them onto Instagram and Facebook. Share it with us by tagging us on Facebook (@familiesforlife.sg) or Instagram (@familiesforlife)!

If the seniors prefer not to go online, download them into digital photo albums so both datuk and nenek can enjoy those family memories on their own time.