Creating a family newspaper is a unique and fun idea that strengthens relationships, develops stronger writing skills, builds self-esteem, and creates a lasting family historical record.
Creating a family newspaper is a great activity. It promotes family, togetherness, creative writing, and preserving memories. A family newspaper can be worked on all together or you can assign different sections to each family member. Simpler tasks, such as making comics, writing jokes or trivia facts, and drawing pictures can be given to the youngest family members, while the older children and parents take care of other sections. Making a family newspaper can be done on-line, printed on the computer or written by hand. There are no rules. It largely depends on the purpose for making the newspaper.
Some families create an annual newspaper, complete with pictures and send it out to friends and family as their holiday letter. Some homeschooling families see a monthly or quarterly newspaper as an effective and unique way to promote creative writing and teach about subjects such as advertising and record keeping. Some families just make a one time family newspaper as a fun project to do together. Whatever your reasoning, hopefully these ideas will make your family newspaper a success!
The possibilities with a project such as this are as limitless as your imagination. Some ideas include comics, movie or book reviews, family news (such as which cousin is expecting a baby or what dad had for breakfast), community events, neighborhood happenings, weather, accomplishments of family members (a child getting a swimming badge, losing a tooth, or getting a driver’s license), big announcements such as births and engagements, sports (a recap of a child’s last soccer game), recipes, and crafts. Having a child interview a grandparent or other relative can teach them a lot about history, ancestry, and family, and can be a great contribution to your paper. You can also add crosswords, jokes, and family trivia for a laugh. Adding pictures or drawings is visually appealing and will only enhance the look and overall interest of your newspaper.
Working together to create a family newspaper will also make a paper time capsule, a treasure for years to come. Seeing their accomplishments, writing, and drawings in print will enhance your children’s self-esteem and reading about family history will help them to feel connected to something larger than themselves. Creating a family newspaper is a great tradition to start.