--- title: "Making a Family Tree With Kids: Faces First, Dates Later" description: "Start with photos of the people your child already loves, add one generation at a time, and attach a story to every face. Names and dates can come later." author: "The Glow Editors" category: "Stories for Your Kids" date: 2026-10-11T06:55:03.919Z canonical: "https://tryglow.ai/blog/making-a-family-tree-with-kids-faces-first-dates-later" --- # Making a Family Tree With Kids: Faces First, Dates Later ![A grandfather and a young child looking through old family photos together at a table](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1758612897055-3d17a4a1e8fb?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w4OTQwNjJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHxncmFuZGZhdGhlciUyMHNob3dpbmclMjBjaGlsZCUyMHBob3Rvc3xlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzkwODU3NDgwfDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080) > Start with photos of the people your child already loves, add one generation at a time, and attach a story to every face. Names and dates can come later. Your daughter is five. She's holding a photo of a man in a wide tie, standing beside a very orange car. "Who's that?" she asks. "That's your great-grandpa Sol." She thinks about it. "Did he like the car?" And just like that, she wants to know everything about a man who died before she was born. That's how children come to family history: through a face and a small, specific story. Not through boxes and birth dates. **The easiest way to make a family tree with kids is to start with photos of the people they already know, add one generation at a time, and give every face one story.** Names and dates can come later, once they care who these people are. ## Why faces come first Most printable family tree templates start with names in boxes. For a child, "Rosa Klein, 1931 to 2009" is a puzzle with no picture on the box. A face, especially one that looks a bit like Mum when she laughs, is something they can hold on to. There's good reason to bother. Writer Bruce Feiler described research by Emory University psychologists Marshall Duke and Robyn Fivush, who found that children who knew more about their family's stories tended to show more resilience. You can read his account in ["The Stories That Bind Us"](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/fashion/the-family-stories-that-bind-us-this-life.html) in The New York Times. A tree full of faces and stories is one of the gentlest ways to build that knowledge. ## What you need - Photos of family members: printed copies or pictures on a phone or tablet - A large sheet of paper, or a wall where you can tape things up - Glue stick, tape, coloured pens, maybe some leaves cut from green paper - A phone to call or message grandparents for stories and photos - About twenty minutes per session. This is a project, not an afternoon. Use copies, never your only originals. Kids' crafts involve glue. ## Step by step: building the tree ### Step 1: Put your child in the middle Start with a photo of your child, right at the centre or the bottom of the trunk. Ask them to choose the picture. This is their tree, and they're the reason it exists. ### Step 2: Add the people they see every day Parents, siblings, anyone who lives at home. Let your child glue each photo and say who it is. For toddlers, this might be the whole tree for a while, and that's fine. ### Step 3: Add grandparents, one at a time Pick the grandparent your child knows best and add their photo. Then tell one story about them. Not a biography, just one thing: "Grandma Leah taught herself to swim when she was forty." Add the next grandparent in another session. ### Step 4: Add aunts, uncles and cousins Cousins are often the most exciting branch for kids, because they're the same size. Draw lines so your child can see that Aunt Dana is Mum's sister, and that's why her kids are cousins. ### Step 5: Go back a generation Only now reach for the great-grandparents. Find the best photo you can, ideally one where they're doing something: cooking, fixing a bike, holding a baby who turns out to be Grandpa. Each new face gets a story before it gets a date. ### Step 6: Add names and dates when they ask Older children will start asking, "When was she born?" or "Where did he live?" That's your cue. Add the names, years and places in small writing under each photo. You've built the curiosity first; now the facts have something to stick to. ## Stories to attach to every face You don't need a dramatic tale for each person. Small, concrete details work best with children. Ask relatives for things like: - "What was their favourite food, or the thing they always cooked?" - "What job did they do? What did they actually do all day?" - "What were they scared of when they were little?" - "What's the funniest thing they ever did?" - "What did they say a lot?" - "Did they have a pet? What was it called?" Write the story on a small card or a paper leaf and stick it next to the photo. Better still, record a grandparent telling it, so your child hears the story in their voice. ## Questions your child can ask the grandparents Kids become far more invested when they gather the information themselves. Give them a few questions for the next video call or visit: - "Who was in your family when you were my age?" - "What were your grandparents like?" - "Do I look like anybody in the family?" - "Who's in this photo?" - "Which of your relatives would I have liked best?" That last one tends to get the best answers. ## Turn it into a game A finished tree on the wall gets forgotten in a month. A game keeps it alive. Try these: - **Who's in this?** Show a photo and ask your child to name the person and find them on the tree. - **Spot the nose.** Who has Grandpa's ears? Whose smile does the baby have? - **Story match.** Read out one of the story cards and ask who it belongs to. - **Then and now.** Put a photo of Grandma at seven next to one of your child at seven. Glow is built around exactly this kind of play: its family game for kids asks "who's in this?" with your own family's photos, teaching faces, names and who came before. Its living family tree has a year slider, so children can slide back and watch the family get younger, which tends to cause a lot of giggling. ## Paper on the wall or photos on a screen? Both work, and many families end up with both. Each has its strengths: - **Paper** is tactile and visible. A tree on the hallway wall gets looked at every day, and small children love sticking things on it. It's also limited by space and wears out. - **A screen** holds as many photos as you have, can include several pictures of the same person at different ages, and lets relatives who live far away add their own. It's easier to keep growing for years. A good rhythm for young children is to start on paper, where they can touch every face, and move to a digital version as the tree outgrows the wall. Keep the paper one. Their first wobbly lines between Grandma and Grandpa are part of the family story too. ## Every family's tree looks different Real families rarely fit a neat template. Divorce, adoption, step-parents, half-siblings, donor conception, and the neighbour who has been "Auntie" for twenty years are all part of the shapes children actually live in. Some ideas: - **Let the tree have extra branches.** Two families joined by a child is a perfectly good shape. - **Add an "orchard".** Some families draw several trees side by side, or a forest with paths between them. - **Follow your child's lead.** If they want to include a best friend's family or a beloved babysitter, that tells you who matters to them. - **Be ready for questions,** and answer them simply and honestly, at a level that suits their age. ## Relatives who have died Children usually take this in their stride. A grandparent who died before they were born is simply someone they haven't met yet, in story form. Give them the same treatment as everyone else: a good photo and one warm detail. If your child asks what happened, a short, honest answer is enough. ## Keep it growing The best family trees with kids are never finished. Add a new face every few weeks, when a cousin is born or a grandparent finds an old album. Take a photo of the paper tree each time it changes, so you have a record of it growing alongside your child. ## Your next step Tonight, pick out five photos: your child, both parents, and two grandparents. Lay them out on the table after dinner, ask your child to put them in order, and tell one story about one grandparent. That's the trunk planted. ## FAQ ### What age can kids start making a family tree? Toddlers can start with a few photos of parents, siblings and grandparents they see often. From about four, children enjoy adding a generation and hearing one story per person. Older kids can take over, asking relatives questions and adding dates and places. ### How do I explain a family tree to a young child? Start with them in the middle, then say: these are your grown-ups, and these are their grown-ups. Use photos rather than names on their own, and keep it to people they can picture before you go further back. ### What do I do about divorce, adoption or step-families on the tree? Draw the family your child actually lives in. Trees can have extra branches, step-parents, adoptive and birth families, and close friends who are family in every way that counts. Follow your child's lead on who belongs. ### How do I include relatives who have died? Include them with a photo and one warm, specific story, like the cake she always baked or the joke he always told. Children are usually curious rather than sad, and a story gives them something to hold on to. --- Source: https://tryglow.ai/blog/making-a-family-tree-with-kids-faces-first-dates-later