Little Family Tree Teaches Children Family History

I am always looking out for activities for children for family history. I see little children all the time passing time on a parent's smartphone or mobile device. "Today's children intuitively understand how to use touch devices such as smartphones and tablets. They use them to play, watch, and learn. The objective of Little Family Tree is to bring a child's personal family history to them through this learning medium and to share it in a way that is accessible to them."  See Little Family Tree Handout. 

Little Family Tree, from Yellow Fork Technologies LLC, is a great app that will engage your children and grandchildren using the data and photos that you have added to Family Tree on FamilySearch.org (it's FamilySearch Certified). Little Family Tree won 3rd place in the Children's category of the 2015 LDSTech App and Game contest. The activities are more meaningful and effective if you have added photos and basic information to Family Tree, otherwise the games and activities that children select from the house displayed in the app will use a default photo.

I downloaded the app from Google Play for $3.99, and I have to say that it is worth every penny. I am having fun with most of the games and activities myself. Just think about the minutes you spend waiting on an appointment or looking for something useful to keep children entertained. Well, now you can have fun with the children or grandchildren while they learn about their family.

Little Family Tree requires an adult to grant permission to access your FamilySearch.org account to use the app, but they do not share that information with anyone else. You also get to select the person who is playing the game which tailors the experience to that person, and it is so much fun to play together. 

The home screen, a house, is where you select the games you want to play. I figured out that the lights come on in the house when you click them. Even the youngest child can play scratch off which reveals a photo of a family member behind a rectangular grey shape. Check out their video:

Some of the games that I have played so far are:

• Scratch off (explained above)
• Relationship Bubbles where you match the mother, father, and child
• Sing-a-long where you dress up family members before they perform a song
• Heritage Dress Up where you dress a family member in the clothing from different countries

Visit Little Family Tree to learn more and discover more activities, and be sure you have beefed up Family Tree and Memories a little on FamilySearch.org. Then go download the app on Google Play or at the App Store today! It is also available at Amazon Kindle. 

I will be watching for any updates they come out with for this app!  Have you seen any other great family history apps for children out there? If so, please share in the comments below!