Kids family tree placemat games ideas

My kids have been  dieing to be able to use their family tree mats, poor babies, their mamma has been so much busy doing so many things, she hasn't had time to put her ideas into action for a long time.

I finally got around to doing it, and I must say, I am pretty proud of the final result!
Here it is:
A world map where they can point where their ancestors were born, lived or got married.
Since my husband's family was established in USA for at least 4 generations,  and mine was all from the same area in Italy, I created 2 games.
This is for the American side:

 Here is the version for the Italian side.

Family names word puzzle.

These are the ones I already created for my kids, and I am going to publish in the next few days.
Once I receive these prints, I will match them with each of my kids family tree placemats and then laminate them, so that they can use washable dry erase markers to play the games
A couple more ideas:

Match the couple game, where the child needs to trace a line to connect each husband to his wife.

A family traits matching game, where the kid connects his eyes, nose, mouth, hair etc to his parents and grandparents, to see who looks more like him.

What ideas have you come up with to keep your kids entertained at dinner/lunch time and at the same time nourish their love for their family history?

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WDYTYA = Who do you think you are? The show!

Have you heard? The American version of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ is coming on March 5th!
In case you haven't heard about "Who Do You Think You Are?", here is a brief summary:


The family history-focused series will lead seven celebrities on a journey back in time as they discover more about the ancestors who came before them. Lisa Kudrow, who executive produced the show, will be featured in the episodes, along with Sarah Jessica Parker, Spike Lee, Matthew Broderick, Susan Sarandon, Emmitt Smith, and Brooke Shields. Ancestry.com is a partner with NBC on the show. Tune into NBC Fridays 8/7c beginning March 5.

While to me it doesn't make any difference if it is a celebrity finding his/her roots, or the person down the street, it is indeed great that there is a show like this since I think it will bring more people to want to learn more about genealogy and family history, and this is all that I am about.
Every means is great to have more genealogy enthusiast join us!
I like that geneabloggers is suggesting a WDYTYA party. That's a great way to get your friends that have never shown interest in genealogy, to discover a new passion. It's also a wonderful reason, if you have friends that share your same passion for genealogy, to get together and maybe share your latest findings.
Geneabloggers also gives counsels on how to organize a WDYTYA party, and I am flattered to see that they suggest my magnetic family tree game for parties that include children.
Other games that could be interesting for both children and grown ups are the Family game cards, and a "guess who" game made using actual family photos( I will explain this game in a later post).

Also, if you have family in your party, a great party favor could be a nice genealogy tree with family pictures like the ones I talked about here and here or a cute family love tree swatchbook like this.
Also a Heritage calendar would be perfect to help your family remember about family history and the efforts you put in it!
For the friends coming to your party, even just a page with a nice family tree like the one used for the magnetic tree game, would be great, and would also give them a reason to go back home at the end of the party and look through their photos in order to find as many pictures as possible to fill that tree.
This could actually be a challenge, you could make it a game. The person that will have the most pictures by the following week, when you will all get together again to watch WDYTYA again, gets a prize! An idea for the prize could be a nicely framed genealogy quote, like this, or any other inspiring family quote.
Whatever you choose, just make sure that you make this opportunity as valuable as possible for you and your family and friends, and enjoy the show!