I always put my “grandparent glasses” on as I review websites, to see how they can enable us as grandparents to connect with our grandchildren in fun new ways. Today, I’m delighted to help you discover StoryOfMyLife.com. Story of My Life is a place where people can write and store their life story, forever, for free!
The Story of My Life website “features one fascinating person per day.” They have given Grammy Tanda and me the honor of featuring each of us in a set of stories written by professional storyteller Sarah Peppel. My story is featured on the site today (Feb. 4, 2009), and Tanda’s story on Feb. 5, 2009.

I’m sure you’ll agree that there is nothing in life that compares with the wonderful feeling of being surrounded by our family and grandchildren. We want to feel connected. We want to share our legacy, our stories with our posterity. Family history is important.

The history of our grandparents is remembered, not with rose petals, but in the laughter and tears of their children and their children’s children. It is into us that the lives of grandparents have gone. It is in us that their history becomes a future. ~Charles and Ann Morse

Have you ever felt the excitement of finding a letter or journal from a grandparent or ancestor? Something that paints a picture of their personality and life. Remember (or imagine) as you read it, how you seemed to connect and bond with them?

Now I want you to ask yourself this soul-searching question: Wouldn’t you want your grandchildren and posterity to have the same experience, to feel the same love and bonding with you after your gone? Sure you would!

So, what do you need to do to make that happen for them? You need to write the story of your life! Our grandkids deserve to get to know us. They will cherish the memories that we share with them in person. Through our stories, they will come to love and admire us for the good in our hearts, as well as for our struggles and trials. It’s all part of life.

Now, thanks to modern technology, writing your life story is easier than you might think. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Story of My Life all the tools you need to record your life stories, one slice at a time. It has been engineered to bring all the pieces together in a coherent, finished compilation; with chapters and categories. You simply write short stories about an era of your life; about specific events that shaped your character.

They have a rich help system, complete with FAQs, glossary, a writer’s forum, etc. The writer’s forum includes help to get you started, overcome reservations you may have, and tips and links on storytelling. One of the most powerful aids in the writer’s forum, is a set of inspirational questions to ask yourself to help trigger memories. These questions are organized into three stages of life, each with categories and events that provide you with a suggested outline for chapters in your life story.

There is a Getting Started section that encourages you to “start with computer, and simply begin writing.” It explains “the website makes it so easy for you to start slowly and build your Stories on top of each other. You select a time frame and the system will automatically sort things chronologically.”

About Story of My Life

CEO Patrick Tardif is the mastermind of Story of My Life. He describes Story of My Life as a collection of “people’s life stories” that categorizes “important things about people to share through the generations. Story of My Life is a place where you leave your legacy; place secrets in a time capsule, and transfer your stories to your next generation.”

StoryOfMyLife.com has over 100,000 stories at this time. Most of them are private, but many are public so anyone can read them. There are three types of networks: family, friends, and interest groups. So you can invite people to your networks, and request to join other’s networks.

When I talked with Kristen Kuhns, COO of Story of My Life, she suggested their site differs from other social networking sites by using this metaphor: “If LinkedIn is the office, Facebook is the school reunion, MySpace is the concert/club, Twitter is the conversation at the water cooler, then Story of My Life is the family backyard BBQ!”

The Story of My Life Foundation™ is a not-for-profit entity who manages the content related to the Story of My Life website. The foundation has a “Forever Promise” to store and safeguard your life story forever.

May I offer you a couple of tips?

• When you set up your account, choose a username (ID) that’s readable, and capitalize each name or word. For example: ShaynePacker, not shaynepacker. GrandmaWebb, not grandmawebb. I usually advise people to use their real name and photo. The same for any social network, such as Facebook and twitter. (See my Twitter quick start checklist.)
• As you write your personal history, ask yourself these two very important questions: 1. “What do I want my grandchildren to know about me, my personality and character traits, about my life?”  2. “What do I want my grandchildren to know about life? What counsel can I offer them? Advice, tips, warnings?”

So go look it over and give it a try. Then invite your family and friends to take a look once you’ve got started. You don’t need to be completely finished before you start sharing your stories with others. Hey, it’s a work in progress. Think of it like building a house. You want to share your enthusiasm by inviting folks to follow your progress. And don’t worry if there might be some construction rubble lying around.

I encourage you to start today. Sign up for an account. (It’s free.) Then, while your over there at StoryOfMyLife.com, we would be honored if you would read Tanda’s and my featured story and leave a comment there.

What next?

• Read “Eyeing Technology Through Grandparent Glasses” – Grandpa Shayne’s story on StoryOfMyLife.com.
• Read “That’s Where Tradition Stops, Buddy!” – Grammy Tanda’s story on StoryOfMyLife.com.
• Sign up for free a free account on StoryOfMyLife.com.
• Please go back to mine and Tanda’s stories and write a comment.
• Go to the Story of My Life home page and click on the orange “Take a Tour” button. Explore their site. Read some of the stories.
• Explore their help section, especially the Writer’s Forum. (Click the life preserver icon at the top of any page, then click the Writer’s Forum tab.)
• Start writing your own life story. Have fun. Share it with those you love.

- Shayne Packer

We welcome your comments. Tell us how your life story project is coming. Once you have a profile set up on StoryOfMyLife.com, let us know your username or your Story URL so we can come read the story of your life.

Related post: The TLC in Grandparenting

Related post: ScrapBlog digital scrapbooks – website review

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[Editorial note: This week, we welcome guest writer Grama Barb, a popular "Lensmaster" on Squdoo.com, who has authored over 150 articles there.]

To all grandmothers, whose wisdom, courage and love have paved the path for future generations – we thank you!

Grandmothers are voices of the past.

Role models of the present.

They open the doors to the future.

Technology and Grandparenting go hand in hand – a perfect blend of the old and the new. As a grandmother of 4 ranging in ages of 8 to over 26, I have had to learn the language of technology just to be able to keep up and carry on conversations with my grandchildren.

I bought my first computer back in 1991 and it wasn’t long before I saw an opportunity to use this new tool to bring to life the voices of the past for my children and grandchildren. My love of genealogy had been confined in a cardboard box for many years. I would take it out and work on it for a time each year but I couldn’t seem to get it organized into anything I could pass on to my family. Then one day I read an ad for Family Tree Maker version one. I immediately bought it and went to work.

After many months, I finally had all the data I had at the time in book form for my grandchildren and for the grandchildren of my siblings. This book included the “voices” of the past in the form of my great-grandparents’ stories and of old diaries which all the children can learn from. Stories of hardship and love that everyone is proud of; that make you stand tall when faced with a life crisis and say, “I can do this just like my Great-Great-Grandma did!” Truly our ancestors are still role models for the present.

Grama Barb

Read part two: TLC: “Reaching out” through the introduction of the internet

Learn more about the wonderful role grandparents play in the lives of young children at A Grandmother’s Love.

Click here to get your own copy of Family Tree Maker - excellent genealogy software!

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Thank you for stopping by our grandparenting blog! Grammy Tanda and I really enjoy publishing this blog for grandparents. It’s been getting more and more popular, which is exciting! Our mission here is to enable grandparents to love and connect with grandchildren. We show you ways that you can connect and communicate with your grandchildren using all kinds of cool technology. We believe technology itself is neither good nor evil; it’s just a tool. It’s how people use tools that is important. As grandparents, you and I choose to use technology for good; for the righteous purpose of bringing our families closer together. So, this website focuses on helping you, as grandparents, learn about cool technologies you can use to connect with your grandchildren. Technology is cool when used as a tool to connect with your grandkids.

We live in a marvelous age of technology. But sometimes it can be intimidating: the internet, email new websites, inventions, cool tools, state-of-the-art, newfangled gadgets, and other technology. That’s why here at GrandparentsTLC, we offer free information and tutorials that show you exactly how to use cool stuff. Grandparents are cool! We don’t want to be left out while our grandkids are enjoying the 21st century.

I’m sure you’ve had experiences where you were nervous when faced with using some new gadget or tool. Then someone showed you how to use it. You tried it, and your confidence waxed stronger, until it became a useful tool. Why do you suppose it is that teenagers seem to figure these things out boldly and quickly? Take the internet for example. Do you think they are afraid of breaking the computer if they click the wrong button? Of course not.

Fear sometimes causes us to have reservations about trying something new. Yet, we all know grandparents who love doing something so much that they just do it and get good at it. You’re probably that way yourself. Take genealogy for example. I have older sisters that amaze me with their level of expertise using genealogy software and websites such as FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com. They love it too much not to learn how to figure it out.

That’s how it is with grandparenting — we all love spending time with our grandchildren so much that we make special treats for them, travel to see them, spend lots of money on gifts (sometimes too much? ) — need I go on?

Something magical happens when parents turns into grandparents. Their attitude changes from “money-doesn’t-grow-on-trees” to spending it like it does. ~Paul Linden

As grandparents, we are willing to learn to use cool new technology, if it brings us closer to our grandchildren. Take digital photography for example. When our families send us an email with photos of the grandkids attached, or posts photos on a website, we want to be able to see them quickly, and perhaps save and print them. So, you should invest in a digital camera of your own and learn how to post your own photos online. 

Now days, it is so easy compared with when I first started using digital cameras when they came out. I wrote Macintosh camera software for Kodak, who, along with Apple, invented the first consumer digital. Back then it was quite a process to download the photo files from the camera to a computer, create a place on the web for them, and then upload them to the website. Today it is easier than ever to get photos from camera to computer to web, like my son and I did for his baby’s photos. Much of the process is automated. Especially if you own a Mac with the free iLife software. (Gee, I wish Apple paid me a commission!) I’ll create a tutorial about this sometime if you like. What do you think?

So, technology is cool when used as a tool to connect with your grandchildren! As one of our readers commented on the blog here, “It is vitally important that all grandparents learn to use the web and technology to stay close to their grandkids.”

What are some cool gadgets, tools and websites you have enjoyed using the help strengthen your grandparent-grandchild connection? We’d love to reading your comments.

All the best! Shayne