How to Write Family and Local History

Writing your family memoirs or recording the history of a town or village can be immensely rewarding.

However, when tackling your chosen subject it's essential not to attempt to cover too much ground in one narrative. Instead, try to focus on an individual event or episode in time. In some cases, writers have told the story of a special house or building, or chosen to chronicle a specific era, when something significant occurred.

If you are writing about a long period of time, it's important not to confuse the reader by jumping back and forth too much; following chronological order is usually the safest option. If you do have a large volume of detailed information to impart, list your references and research at the end of your work so interested readers know where to find further facts.

To give your story a wider appeal, you should research the broader social scene of the time. Describe the transport, food, fashion, art and sport of that age. This places your personal story firmly in the context of the time in which it's set.

When you recount your family history, add character to the piece by sharing funny anecdotes or unusual sayings used by family members. Even quaint household tips or favourite recipes can provide the reader with a unique insight in to an earlier time.

Add additional flavour and atmosphere by describing the noises and smells that would have been around at that time - the harsh clanking of steam engines, the billowing smoke and fumes from burning coal.

If you don't know where to start, a simple but effective way to begin your tale is to set the first scene in the present day. Show the family or village as it is today, before drawing back and contrasting it to a scene from earlier times.

An excellent, but trickier, way to spice up a historical account is to turn it in to fiction. A lively imagination is required to pull this off successfully, but it can work really well. Fictional histories are especially popular with children as it helps them to engage with an otherwise difficult subject. They are a terrific way of communicating history to a younger generation.

The simplest means of conveying historical events this way is to show them through the viewpoint of a single fictional character, such as the history of a house seen through the eyes of the chamber maid or the butler.

Another technique is it to recreate a historical account with a few fictional characters. However, it's best not to bring in too many personalities unless you want to turn your personal account into a full-blown historical saga.

Putting yourself in the shoes of your fictional creations will help you to conjure up images from times gone by - and it's also great fun to write!

Michelle Salter - Freelance Writer and Copywriter.

Michelle Salter is an accomplished freelance writer, with numerous articles published in national magazines. As a regular contributor to My Weekly magazine, she has written extensively on the subject of gardening, nature and wildlife.

She is also an experienced copywriter, providing web copy, blog posts, press releases and promotional literature for B2B and B2C markets.

Having Fun Raising Kids

Most of the people think that they can no longer have fun once they have children. But, it is not true. Sure, your days of having drinks at the local nightclub, going to concerts and hanging out with friends into the wee hours of the morning are gone but there are better and more beneficial ways to have fun as a family.

Raising kids can certainly be much more fun than more adult activities. This helpful parenting advice will prove to you that the fun is just beginning once you start raising kids.

Loving Those Littles

You will need to adjust your playtime and fun activities to coincide with the appropriate child development stages. Very young children really enjoy lying on the floor and playing with Hot Wheels cars or Barbie dolls.

The parent should think back to when he or she thought this was the greatest thing next to sliced bread and jump into the fun. Get down on the floor and play like a kid. This is one of the tips for parents while they raise kids.

Be Inventive

Raising kids today can be difficult because they are attracted and attached to technology from an early age. Taking the time to be inventive when it comes to playtime is one of the best tips for parents. Young ones in early child development stages might use their imaginations to recreate a simple refrigerator box into a teddy bear home or construction site for Tonka trucks.

Think back to your childhood and relive it, in a good way with your kids. Parenting child can help you to harness your inner child and enjoy playing again while strengthening the child parent relationship.

Think Like a Kid

There isn't a single person who didn't pretend to be an actor or dance around their room pretending to be a rock star. People of all ages love to strut their stuff and show off. Raising kids gives you the opportunity to look silly and sound terrible but have a blast doing it. You can turn on the radio (G rated music please) and dance and sing along with the music.

Kids of all ages love to do this and if you actually have a karaoke machine, that's even better. Simply letting loose and having fun is one of the better tips for parents. The kids will always remember daddy dancing in the living room or mommy singing a song from a Disney movie. Not only are you creating fun but you are creating memories that will last a lifetime.

Get Your Game On

Board games have been popular for many, many years and with the technology of today, all too many people raising kids would rather hand the children their cell phones tn play with than take the time to play together. Shut off the cell phones, video games and iPods and get back to basic. Choose a game that is appropriate for the child development stages of your children, grab some yummy snacks and sit down as a family to play a board game.

Many parents do their best to either allow the children to win or are so competitive that they make the game a blowout. This will disappoint the kids. It's best to choose chance games such as Chutes and Ladders, Candyland or Yahtzee. It isn't fair to expect a child to have a chance at winning if cunning, knowledge and experience is involved. Play fair and have fun with your kids and you won't miss out on anything.

Noah Brown is a freelance writer who writes extensively on child parent relationships and offer parenting advice to live a healthy, happy family life. She encourages her readers to read mother quotes and watch motivating parenting videos which offer parenting help and teach kids to be good human beings and be successful.

How Do You Choose the Right Bicycle?

Cycling is a great sport that can provide much exercise and fun at the same time. It can be done on your own or with a friend or spouse or family. There are a few things you may want to take into consideration when choosing the right bike for you. The information provided here may help simplify your decision by balancing your needs and budget. Expert staff and a wide range of bike types (backed by great manufacturers such as Trek and Giant) can help achieving your goal of choosing the right bicycle. A great warranty and expert service department are also very important.

Some factors to consider when picking the right bike for you are frequency, terrain, and use.

Frequency: How often do you envision riding your brand new bicycle?Twice per month, strictly weekends, or daily? This may help give you a general idea on how much bike you really need and perhaps help shape how much you want or need to invest. If you are going to use it to ride around the block a couple of times with your kid twice a month, you would probably agree that you do not need to spend $2,000. By the same token, if you are going to be using your bike every day and want the performance and longevity, you likely are going to want to invest more than $300.

Terrain: What type of terrain is in the area you live or where you plan on cycling? Will you primarily be riding on the street (is the paved road smooth or full of bumps and pot holes?), gravel, mud, hard-packed dirt, full of hills, straight (level terrain) or a combination of one or more of these. The answer to this will help determine what type of bike you need and what features you might want to look for including how you want to customize or add to your bike. If the path you will be mostly using your bike on is paved, but has some bumps and a few pot holes and some patches of light gravel, you may want to consider a hybrid bike with front suspension or mountain bike with semi-slick tires swapped onto them. This will help ensure you have a smoother, more comfortable ride.

If you are going to be riding on rough terrain with many bumps, tree stumps, and possibly rocks, (hard-core mountain biking) then the ideal bike for you may very well be a full-suspension mountain bike that includes both front and rear shock absorption systems.

If the terrain you will be riding on is miles and miles of 100% smooth paved road, then the bike for you might be a road or racing bike to give you the speed, smoothness and comfort you need. Accessories and components you may consider would be a comfortable seat, water bottle cage, bottle, clip-less pedals, cycling shorts and jersey.

Use: Will you be using your bike for commuting purposes, fun, exercise, long distance, racing or combination of one or more of these uses? Do you want to be the next Lance Armstrong and will you be doing long distance, hard-core road cycling and doing it often? If this is the case you may need a higher-end road bike that will give you the lighter-weight (yet strong) frame and performance components that will increase the life span of your bike, comfort and enjoyment of your ride, and the most important factor of helping to increase your chances to stay ahead of the pack.If this is not your cup of tea but you are more of a recreational rider around your neighbourhood or on a light trail in the park or path through the forest, then a hybrid (essentially a cross between a road bike and mountain bike) may be the bike for you. Hybrid or Cross bikes can provide much comfort for you with features that may include a suspension seat post, high-rise handlebars, adjustable stem and smooth-tread tires.

Of course the general rule of thumb applies to bikes, and that is you get what you pay for, and the quality, longevity and performance of a bike increases as the investment increases. A bicycle store with a good assortment and expertise to help choose the right bike for you that meets both your needs and your budget is key. Cycling can provide you limitless exercise, fun, and general good feeling experience.