If you have young children in your house, it’s likely that at some point you’ll discuss, compare and learn about different families. There’s no doubt this is an area of essential learning in the classroom, but it can also present an interesting opportunity to look at the family at home.
For the past few weeks, one of my kids has been enjoying learning about families. At home, we have had fun learning about who is in our immediate family as well as extended family members. It’s been revealing as we discuss similarities and differences between our family and the families in my child’s class. I have particularly enjoyed watching my child’s eyes widen as it becomes clear that her grandparents are actually my parents or my husband’s parents.
There have been a few interesting activities we’ve done that make learning about family fun.
All about My Family
On a sheet of paper, write some basic questions about the people in your family that you can ask your child. For example, you might ask:
- Who are the people in your family?
- What do we like to do together?
- My family is special because?
Then, write their answers.
Have a space for where they can draw a picture of them with their family. The family sketches are a lot of fun. I let my child draw her family on a whiteboard with erasable highlighters. I think we look pretty good…
If you’re so inclined, mount the picture on some black card. It looks really effective!
Create your family tree
There might be someone in your family who has a full record of your family’s lineage going back hundreds of years. Yet for this activity, you might want to focus on just a few generations.
A family tree can be something special and there’s a lot of cute craft ideas around to give you ideas on how to get it done.
One of the best ideas I’ve seen for small hands involves using your child to create the leaves of the tree. You’ll need:
- Blank paper
- Colours (crayons, pencils, Texta, paints)
- Glue
- Small cut-out leaves
First, draw a big leafless tree on the blank paper. As your child to help colour it (or get them to dip their hands into the paint and place it over the top of the tree to make the foliage). After, glue leaves on the tree for each family member. Then, under each leaf write the name and relationship of the member of the family. (This can be done by either you or your child.)
As you’re building your family tree, explain that the tree represents the who family and the leaves are an important part of what goes into making a family, which is how you get your tree.
Build your neighbourhood
This is an interesting activity, because it looks at not just family dynamics but also how families of different make-ups can come together to build a community (or a neighbourhood). For this activity, you’ll need:
- Blank pieces of paper
- Colours (crayons, pencils, Texta)
- Glue
- Short pieces of ribbon or string
Explain to your child that each blank piece of paper represents a family core within your extended family. As your child to draw one house and one family for each piece of paper. Then, glue one end of a piece of the ribbon or string to one house and glue the other end of that ribbon or string to another house. You’ll end up with a chain of houses and families.
It’s an opportunity to talk about how even though each family lives in their own house, they all belong to a big ‘neighbourhood’. Sometimes that neighbourhood comes together many times and sometimes members only see each other once or twice a year.
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