The activity for Day 16 of the 21 Day Family Connection Experiment is to draw a family tree. That is quite the daunting task for me. Two parents, multiple step-parents, full siblings, half-siblings, step- siblings, adoptions,. That’s why I characterize our family tree as a “bramblebush.” My father thought that was funny. Good thing. It’s largely due to him that it is!
With the above in mind, I thought it would be fun to see how the youngest members of our family see their families. I asked my daughters and nieces to have their kids create a family tree and send me the picture. I also asked my sister, Marion but her 6-year-old is experiencing Round Two of strep. Her whole family had just gotten over some very serious Covid-like symptoms, so this second round is quite unwelcome. (They were tested. Negative.)
Sit back and enjoy how the little ones view their families.
Maya portrayed her world exactly how a pre-schooler would – we are tiny people in a BIG WORLD. But the tree is strong and the sun is shining. We will be fime.
My grand-daughter Paisley (age 4.5) happily included me (Omi) and her grand-dad (Pops.) I love that she used a different color for each member of her nuclear family, including Bebo, the cat. She also “signed” her work – 2Y 2P. Hmmm… those 2s might be S’s. Well, she’s getting better. She got the first and last letters of her name down!
But, hands-down, the most interesting drawing may have been done by my grandson, Jack. He just turned 6 this week. I’ll try not to read too much into it. (I’m not a child psychologist but if you are, feel free to share your comments!)
Mom and Jack figure prominently and are quite close to each other. What appears to be a huge, and very sad tooth, floats in the center just to the left of Dad. (He has lost quite a few teeth, so there’s that.) Little brother, Abe? Oh! There he is! Waaaaay at the top of the drawing. To the left of… um… the left..of.. is that a..?
It’s a tree, people. Get your minds out of the gutter!
To be completely honest, Cait tells me that isn’t actually a tooth, but a “mean ghost” and the tree is actually “a rock.” Ok – call it artistic license. I like my interpretation better.
Well, this was a fun activity. It will be even more fun when these little folks get older and look back at how they represented their families in the Spring of 2020.
Have your young ones create their family tree. If you send the pics to me, I promise I won’t try to analyze them!
Who We Are and How We Got This Way 