In light of the upcoming school year, I've been wondering if this is something I've missed. Has anyone had an issue when a teacher assigns a "family tree" project? Have you had an adopted (or other) child who has been uncomfortable with this assignment? Any ideas on how to handle it? Is it acceptable to just tell your child to use his adopted family tree or is this disrespectful to his true heritage? Please comment.
3 comments:
Carol,
For my adoptive children, they have been very proud to put in the information from our family tree. For our foster children, we have only had to do this once, and she chose to include both her bio family and her foster family in her tree. It was kind of funny when she first met the foster grandparents because she kept asking them their names,and they just kept replying Grandma and Grandpa..they proved more relentless than she and she had to call them grandma and grandpa. I think giving the kiddo the option, and letting them know it's ok either way, let's them know you are not going to get hurt if they don't include you yet but also allows THEM to claim YOU, which can be a very powerful thing.
Sue Nachor
We've got some great info in our lending library about this issue. I just got in some handbooks for teachers!
I agree with Sue! Give your child the choice and if they choose to include both bio and adoptive families... Imagine how great it would feel to tell your child "wow, look how full and beautiful your family tree is!!!!"
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