Dream Family: Storytelling and Drawing

Issues: Lack of Empowerment or sense of control.

Purpose: To help children affirm their right to make choices and have dreams.

Materials: Crayons or paint and paper.

Procedure:  Explain what a foster or adoptive family is. Then tell a story of a child, Henry, from a land far away who traveled to a new city because his parents had died in an accident. Henry had been told he would live with the Cassidy family on Oak Street. But when he got to the house on Oak Street, no one named Cassidy lived there. So, the grown-ups in the city offered Henry the chance to choose the family of his dreams. Although Henry never forgot his first family, he found ways to be happy with his new family.

After the story, ask the children to consider what they would have selected if they had been Henry. Have them draw a picture of that dream family. Assure the children the meaning of their picture will remain personal and private to them.

Source: Making it Better: Activities for Children living in a Stressful World, Barbara Oehlberg, Redleaf Press, 1996