"How To Grow a Family Tree"

This beautiful book by Bea Birdsong and Jasu Hu hit home for me in so many ways. As a reader, it's a gorgeous experience. The art is dream-like. The story is heartfelt and relatable.

"This week, my class is presenting our family trees....
My tree has two branches.
Mama and me."

It's a book about how family is more than biology, it's about connection, and can include neighbors we love and relatives we don't talk about. It's beautiful and necessary and perfect for discussion. How I wish I'd had it when I was a new classroom teacher. Because I stumbled with well-intentioned assignments. I remember a third grade student's tears when we made Father's Day cards and she admitted to me that she didn't know where her dad was. And my own daughter struggled with this exact family tree assignment. I had just remarried and although my daughter loved her stepdad and stepbrother, she was fiercely loyal to her dad, too. She didn't know where to draw her new family members on her family tree, so she begrudgingly drew them as a little offshoot.

Read How To Grow a Family Tree with your kids and students. Talk about the different things we can mean when we say "family". I encourage you, if you ask students to make a family tree, to consider the option of a family "garden" where all kinds of loved ones can be included. Gardens grow and change and can easily be added to, just like families. Family gardens, family trees - remind your children and students that at the root of it all, the most important thing is that they are safe and loved.