Celebrating Your Family's Uniqueness: A Fun and Easy Guide to Appreciating Each Other

Unique.  Used as an adjective the word means, that which makes somebody special or worthy of note (Encarta Dictionary).  Synonyms of unique are exceptional, distinctive, and irreplaceable.   Unique is also a word that describes our family.  It is a wonderful, beautiful thing, but it can also be very frustrating especially for siblings.  We have really tried to help our girls discover and celebrate the things that make them unique so they can better understand themselves and each other.  This is one of my favorite ways to help make that happen.  It is easy and inexpensive and can really give you good inside into how your kiddos see themselves and how they see each other.

“Family Circles”Do this activity when you have a little chunk of time to spend together.  Be prepared for them to spend either a lot longer than you planned making theirs or to be done in just a few seconds.  If the latter is the case you can even out the time by asking them to add details or colors to their drawing.

You’ll need:

A plain paper plate for each member of the family, it needs to be paper as foam is really hard to work with

Markers

You could Use:

Magazines

Scissors

Glue

Stickers

Simply tell your family that each person will make themselves on one side of the plate.  Tell them to make their whole body.  Remind them they can add their favorite outfit and fun details like hair bows or ball hats.  As your family engages in the project just chat together, make comments like “I love your brown curls” or “wow, your picture is really colorful just like you”.  Make sure the tone is positive as you all work together to make your individual plates.

If you want to use the magazines, you can either use them to cut out clothes they like and put them on, or find fun accessories like props for favorite activities (art, books, skateboard) or favorite foods or animals.

If you have little ones you can either help them yourself (I usually make my plate ahead of time for an example) or assign and older sibling for them to work together with.

Once the projects are done you play “Pass the Plate”

One at a time each member passes their plate around your work space.  Each of the other family members, looks at the art, makes a positive comment and then says one thing that makes that family member special.(Your laugh, you are creative, you are always ready for fun, you think about good ways to solve problems, you share….)  Older kids can write on the plate, adults can help younger kids.  When you’re done each person will have a self-portrait with things they like about themselves and a “plate-full” of praise from their family as well.

You can display them in your house somewhere or tuck them in a notebook to revisit whenever siblings are needing to remember why they appreciate each other, or when a family member needs a little encouragement.

**I love to date them and keep them from year to year in a folder.  It’s fun to go back and see the changes. I hope your family has a blast discovering and celebrating what makes its members unique.