You and your kids can turn all your family members into a fun activity!



First, sit with your kids and make a list of every person in your family.  No need to get into ancestors and great-great-grandparents, just stick to people your child knows.  Distant, rarely seen relatives don’t need to be included here.



Next, your kid should take a piece of paper and cut out a shape for each family member on your list.  They can try to make the shape represent the person in question. (For instance, the Grandpa in my family loves dogs, so one kid cut out a shape that vaguely resembled a dog’s head.  Aunt Bea bakes cakes, so another kid cut out the shape of a birthday cake.)  If no shape comes to mind, then any shape – triangle, diamond, flower, bean –- is fair game.



Once the shape has been cut out, your kid should write the person’s name on it.



Have your kid keep cutting shapes and writing names until every family member on the list has been taken care of.



Then grab some Scotch tape and tape the family together.  Your child can assemble the family in really any way: you guys could try to keep siblings together, or put kids near their Moms and Dads.  Or it could be kind of random.  Whatever works.  It’s a cloud!



Finally, use some tape to hang the family up.  A wall works well for this, of course, but it’s also fun to dangle the family cloud from a door jamb.  Everyone can look at it as they pass through (ducking as necessary.)



(You might also be interested in a "reduced version" of this activity:  do a family cloud but only use the people who live in the house with you.  This is simpler and quicker, of course.  But please have your kid include the pets, too!)



Having your kids create their very own Family Cloud Dangle will be quite fun for everyone this weekend.  In fact, we think you guys will even have fun saying the words “Family Cloud Dangle” quite a bit.