This guest post was written by Katie Johnson.
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In the March/April 2013 issue of the Adoptive Families magazine Gregory Keck and Regina Kupecky wrote the article “7 Ways to Give Your Child a History.” This article discusses the need of older adopted children to understand their story of placement and what it means when they are adopted and joining a home forever; several hands-on activities that parents can do with children are presented.
Keck and Kupecky outline 7 activities that can be done with children when they are adopted:

  1. The Timeline–create a timeline with the children representing life from birth to 25, use colors to represent different placements. This activity allows children to see where they have been and also reinforces the security of their current place in a family.
  2. Photographs–gather as many photographs from biological relatives, foster families, social workers, schools, and hospital as possible to compile an album for the child. This allows him/her to see him/herself at different life stages.
  3. The Lifebook–create an autobiographical book for or with your child that explains his or her life from birth and who his or her birthparents are, to reasons that the child was placed in care, the different places he or she was in care and the reasons for adoption.
  4. The Water Exercise–in this activity you use a pitcher, a glass, and water to illustrate to the child his/her different placements. You fill the glass with water to represent the length of time spent somewhere and pour the water into the pitcher. As the pitcher fills the water mixes together and you see that all of one’s life-experiences make a person whole.
  5. The Family Tree–create a family tree that shows the child’s birth-family as well as the new adopted family.
  6. Movie Night–a movie night can be a great way for children to process feelings and begin a discussion.
  7. Written Correspondence–a child who has been in multiple placements may never have received a letter or card in the mail, as you begin the process of adoption send mail to the child, after adoption ask former foster parents and others to send mail to the child.

This article is helpful in dispelling the myth that most adopted children are adopted as babies or that it’s better to adopt babies. The authors also displayed some of the struggles a child who is adopted may go through, positively promoted the need for children to have a permanent home, and the need for adoptive parents to help the children they adopt have an integrated view of themselves and their life. I would have liked to see a greater discussion on challenges children face and activities parents can do with their children at different ages and stages after adoption. I felt this article was limited by focusing on activities to do with children when initially adopted and would have liked to see a list of resources for further activities and resources that parents could make use of.