Love Makes a Family

Product Information

This inclusive board book pairs repetition with diverse illustrations to showcase a broad range of families and how they show love. Ultimately, it is love and not gender that form a family. Love Makes A Family. Book format is also like a large board book, so this is really a good "all ages" kind of book. pix) The goal of this unit is to help students understand that families come in all different shapes and sizes, and that no matter what a family looks like, all families love and care for one another. The world we live in is increasingly diverse, especially within family structures. As students are building their own identities, it is important for them to see mirrors of their own lives so that they can develop healthy identities, while also seeing windows into other lives so that they can embrace differences. Over the course of the unit, students will read stories that highlight a wide range of families and experiences, some of which may not be present in your school community. Ensuring that students see a wide range of families and experiences is crucial for helping students make sense of the world around them.

Everyone has a house, but it will not be a home without your family’s love and care. Home is where love is, now and always. What We Love: This book beautifully smashes stereotypes around what makes a family “real.” It is also told from the perspective of children and expresses a voice of innocence and love. We also adore the whimsical illustrations that are similar to the style of Ludwig Bemelmans’ Madeline . When you’re lost and there’s nobody else that would look out for you, your family will be there. They always will, regardless of all the harsh words that have been spoken or the arguments that happened. What We Love: In Littles and How They Grow , sweet rhymes list the copious ways we give love to our children. We appreciate the many different family configurations represented in the book and the racial diversity in the beautifully drawn characters.Kindness Makes Us Strong & Love Makes A Family are boldly illustrated declarations of love, acceptance and the different ways we can live out our values in our real lives. They're both populated by characters of different colors, ability levels, genders, and ages, while also ensuring that no one is specifically shown as "different" meaning lesser or unequal (a pitfall of many early 'melting pot' books or books that have disabled characters, but show them as people we should all be helping, for example). The books are simple reads, with simple messages, and little kids really GET THEM. They're perfect for talking about what kinds of ways love shows up in your family, and what kinds of ways you all can/do show kindness to each other - and also, what to do when kindness is hard. This is what I meant by books being a tool - If you're trying to teach your kids what it means to be a good human, and you don't have examples of how they can be good humans, then it is a lot harder for them to learn. Just about every sort of family you can possibly imagine was included in this tale, including LGBT+, interracial, adoptive, and single-parent families. No matter who was being shown helping their child find a lost toy or having a tea party, the love that each parent felt for their child or children shone through in every scene. It made me smile to see how much effort the author put into focusing on what we all share in common no matter who we are or what we look like.

What We Love: This book highlights diverse families and kiddos, touching on gender identity and sexuality. Family should be everyone’s first priority. Everything else, every single other priority that is important should come second or afterward.

Things to Know: While the author of this book is a white woman, it is still a lovely story featuring POC characters.

Book: My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete (Scholastic Press, 1 edition, 2010) Diversity 10: I find it interesting that groups of people believe different things and live their daily lives in different ways. Each person has two families in their lives. One that they are brought up in, and one that they make themselves when they wed another. Love both the same, and you’ll see happiness in your life. Many people make the mistake of thinking that a family is an important thing – A family is not just that. A family is everything to a single individual. And we can say a lot of good things about our parents - the Boomers and Hippies, a lot of whom tried to do better in their own ways too - but self-reflection and re-examining the roles we all play in society and within families was not their strongest suit. Hell, depending on how old your parents were, you could've been raised with full on "emotions are evil, shut that shit down" Silent Generation-ers, and still you're out here attempting Gentle Parenting and letting your kid have a tantrum in the Target parking lot. I'm so proud of you!

Love Makes a Family was a non-profit advocacy and assistance organization of families headed by LGBT people, and their friends, working for equal marriage and family rights in the United States. It was also the name of a former organization in Connecticut that disbanded in 2009 after achieving its aims.

Find me someone successful who does not love his or her own family. The existence of such a person is almost an impossible feat because one simply cannot be successful without the love and support from your family first.

Family life can contribute to each family member’s happiness greatly. Without a happy home, a happy career, happy environment or happy anything would not be possible. Where would we be if not for all the love that we have received from our family? When it comes right down to it, our family is still our source of happiness, through good times and bad.