Like so many families ours is spread across many miles and keeping my kids close to their aunts, uncles, cousins and grand parents takes lots of work. We look at a lot of pictures talk on the phone and visit when we can. My daughter loves lift the flap books and I thought I could use that love to keep her close to people who love her too. Active activities like this that lets little hands touch and grab are perfect for toddlers who play to learn.
- Gather your materials . You will need some diaper wipe lids ( you could use simple folded paper too) , pictures of your family ( I made a collage and printed it out on copy paper), glue, green and brown paper, foam adhesive dots, markers and labels.
- Start by writing out the titles of each family member on the labels.
- Pop them on the flip top lids.
- Next make a tree for the wall. Make sure it’s secure enough that it can hold all the lids. I used construction paper taped to the wall and then used thumbtacks as well.
- Add the lids to your tree.
I just stuck many of the lids on because they still had plenty of adhesive left on them from the packaging. However the ones that didn’t were popped on with adhesive dots .
- Cut and glue the pictures of your family under their coordinating lid. I kept the lids open so it wasn’t too hard for my daughter to open.
- Invite your little one to come and have fun.
She immediately started looking at all the pictures. 
- Then I asked her to see if she could find specific people and she happily played along excitedly yelling out name after name.
Books About Families
Reading about families like their own as well as families different from the one they’re in is important for children. Check out these books about all kids of families.
Mud Hut Mama says
What a beautiful idea! My girls would love this – it’s so hard to keep them connected when family is so far away.
Monica says
I love the use of the wipes container lids! Thanks for sharing!
Allison says
What a great idea!
Lenae Madonna says
This is brilliant. As a teacher of first graders, I would say this is a great project for any age. Kids so often cannot concretely understand who their relatives are. It takes a very long time. This makes learning so much easier! It’s really lovely.
admin says
You are so right! My son is still learning some like great aunt and great uncle.
Ann says
What a neat idea! My son, who is only two, gets quite confused as to which members of his extended family are on Mommy’s side and which are on Daddy’s side. He loves talking about all his relatives and looking at pictures of them though!