Objectives
1. To identify the children's wishes about the family's future
2. To address the unrealistic wishes the children may have
3. To help them come up with realistic ways of dealing with the blended
family
Materials
* Scavenger Hunt worksheet
* Paper and crayons
* Magic wand (Optional)
Activity 1: Scanvenger Hunt
The counselor prepares a list of activities or accomplishments that the students may have done in the past (for example, "I have traveled to another state"). Hand these sheets out to the group and they should find other people within the group who have done one of the items on the list. This will allow them to know each other better and find people with whom they have something in common.
Activity 2: The Magic Wand
The Magic Wand (Sameck, 1991) is an activity similar to the "Miracle Question". Each child will have a chance to make a wish about their family and share with the group the reasons for the wish. The counselor should lead a discussion to address unrealistic wishes that may have come up. While it is ok to have these wishes, the children may need to accept that some of them may not come true. An example of an unrealistic wish is that the parent would leave the new partner and go back with the child's other parent.
Activity 3: Making it better!
In this activity the children will make an album.
Procedure:
1. Give each child 5 pieces of white paper and some crayons.
2. Ask them to draw in each paper a picture of one thing they could do to make things better and to deal with their unrealistic wishes.
3. Give them around 15 minutes to finish.
4. Then, ask each student to share with the group what they drew.
5. After each child finishes sharing, ask the rest of the group to comment or to give more ideas of ways to deal with the specific situation.After they finish, each child will have the opportunity to share with the group.
6. Use the go-around dynamic so everyone participates.
Processing Hints
This activities can be used with all grade levels and do not need any adaptations.
The counselor should give the participants feedback on their work (use
the feedback model).