I used only family members that Benny interacts with regularly so he would care (my family is quite large). I also didn't distinguish step- and half- relationships as that would complicate things too much.
Results: Awesome!
I showed Benny the partially-complete chart and explained some of the relationships. He loved it! I asked him where some of the missing pictures go. He guessed some correctly (and some wrong). He asked "Where is Babushka's (grandma's) mom?" So we got a picture of her and added it. Benny also drew another box for her dad (who is recently deceased, but I didn't explain that to Benny, nor did I ask for a picture). We also added another grandma's dogs.
When it was finished, I asked Benny several times the relationships of the different people ("who is Violet's mom?", "is this your cousin?" "who is her mom?") and Benny got a solid grasp on all the relationships.
This is really cool. I think it's so interesting that he learns better from examples that have direct impact/meaning on his life (your prior post about cookies, and this one, your family specifically.) Also, I think leaving some people off created space for him to get curious and add to the lesson by asking his own questions. If you try to tell him everything all at once, it's a memorization process. If you leave blanks, the wheels in his head start turning on their own, expanding the lesson you taught to further reaches of its application. (Leslie)
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