With today’s tight budgets, many foster children are going without lifebooks. That’s unfortunate because the therapeutic effects of life books are well documented. Just keeping a memory book helps children make transitions from middle school to high school or from one foster home to another.

The Scrapbook Option

One option that some are trying is to create their own lifebook via scrapbooking. This method can be rewarding and low budget, especially if you are creative. It does however, take time. Prep time can be extensive and securing low cost materials can be daunting. One of the biggest drawbacks is not covering the full gamut of therapeutic issues like a time-tested professional book.

Internet Downloads

If you look long enough, you can find online where a staffer in some state put together a life book that you can download for free. This could do in a pinch, especially if you can arrange to print it for free. If you can’t print for free, color copies often cost about 40¢ per page. Then add binding, and a “free” book could cost $12.00 or more, and you still won’t have a really good life book.

Time-Tested Winners

Today’s kids live very stressful lives and they deserve a lifebook that is really going to make a difference for them. This is why, for many years now, it has been imperative to find the funding for essential bibliotherapy. Without the right materials, the job is nearly impossible.

I recently ordered an excellent lifebook training DVD that is distributed by Lutheran Social Services of Illinois. The DVD is entitled, “Putting the Pieces Together: Lifebook Work With Children” and is available on their website: http://www.lssi.org/Support/lifebooks.aspx

As I have said previously, I believe that creating a lifebook for our foster and adopted children is one of the most important things we can do for them. A lifebook contains the chronological history of a child’s life, pictures, artwork, memorabilia, along with information that reflects a child’s understanding of the difficulties and changes that have occurred in his or her life. The lifebook also highlights and celebrates the child’s strengths, hopes and dreams. For a child, lifebook work is a path to their memories and to a reinterpretation of their memories. It is also a path to understanding and integrating their memories. Lifebooks are great for children in foster care or who have been adopted. They promote healing and provide concrete understanding of the reasons why they were unable to return to their birth families. Lifebooks give children permission to love and cherish their adoptive families as well as their birth families.

The “Putting the Pieces Together” DVD provides instruction on how to do Lifebook work with children using a teamwork approach. It was great to see how the lives of these children have been impacted in a positive way by being able to discuss and work through issues they are dealing with. It made me very proud to see that the teenage girl on the video was using our teen lifebook, The Real Me. She had very high praise for what our lifebook meant to her and how it helped her. Making lifebooks available to the children is such a rewarding experience for me.

Help me get the word out. Lifebooks are great!