Kindergarten Views on Family

I am starting a new project with Kindergarten (pictures to come later) and to get them prepared for it, I was asking them questions about family.  For some reason in the first class I worded my question as "What makes a family?" but I changed it to "What is a family?" for the next class.  Here are a few of my answers that I had to share before I lose the piece of paper I wrote them on:

"A man and a woman get together and the woman has the baby.  And then the baby grows up and it's a family."

"A whole lot of people... and love... and stuff."

"Someone who lives together."

"When they come together like at Thanksgiving.  Sometimes they're married, sometimes not.  Sometimes they live together, sometimes not."

I also asked the students if all families are the same and they knew that "NO" was the right answer.  Several of my students live with a grandparent or other guardian so I mentioned that.  I also asked if they knew what adoption is.  I had a little girl in my second class say that she knows because she was adopted so I asked her to tell the class.  Her answer was so sweet.  She said "If you have a mom or dad and they can't take care of you and they want you to have a better life, then they give you away."  I asked her if she had any brothers or sisters and if she minded telling how old she was when she was adopted.  She said no on the siblings and that she doesn't remember when she was adopted and never got to meet her "real" parents.  Then she started to look sad so I just told the other students that adoption shows love and when you are adopted you get to be a part of a new family, and of course every family is special.

Then other students started to add "Yeah!  And you DON'T know them!" and "Being adopted is like going to a new school" and the moment was over.  We thanked the little girl for sharing her story and started the project. :)