A family is a group of people related by blood, marriage or adoption who share a home and care for one another. The type of family changes who lives there and who does the work.
The idea
A nuclear family is parents and their children living together. An extended family includes other relatives, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, often in the same compound or in close support. A single parent family is still a family: one parent raises the children. Do not treat one type as the only correct home. The paper wants the name, who belongs in it, and one advantage or one limit. An extended family can share childcare and money. It can also crowd a house and make decisions slower. A nuclear family can decide quickly. It has fewer adults to call on when someone is ill.
The family has work to do. It feeds and shelters its members, teaches children how to live with other people, and gives affection and a sense of belonging. Roles are the parts people play: a parent provides and guides, a child learns and helps at a level that fits their age. Roles can be shared. The family life cycle is the stages a family passes through, from a couple starting out, to the arrival of children, to children leaving home, to later life. Name the stage before you list the needs. A family with a baby needs different time and money from a family whose children have left. Conflict is normal. What earns the mark is a way of handling it: listen, state the problem, agree a next step, and ask a trusted adult or a counsellor when the family cannot settle it.
How to prepare for the Management in Living papers: the family, the house, a budget, and the test of practical work. Start practising on glearn.now with Kevin and Anna. WASSCE Management in Living tips
What earns the marks
Name the family type and who is in it. "A happy home" is not a type. A function needs a verb: feed, shelter, teach, protect. The life cycle is stages, not a list of furniture. Do not swap nuclear and extended. If the question says explain, give the feature and why it matters to the people in that home. One example of conflict resolution is enough. A sermon is not an answer.