Our Monthly Family Meeting

We started something new in our family this year.  We decided the kids were old enough for a monthly family meeting. Here are some of the things we do in our family meeting:

• We gathered and went around the circle and said one nice thing about somebody else at the table.
• We brainstormed on something fun to do together as a family after the family meeting.  We wrote down our ideas and put them all in a bowl. Our list included things like play a board game, go roller skating, go bowling, do a family craft, go hiking together, do beadings together,  go to a museum, etc.
• We then talked about ideas to make our life better as a family and to make our family happier. We came up with things like find a special spot for our cups during the day so we only use the one--rinse it and put it in your spot, put our shoes away when we walk in the door, sort out old toys to donate, when you see someone in the morning, the first thing you say is "Good Morning!" We also decided that we wanted to go to a fall pumpkin festival as a family this month.
• We talked about upcoming activities for the month.
• We talked about the menu and our favorite meals.

Some good things have come our of our family meeting.

We instituted the hidden smiley face.  A couple of times a week, Mom hides a smiley face under one of the plates. After the meal has started we all check under our plates. Everyone takes turns saying something nice about the person who has the smiley face that day. This evening, ED was very cute. We all said something nice about her and after we were done she told us we all had to say something else nice because it made her feel so happy!

We now have a special day of the week. (I think I may have written about that?) On that day, the person has a few extra chores, but also gets to enter and exit the car first, gets to bake something, helps Mom in the kitchen and everyone is especially considerate of that person on 'their' day.

The kids have been much, much better at keeping track of their cups during the day (resulting in fewer dishes, a small victory!)

After our family meeting the first month we played board games. This month we chose two activities from the jar.  We chose to do beadings together and we also did the mummy wrap.