Sunday, October 18, 2009

Family Meeting, Establishing the Taylor Traits


Every Sunday we aim to have a family meeting! why, you ask, since my children are so young? I read a book some time back called 'Honey I Wrecked the Kids, When Screaming, Bribery and Timeouts don't Work Anymore.' And it was all about raising children in todays society... which is a tough one as we live in a 'I want everything my way' type of mentality! One of the chapters in the book discussed having family meetings every week, and so we started this a few months back, and have seen awesome results. Every Sunday the children are aksing for the meeting! Sometimes even reminding us to have the meeting! We have an agenda each week. First we discuss Appreciation/Encouragement, then go over Old Business, present New Business, share Calendars, and then do a family activity. Eventually a section on Chores will be added, probably pretty soon, I think the kids are ready to start taking on a bit more responsibility (I can't wait for the day Elliott gets to clean the bathrooms like I did as a child!). And at the end of the meeting we do a family activity. This is where we play a game together, watch a movie, or do a craft! Today I must share we discussed 'Taylor Traits.' Characteristics that would make us great Taylors! It was rather amuzing to hear what the kids came up with. Myles came up with 'Funny.' Which is rather funny since he is the family jokester (next to his father of course). And Elliott said 'helpful.' Which is also fitting because she is helpful in many, many ways (most of the time, she inconveniently helps, I have to tell myself to let her do it anyway as she is wanting to help even if it means splashing water everywhere as she washes the dishes... it will clean up). The rest of the traits were Friendliness, Love, Healthy, Leadership, Honesty, Listening, Manners, and Integrity. These are on little tags, and eventually I will make a poster to hang them on! It was a fun activity, and the kids really enjoyed brainstorming ideas on what makes a good person! Since this is a post about the family, I will share a picture a I took last month with everyone but me, of course!

No comments:

Post a Comment