Through the years, we have sporadically held a family meeting on Sunday evenings. With a new school year beginning and with it, all the craziness of the hockey season, homework, and work for me I am hoping to get back to this tradition on a more consistent basis.
You can download your own with the Box link at the bottom of this post.
Here's how we use it.
1. Roles Each person chooses a role for the meeting
Encourager: is the supportive voice to make sure we all remain encouraging
Note Recorder: records the info on the laminated agenda sheet with a wet erase marker. This gets
hung in our kitchen for the week. The recorder may also be asked to record other notes and
tasks if needed.
Menu Chalker: chalks the dinners for the week on our menu chalkboard
Agenda Tracker: keeps us moving through the agenda and on track with our time. We try to keep
our meetings to around 15 minutes.
Reader: reads the calendar and the info from the previous week's agenda.
We are a family of 5 so this gives everyone a role, but you can adjust them to fit your family.
2. The Week Ahead
Calendar: We begin our meetings by looking at the calendar for the week, and figuring out which
parent is taking which child to their events. We cross check our calendars (iCals) with the large
family paper calendar and make sure everything lines up. We make note of any special to dos
associated with the calendar.
Menu: Knowing the calendar helps us figure out what meals will look like for the week: when do
we need to use the crock pot or grab take out or have a quick-cooking meal. Everyone offers up
suggestions for a meal they would like and the menu board gets filled out along with the initial
of the child who will help cook that night.
Connection: We plan for a family connection time: family movie night, game night, knee hockey
game, whatever. This is a time we schedule for the whole family to get together for an hour or
2 each week. We note it on the agenda and add it to the calendar.
Other: Any other things that need to be discussed. We hang a sheet of notebook paper near the
agenda for anyone to write down anything that might need to be discussed at the family meeting.
3. Highs and Lows We discuss what worked this week and what didn't. These can be family related
(like calm discussions or hectic mornings), or personal (like studying and earning an A or not
getting enough exercise). We try to focus on the positives (here's where that encourager role
comes in) and then make a plan for what needs to be worked on as a family (like cleaning up our
messes).
4. Goals Each person sets a goal for the week which gets recorded. Throughout the week we check
in on each other (ok, mostly I check in on them) to see how they are doing with their goal.
And that's it!
