Family Meeting: Magical words

The boys have been begging for family meetings every Sunday for the last couple of weeks. And I have been lazy about planning them. I was gifted an hour this weekend to do with what I pleased...and I chose to sit down and think out some topics for the next few Sunday meetings. I don't want to plan them too far in advance because part of the purpose is to tackle issues we are dealing with at that given time and to celebrate the great things going on too.

But we have been working towards family laws and chore charts. So we do have some direction.

Our meeting tonight went like this...

1. Leader: mama...others will lead soon.

2. Joke: Daddy (What do firemen put in their soup? Fire crackers!)

3. News: We shared what is on our schedule for the week.

4. Concerns and celebrations: must do lists are going well but they are forgetting to mark their boards. Which is silly because they could be earning their rewards sooner if they just remembered to mark them.  And they each picked their responsibility for the week. Charley will set the table and Henry will help empty the dishwasher.

5. Lesson: We reviewed the law of asking and how asking shows love. And we reviewed the word respect. Then I asked them how do magicians get magical things to happen....and this lead into a discussion about the magical word "abracadabra". Then we talked about when we give and receive respect it happens easier if we use some magical words...and we brainstormed "Thank you, excuse me, You're welcome, Please, I'm sorry." We talked about how these words can magically make something happen, can make someone be your friend, can make someone feel better, can make people feel more comfortable.
This week we will try and use more magical words and realize the value.

6. Family activity: Then we played the game Go Fish and practiced using as many magical words as we could. It was fun.

7. Treat: we each picked a Girl Scout Cookie.

The boys are excited for our next meeting. They were pretty riled up before this meeting. But it simmered down and it really was a nice little meeting. The meeting lasted about 15 minutes. Again, the family meeting might seem silly to some people. And right now we have actual lessons and laws that we are trying to establish. But down the line I hope our family can always look forward to this time and it will be a time when we can discuss issues, life, and problem solve things going on in our lives.

Do you do family meetings? Have you ever thought about doing them?