Family Meeting – Lesson 1
Each of you should bring these tracking sheets with your entries:
- My Time Tracking
- Stomping A.N.T.s Tracking Form
- Family Meals
Welcome to your first SFP family meeting! This agenda is to help you organize your meeting and family practice session. It includes skills to practice from the week’s lessons, plus SFP activities each person did during the week. You can print this agenda, or have it on a phone, tablet, etc. to look at during the meeting.
NOTE: We recommend you open Family Meeting Agendas on a laptop, computer or tablet during your meeting, so the whole family can follow along.
Family meeting rules:
- Use an agenda.
- One person talks at a time.
- Everyone gets a chance to talk, if they want to.
- No one puts anyone down.
- Keep it short and sweet!
Each week, during your Learn & Earn Lessons, each family member is asked to share ideas. The Family Meeting is a time to review those ideas.
At every meeting:
- Compliments: Say something you like about each person
- Calendar: List activities or events each person has scheduled for the upcoming week
- Past Business: Discuss your SFP activities progress and rewards
- New Business: Discuss current SFP goals and practice skills
- Value Message: Share pro-social family beliefs
- Have Fun! Games and treats
Repeat This Week’s Power Phrase:
Daily playing one-on-one with each child and eating pleasant family meals together helps build strong and loving families.
Agenda Item #1: My Time
Review
This week you learned about how setting aside “My Time” for parents to spend with children leads to happier family relationships.
Directions
During today’s family meeting, you will review and discuss the ideas for My Time Activities with your kids. Review their ideas for fun activities in the table below, suggest your own ideas, and plan your times! If the table is empty, plan now for some activities. Here is a printable tracking sheet for you to use in planning and practice, or use the online My Time tracking sheet.
During today’s family meeting, you will review and discuss the ideas for My Time Activities with your kids. Review their ideas for fun activities in the table below, and suggest your own ideas, and plan your times! If the table is empty, plan now for some activities.
Here is your Family printable tracking sheet for you to use in planning and practice. If you don’t have a printer you can just copy these concepts and your entries into a notebook.
Family Tracking Sheet:
Agenda Item #2: Mindfully Stomping ANTs
Review
This week you learned about Mindfulness and how you can use that skill to stomp ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts.) Now it is time to practice!
Directions
Use this list of 10 “species” of ANTs to practice stomping. In your family meeting, read the “Species Name” and the example, then the TRUTH you can use to squash that ANT.
Now call on a family member to come up with their OWN example of that species and their OWN way to squash it! Use this form if you want to.
Family Tracking Sheet:
A.N.T. Chart
| Species | ANT | Squash this ANT with Truth! |
| 1. All or Nothing Thinking | There’s nothing to do. | There are probably lots of things to do if I think about it. |
| 2. Always Thinking | No one ever plays with me. | That’s silly. I have played with lots of kids. |
| 3. Mind Reading | The teacher doesn’t like me. | I don’t know that. Maybe she is just having a hard day. |
| 4. Fortune Telling | The whole class will laugh at me. | I don’t know that. Maybe they will like my presentation. |
| 5. Labeling | I am stupid. | Sometimes I make mistakes, but I am not stupid. |
| 6. Focusing on the Negative | My whole party was ruined by his teasing! | My party was fun, except for the few minutes he was teasing. |
| 7. Thinking with Your Feelings | I feel like such a loser. How can anyone like me? | I may need to change a few things; but I’m still a good person. |
| 8. Magnifying and Minimizing | I got a terrible report card. | I didn’t do well in that one subject, but my other grades were good. |
| 9. Blame | It’s the teacher’s fault! | I need to spend more time on my studies. |
| 10. Guilt Beatings | It is all my fault and I’m a horrible person. | It was just an accident. I can do things to make it better. |
Agenda Item #3: Plan Healthy Family Meals
Review
This week you learned about the importance of eating healthy family meals together. Family members had a chance to suggest meal ideas in their Activity Form.
Directions
As a family, choose a set of meals that you agree on.
Read and discuss your family’s entries together below–do these meals all make sense for your family? Are there any additional brain-healthy dinners you all enjoy?
Note: If there are no entries in the tables below, or missing entries from family members, you can add ideas during the meeting or ask the family members to go to the Family Activities section of the website and add their meal favorites before the meeting.
Read and discuss each of your family’s Family Meals tracking sheets together–do these meals all make sense for your family? Are there any additional brain-healthy dinners you all enjoy? As a family, choose a set of meals that you agree on.
Print or copy the Family Meals Tracking Sheet to use during this meeting!
Note: If anyone, or everyone, did not bring their tracking sheets, you can add ideas during the meeting.
Family Tracking Sheet:
BONUS ACTIVITY: The Penny Game
THE PENNY GAME. To become more aware of your ANTs, use this kid’s game by Richard Brozovich, Ph.D. and Linda Chase in Say Goodbye to Being Shy. Put ten pennies in your pocket every morning for a month. Every time you think a positive thought about yourself, move a penny to your “good” pocket. If you give mind-space to any ANTs, move a penny back to the holding pocket. Try to get all ten pennies in your “good” pocket each day. Note how many you got each night. At the end of the month, reward yourself according to how well you met your goal.