According to Montessori theory, there’s a real shift that happens when children graduate from kindergarten. They transition from an “Absorbent Mind” to a “Reasoning Mind.” It can be difficult to have one children in one phase and another child in another. For example, we wanted to get weekly family meetings up and running because Henry really enjoys them. However, Tate really struggled to stay focused and participate fully. Now Tate is crossing the threshold and heading into 1st grade this Fall. It’s time to get Weekly Family Meetings up and running in earnest!

Agenda for Family Meetings

Here’s a sample agenda—weekly family meetings can go in a number of different directions! We try to have our meeting on Sunday night over dinner.

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Get-to-Know You Opening

We open our meeting with a question from a set similar to this one. We pass around a talking piece, so only the speaker has the floor. We use a pig salt shaker from Target.

Shout Outs or Apologies

Once everyone has had a turn, we move into Shout Outs or Apologies. Whoever wants to share reaches for the talking piece and takes a turn.

Announcements or Questions

Then we move into an opportunity for people to ask questions or share an announcement with everyone.

Lesson or Issue

We then move into an opportunity for Matt and me to talk about something that’s important to us. For example, we did a lesson about how to respond when someone talks to you. We role-played what to do and what not to do.

This is also the opportunity to brainstorm together, such as ideas for an upcoming vacation. This is also the time we will use to plan our iPad rules.

Closing

There are lots of ways to close a family meeting, including singing a song, reciting a mantra, or playing a game. Our boys decided they want to close out our meeting by telling jokes. It’s really cute!