Week 2 – Making House Rules
NOTE: There is 1 DVD this week for parents/caregivers
Parents/Caregivers
This week starts off with a review question from last week’s assignment. Ask “What limit did you set for your youth during the week? How did you show love at home? What is working well at home? Start the DVD. Process the question, “what changes do you see in your children?”
Divide group into three groups: assign a category to each group: Physical, Changes in Getting Along with the Family, and Changes in Activities. Ask each group to put answers on sticky notes and post on flip chart. Resume DVD. Pass out Rules and Responsibilities for My Youth worksheet, have parent/caregivers complete worksheet, following prompts on DVD. Resume DVD for “I Statements.” Hand out Making an ‘I’ Statement magnet cards. Following cues from the DVD, read situations and ask for “I feel…when….because….I want you to…” statements. Pass out Practicing Using ‘I’ Statements worksheet. Read situations and ask parents to practice each part of the “I” statement as a group. Collect Rules & Responsibilities worksheets. Have parent/caregivers write an “I” statement they could use if their youth broke a rule.
Assign Home Practice of tracking when their youth follows or breaks a rule this week. Prepare the group for the Family session, where they will be making Family Trees. Say the Parent Creed.
Youth
Session 2 starts off with a review of the ground rules and mystery compliments. Tape cards to each youth’s back. On the flipchart write “One thing I like about you is….” Have the youth use pencils to write, and be sure to check the mystery compliments before they are removed, to make sure they are compliments!
Next activity is “What’s Good and What’s Hard About Being a Youth or Parent? “ Divide the group into two teams – youth and parents. Have youth team list on flipchart what is good about being a kid, write their answers on the flipchart. Next, ask youth what is hard about being a kid, then list their answers on the flipchart. Hand out 5 “It’s Hard to be a Kid” cards to the youth team.– ask youth to pick the top five reasons it’s hard, and write one on each card. Divide cards among team members. Have parent/caregiver team list on flipchart what is good about being a parent/caregiver, write their answers on the flipchart. Next, ask “parent/caregivers” what is hard about being a parent/caregiver, then list their answers on the flipchart. Hand out 5 “It’s Hard to be a Parent/Caregiver” cards to the parent/caregiver team.– ask them to pick the top five reasons it’s hard, and write one on each card. Divide cards among team members. Re-convene both groups. Post the flipchart list of reasons why it’s hard – ask the teams to guess the top five reasons. When a correct answer is given, the person holding the card holds it up for all to see. Be sure to ask the questions: “Did anything surprise you about …..?” at the end of the game; and “What would your parent/caregiver say is hard about being a parent/caregiver?”
Play an active game for the next 5 minutes. I suggest “Whatcha doing?”
Post the “Concerns of Parents/Caregivers” sheets on the wall, have youth draw a card from the “Things Your Parent/Caregiver Does or Says” stack. Have each youth read his/her card and stand by one of the concerns sheets. More than one person can stand by a sheet. Youth read their card and which sheet they chose. Be sure to do discussion after activity.
Finally, have youth complete the Gifts worksheet. Pass out compliment cards that youth will take home to hide for their parents/caregivers. Write the phrasing on the flipchart and assist as needed. Discuss the home practice and prepare youth for the Family Strengths Tree. Say the Youth Creed together.
Family
Post the “Jolly Ranchers” poster; pass a container of Lifesavers, Jolly Ranchers, or orther wrapped, colored candy. Ask each person at a time pull out the candy. Ask each person to match the candy color to the chart and answer the question.
Show posters and conduct “Making a Family Tree” activity.
Say the closing circle phrase. Parents: “One strength my son/daughter has is….” and Youth: “One strength my parent/caregiver has is…” Say Youth, Parent & Family Creeds.