Our Family Meeting Book: Fun and Easy Ways to Manage Time, Build Communication, and Share Responsibility Week by Week [Paperback]

Elaine Hightower (Author), Betsy Riley (Author), Michele Borba (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

Today’s kids are busier than ever, and in many families, both parents work. Without time to deepen communication and strengthen family bonds, family relationships can become superficial and strained. Our Family Meeting Book helps families manage their time and priorities through short, weekly family meetings—a technique that therapists have recommended for years. Fifty-two agendas—one for each week of the year, though they may be used in any order—invite families to create traditions, resolve issues, review goals, make long-range plans, applaud accomplishments, build self-esteem and self-reliance in children, simplify and organize family matters, and promote important values: character development, mutual love and respect, and community responsibility and awareness. Full of original photographs and eye-catching illustrations, featuring many write-on pages, it’s a planning tool that becomes a written history of family life—and a treasured keepsake.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Our Family Meeting Book has won the following distinctions: Independent Publisher's Book Awards finalist (2003), iParenting Media Awards winner (2003), NAPPA Parenting Resources Award winner (2003), and selected for the What's New Magazine Awards Portfolio (2004).

Product Details

• Paperback: 129 pages
• Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575421208
• ISBN-13: 978-1575421209
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #633,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat useful, but not as useful as it could have been..., October 24, 2005

By 

Learning All The Time "It's Never Too Late to... (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Our Family Meeting Book: Fun and Easy Ways to Manage Time, Build Communication, and Share Responsibility Week by Week (Paperback)

The bulk of the book is made up of proposed agendas and weekly calendars. The agendas have some good ideas, but I suspect the 52 weekly calendar pages are not going to be very useful to most people. Most "organize your life" books talk about the importance of having JUST ONE family calendar where EVERYTHING written down, and perhaps ONE pocket sized calendar for each adult where everything is transferred diligently to the family calendar.

The 52 weekly pages in "Our Family Meeting Book" could not stand alone as a family calendar because users are encouraged to flip around between agendas/calendars and thus it would not be chronological. Maintaining these calendar pages in addition to a family calendar is just redundant. Although perhaps the calendar could be used to record accomplishments or something.

Anyway, page 4 contains the most valuable information in the book - 10 tips for holding a successful family meeting. The book would have been considerably more useful if the author had fleshed out these tips. For example, tip #1 is "Establish Ground Rules", but "our Family Meeting Book" provides just three examples of single ground rules. I think examples of a complete SET of ground rules, "These are the 10 rules the Jones use, and here are the 7 rules the Clarks use", or even sample rules for homes with teenagers versus homes with young kids, would have been more helpful.

And tip #9, "Include fun activities", tells the reader to "try playing a game, telling a joke, creating something, sharing a story, or singing a song". There is SO MUCH that could have been expanded on here! People who want to start having family meetings are probably really busy and somewhat stressed and don't want to go to the local crowded and noisy Toys-R-Us looking at walls of games trying to find "fun activities". Some tried and true recommendations, such as "The Set card game is an excellent thinking game involving pattern recognition that children 5 and over can play on equal footing with teens and adults", would have been much more helpful.

The last few pages are also useful, a list of free summer activities, brainstorming pages for summer vacation, a camp planner, a party planner, a chore chart, etc..

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Resource for Families, July 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Our Family Meeting Book: Fun and Easy Ways to Manage Time, Build Communication, and Share Responsibility Week by Week (Paperback)

I love the ideas in this book. In addition to giving a format for family meetings, it also gives the reader very value-oriented topics to discuss during the meetings. It is a great tool for any family who wants to start these kind of meetings and it is equally as helpful to those already having these meetings (like my family). Great ideas!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful!, August 10, 2004

By 

V. Zilinsky "co-owner of www.raisingourkids.com" (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Our Family Meeting Book: Fun and Easy Ways to Manage Time, Build Communication, and Share Responsibility Week by Week (Paperback)

Many experts recommend that families have meetings on a regular basis, but have you ever wondered how to go about doing this in a constructive way? This book is a great tool to get you started! It will not only help you keep track of your weekly discussions and decisions, but it will also help you plan your menus together as a family, and there are great discussion ideas for each meeting to help encourage good communication between family members. There are logs to keep track of the upcoming activities for the week, and many tools that you can make copies of and use repeatedly, such as chore charts, trip and party planners, bank account logs, and much much more! Although it takes a lot more than a book to keep a family running smoothly, this book would surely help out!!!