Word Association and Exploration Exercise
A warm-up exercise for family meetings, word association and exploration is an easy way to practice the "Go Around" technique. [See How to Hold a Family Meeting]
Benefits:
- A teaching tool that increases vocabulary
- A powerful way to convey parental values to children
- Practice in self-expression and creative thinking
Supplies Needed: Word List, Dictionary or Computer
Steps:
- Introduce the "Word of the Week" in the family meeting.
- Using the Go Around technique, get each person's reactions to the word - associations, thoughts, examples. Go around quickly getting one response from each person then around again as long as people are thinking of associations. Don't evaluate or comment about responses. Just keep going around quickly to encourage free association.
- Explore the word using the dictionary or computer. Actually this can be quite fascinating if you use a resource that gives the etymology of the word or quotations using the word. Parents may want to prepare this information before the meeting. Or, assign the word to an older child to research before the meeting. A good resource is found at Writing for Teens at About.com.
- Relate the word to your family's everyday life. For example, ask "How can you show more 'compassion' this week?" again in the Go Around format.
Sample Word List
Accountability Agreement Anger Citizenship Compassion Consequences Cooperation Courage Envy Excitement Fairness Forgiveness Gratitude Guilt Honesty Joy Kindness Loyalty Perseverance Reliable Reputation Respect Responsibility Rules Shame Tolerance Trustworthy
Return to Disciplining Children - Hold a Family Meeting
