Keep most family related materials and notes in a separate binder.  This includes your Agenda Cards, Family Time Planning Sheets, and Co-Planning for Success notes.  Only current notes should be kept in your WINNER Personal Success Organizer or other time planner.

Agenda Cards (available separately or as part of the Family Time Planner packet from Learning Success) are a set of cards that simplify planning for a Family Time meeting and helps everyone stay focused as each agenda item is covered.  Place the cards so everyone can see seem.  Flip to each card as you come to each activity.  If you wish, you could write specific items you are going to cover on slips of paper and attach them to the agenda cards with paper clips.  We have also included Family Time Planner Sheets to make planning and recording each Family Time easy and organized.  They become a fascinating historical record of your family you will prize in later years. 

You may choose to have an opening song or musical activity.  Children love music, and quickly get involved.  So, have a group song, have someone play a musical instrument, play recorded music and dance, or even do a finger play for the younger children.  You will have everyone's attention and your Family Time will be off to a good start.  Members of the family could alternate as music director. 

A meaningful prayer or period of reflective meditation adds a beautiful spirit to your Family Time.  Talk about the meaning of prayer or meditation and explore ways to make it an ever-growing experience for your family.  Some families take turns being the spokesperson for the group.  Other families have each person say a few words.  Some families kneel beside their chairs; other families hold hands.  Find out what feels best for your family. 

Review how everyone did on last week's trait or theme.  Look at the character trait listed on your WINNER Monthly Calendar for the coming week. Read and discuss some of the quotations included on your WINNER Day Pages.  Decide if that character trait or another theme will be highlighted in your family during the next week.  Discuss how to help each other implement the trait or theme in their lives, and what support each member would like from the rest of the family. Character Boosters includes power pictures, encouragement words, character definitions, quotations, stories, teaching ideas, and activities for 52 character traits. You can focus on one character trait a week and cover all 52 during the year, and every year.

Positive Character Boosters

Everyone should have his or her WINNER or personal time planner at the meeting.  Take time to preview the coming week and have family members mark important dates in their own WINNERS.  Also, write important dates on a large family calendar that is posted on a bulletin board or wall. Everyone feels more cared about when his or her interests and concerns are considered important in planning the use of time.  Learning Success has also designed a Forever Calendar in poster format that visually shows the days and months of the year in one view. Because of its unique design, the Forever Calendar is good forever. You will never need another wall calendar. Special dates such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc. can be placed on the calendar once and they are always there to see at a glance. Other dates and information unique to only the current year can be placed on removable notes on the outside of the calendar. It gives a refreshing view of the year as a whole. 

Achievement Motivation and Time Management

Use a few minutes to take care of family business.  Give everyone an opportunity to express personal needs and share interesting stories or accomplishments.  Someone should act as a recorder and write these things down.  Keep the meeting positive.  Any complaints or conflicts that arise should be recorded and a time scheduled for them to be dealt with later. 

Choose one or two of the following activities:

Each person could work on his own Values/Goals Section of his WINNER and share progress and plans with the family as a whole, or you could work together on family values and goals.  For example, planning and writing your Family Mission Statement. 

Other Suggestions and Materials:  You may want to refer to the Learning Success Teaching Families to Reach Goals Program.  Use the Goal Planning Cards included in the program to help direct your efforts, or select one or more games or activities found in Activities to Make Achieving Goals Fun.  You might even decide to work on an individual or family Learning Success Achievement Award.  The instructions included with the application give insights on why each step of the goal setting and planning process is important, and how to teach these steps to your family. 

Each person should have a My List of Roles and Relationships in his WINNER.  You could use some of your Family Time to plan and schedule ways to further develop one or more of those roles or relationships individually or as a group. 

First we form our habits, and then our habits form our future.  Our everyday way of doing things can often make the difference between success and failure in important areas of our lives.  Use your WINNER Habit Planner Program for a fun and effective way for your family to develop success habits. A section of Learning Strategies & Family Habits That Boost Learning Success explains 12 important habits families should master to promote high achievement and quality living.  Fun, supportive activities are included to help master each habit. 

What projects, if completed, would significantly add to your family's quality of life or opportunities to move ahead?  There is a wealth of possibilities. Just a few could include organizing food purchases and menus, saving on electricity and other utilities, preparing safety measures for your home, planning escape routes in case of fire, working on family or personal histories, etc.  Refer to the Project Section of your WINNER for forms.  Read the directions on Getting Things Done. 

Each member of your family should continually attempt to learn new skills and perfect old ones.  What skills would be important for members of your family to master?  It would be fun to make a list of skills that you and/or other members of your family would like to develop.  How about skills related to cooking, sports, computers, school subjects, hobbies, first aid, dancing, playing or learning about music, camping, ...?  Refer to the Hobbies/Talents Section of your WINNER.

Reading Games for School Success, Writing Games for School Success, and Math Games for School Success books provide a well-organized way to: 

J     Discover each person's skill levels and needs.

J     Introduce specific learning activities and games to master each person's priority learning objective.

J     Give recognition and incentives to encourage each person to do his or her best.

Reading Games for School Success

Writing Games for School Success

Math Games for School Success

Learning Strategies & Support Systems for School Success will help each family member (including adults) become more effective learners.

Learning & Success Strategies and Support Systems

Physical Fitness & Well-being

See Spiritual Boosters for 52 Spiritual Learning/Teaching Principles, 52 uplifting and spiritual ways to enjoy the Sabbath Day and enrich the rest of the week, 52 visualizations that cultivate your mind with beautiful pictures to stimulate your spiritual impulses to grow, and over a hundred quotations that inspire.

Spiritual Fitness & Well-being

IQ Boosters explains the 13 basic skill areas important for effective intelligence. It then provides hundreds of habits, everyday activities, games, and ways to use a time planner, such as the Winner, to boost those skills.

Basic Intelligence & Active Learning System

Take turns being in charge of selecting or making the dessert or snack.  It's a delicious way for each person (regardless of age) to have the opportunity to contribute to the enjoyment of the other members of the family. 

What does your family especially enjoy doing together?  What are your family's favorite games?  How about making it a practice to learn one new game a month?  Usually, you will have your entertainment at home, but sometimes you will choose an activity outside the home, such as bowling, seeing a movie, or having a picnic.  You may, at times, want to invite other families over to share in a particularly fun or meaningful activity. This is a great opportunity to pick a game from one of the activity sections above that your family has decided to work on.  

Family Time will be the highlight of your family's week and everyone will look forward to it with smiles of anticipation.  Enjoying each other is an important family activity and builds the closeness and love we all want. 

You and your spouse should take time together at the start of each week to discuss each other’s personal goals and needs, and that of the family as a whole. Single parents should take time alone to do this. Then, make a specific appointment with each of your children to talk about his or her needs and goals, and visit for a while. Have your child share what he is currently working on in his Winner or other time planner, and what help he needs. This would be a good time to go over each child’s Daily Check List (containing job responsibilities and daily routines, give praise for accomplishments, and give further instruction as needed. Suggestions and items for the next Family Time meeting could also be brought up. Each person should use a To-Do List to record any action he or she is to carry out before the next Co-Planning for Success session.