3rd Session/Parent Meeting

Dear Parents,

Tonight was great! Your teens showed true signs of "gelling" as a group. There was less "side-talking" (okay there was some, but it was less, they showed consideration to one another, nice interactions. Also they were simply more efficient and focused than during the last meeting, even though three week have elapsed.

We worked on updating LUNCH Points for many of your children. If you do not see any new behaviors when you log into the program, it is because your child did not request it. Remember, the purpose is to help them remember one or two simple things they can, and should, be doing on a regular basis. We will work on behaviors that you have targeted for group later on. Right now, we just need to get the "mechanism working."

If there is a behaivor you think it would benefit your child to target, suggest it when you get closer to the next meeting, in two weeks. Remind them to bring it up and, if you wish, send me an email. If they remember, let them know it is good for a "Hero Ticket."

In addition to working on LUNCH Points, they participated in making a group animation, which will apparently have another segment in the future. Everyone from group participated. Some may have chosen a character, a sound effect, scene change, or dialogue, but everyone participated.

They had dinner at Gelsons tonight, mainly because of the parent meeting. They ate outside and, according to Lindsay and Stacy, socialized or played games after they finished eating.

The parent meeting had the best attendance we've seen in a long, long time. Congratulations! We reviewed enhancements to the website and LUNCH Points, general strategies and information, e.g., do you take things away from your child? If so, how do you do it in an effective, learning, learning based manner?

Finally, the parents made a request, which has turned into a decision. The parent tele-conferences will stop and be replaced by..... Parent Dinners. We are planning to have them occur every other month, starting in December on the 2nd Thursday of the month. The meeting place and exact time will be sent to you.

We will still conduct tele-conferences on occasion, however this will be primarily for teaching about technology used in the program.

Finally, there is a closed social network available and we discussed some of the details regarding that.

Your kids threw their own trash away and seemed to enjoy themselves. I will dicate audio summaries after next session.

That's all for now.

Bruce

2nd Session

Hi Parents,

Here's a review of what occurred during last night's group. We had all of our attendees except one. As is our routine, the kids had a chance to socialize informally near Gelsons. Afterwards, the kids transitioned to the office and congregated in the waiting room.

After they had been conversing for about five minutes. The room became so quiet spontaneously. It was really quite amazing. I almost wondered if there was something going on I didn't know about. Turns out they were just being aware of the fact that I was filming and they wanted it to be a quiet time. During that time we talked a little bit about what kind of activities we were going to be doing tonight. We reviewed the LUNCH Points program (which you will be using beginning next week... watch for the upcoming tutorial!) and how the raffle tickets (blue and "Hero") work.

We transitioned (incredibly smoothly, ask to see the video for the parent meeting). All of the group members updated and reviewed their behavioral goals. So, in terms of the overall momentum and cohesiveness of the group building that clearly seems to be happening. They are listening to one another, even the few who were bored spoke quietly and in a nondisruptive manner.

I showed them a project that the kids had done and explained that I wanted them to do a very similar project. One of the distinctions between the teen and child group is that we will tolerate (not condone) mildly inappropriate language as teenagers will do. What was nice to see is that nobody became too over excited about that. Overall in fact the group was very well controlled tonight.

The group completed the animation and then we went out to eat at Baja Fresh, tonight. It was an organized process. Some of the kids did not know what to order and they were helped by the counselors. The groups gravitated into smaller groups of fours, and they conversed, and enjoy themselves. They really alternated between eating and talking. I didn't see inappropriate manners from anyone.

The evening ended on a very positive note. It was one of the group member's birthdays and we had cupcakes for every one. They selected them in an orderly manner. They sang happy birthday to her. And when we realize we were running out of time, they very quickly cleaned up and with very little guidance, we're ready to leave and we're back within just a few minutes of the time we were expected.

One of the really nice things that I observed is that the degree of group cohesiveness is very strong. This is probably related to the fact that in this particular group the majority of the group members are returning either from spring or from summer. So the few new kids who we have have been easily assimilated but also the kids who were late 12 year olds are really working out well within the team group as well.

So that's it for now.. except, here is the cartoon they created. We will have it up as a narrated version in a couple of weeks.

Hi Caren, Your kids...

Hi Caren,
Your kids successfully came to the mall right now I'm serving(?) clears with 4 boys and 1 girl and the girl looks very comfortable in fact so much for the boys but they're tailor(?) riding it so I would say they are practicing close sister shopping." They enjoy themselves California ____ more to camp. listen

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