All families have strengths

Caring and Appreciation

Loving and caring in families involves much more than the feeling of love. Strong families notice and share positive aspects of each other. They notice the talents, skills and achievements, special qualities, and characteristics that make the other person unique. They find ways to be positive even when another family member makes a mistake. They make a conscious effort to develop closeness and show love at home. Expressions of kindness increase family life satisfaction.

Time together

Giving time is an important way of showing love and appreciation. A strong family finds that opportunities for quality time emerge from quantity time: the more time a family spends together, the better chance they have of sharing quality experiences. Eating meal together, talking about the events of the day, sharing joys and defeats, doing household chores together, and spending some evenings popping corn and watching movies are examples of shared activities.

Commitment

There are many ways to foster commitment at home: discovering and enhancing family traditions. A family tradition is an activity or event that occurs with regularity and holds special meaning to a family. Family traditions promote feelings of warmth and unity, stability and safety for family members.

Communication

Strong families communicate. They take time to talk and listen to one another. They share their hopes and dreams, feelings and concerns. They take the time to listen and respond to what others have to say.

Flexibility

Strong families develop predictable routines, roles, and rules that govern everyday life and provide for continuity and stability. Some of the more obvious patterns are who cooks, washes dishes, does the laundry, fixes the car, make decisions, express anger, affection, or other emotions. At the same time families stay flexible, realizing that changing their routines can help them cope with stress. The varied circumstances of family life may necessitate individual adaptation. Since no family knows what tomorrow will bring, being adaptive and flexible is a good trait for family members to develop.

Spirituality

Strong families share a belief in something greater than themselves. They agree about what is right and wrong and what is really important to them. These shared values give families purpose and help them unite on goals. Spirituality is thus a powerful source of strength for these families.

Community and family ties

Strong families are connected to others in the community. They don’t stand alone. Such families are closely involved with other families and friends, schools, churches, and local organizations that promote the well-being of individuals and communities. Parents support groups that help develop and educate their children.

Family values

Values are a reflection of who we are, of our culture and of our own unique heritage. Being clear about our values enables and empowers us to establish priorities and make decisions that we can live with and by. What we learn from our families in childhood builds character and serves us throughout our lives. Families guide personal growth and education, while offering love and protection.

Family history

Strong families have a need for connection to the past. The past influences the present. Understanding and appreciating family history keeps families connected from one generation to the next.

Contentment

Contentment is the state of being happy and the satisfaction with the resources and circumstances that define the family. Families can promote more contentment with a family approach to goal-setting and decision-making.

Optimism

Optimism can be defined as the energy that fuels your thoughts, feelings and actions based on the difference between your expectations and your perceptions of a situation. Families that develop a positive attitude and are generally optimistic can maintain healthy relationships.

Read the texts below about different families and tick the strengths peculiar to them.

Strengths	My family	The Rowlands	The Stephens	The Sutterwhites	The Nears
time together
communication
family history
contentment
commitment
caring&appreciation
community&family ties
spirituality
optimism
flexibility
family values

The paragraphs have been mixed up. Read and put them in the right order according to an essay structure: introduction, main body and conclusion.

The Satterwhite Single Parent Family

Shanella volunteers at the New Hope Community Center tutoring children with their homework. Ms. Satterwhite has always participated with Shanella in all of her extracurricular activities. She has managed to balance life and work in order to meet the needs of her daughter.

Both mother and daughter work very hard at being self sufficient economically. Ms. Satterwhite works two jobs and over the past ten years has been saving and preparing for Shanella’s college education. She has encouraged Shanella to follow her dreams and further her education. Shanella will enter a college next year where she can focus on art and fashion design. Shanella currently serves as an art honor student at Southeast Raleigh High School and her number one fan continues to be her mother.

The Wanda S. Satterwhite Family is a single parent family. Wanda Satterwhite is a very supportive mother and loving parent. She has lived with the difficulties of the disease polio her entire life. She never allowed her disease to hinder the way she brought up her daughter, Shanella, and despite her illness Ms. Satterwhite graduated from Miller Business College.

Ms. Satterwhite is a leading community mother in the Southgate community. She encourages the children living in her area to stay in school, work hard and always give their very best. She has set up her home to be one of comfort and encouragement. Ms. Satterwhite’s influence on Shanella encourages the senior from Southeast Raleigh High School to attend school daily, walking a mile to get there.

The following story has been jumbled up. There should be 3 paragraphs, each of which has a topic sentence and some other sentences. The topic sentences are given below. Decide which other sentences (a-i) belong to each paragraph. Then put the sentences in order.

The Nears Blended Family