Family Cheer

You may want to start this activity with a craft of making simple cheerleading pom-poms. For a simple DIY version, visit this website. Once everyone has 1 or 2 pom poms, write a cheer about the family. It can be modeled after whatever cheer you choose or be something original to your family. Try incorporating a character quality into the cheer, or it can be about Enthusiasm. Once you have the words for the cheer completed, add actions that all family members can do. Practice the cheer as a group until everyone is comfortable with it. If younger members can’t manage the actions, choose a simple motion they can do through the whole thing. The goal is to come up with a cheer that contains a tagline you can use to define your family, whether you are chanting the whole cheer or just picking out the tagline to use. Try to revisit the cheer on occasions when you need to amp up Enthusiasm or just when it would be fun to do it, such as on a car ride or at the park or beach.

To process this activity, ask these or similar questions:

• Are cheerleaders enthusiastic?
• Do they help pump up the enthusiasm of a crowd?
• Do cheers help identify with a group, such as a school or team?
• Was it fun to create a cheer for the family?
• Will you recall this cheer when you need to amp up your enthusiasm?