Alternate Activity 2: Money Talk at Home
Part of The Wi$dom Path
Activity time: 25 minutes
Materials for Activity
- Handout 4, Case Study – The Miller Family
- Handout 2, Healthy Communication Practices
Preparation for Activity
- Read both handouts and copy them for all participants.
- Arrange five chairs in a circle for role-play volunteers and chairs outside the circle for observers.
Description of Activity
Distribute Handout 4, Case Study – The Miller Family. Introduce the case study, a family discussion around budgeting for a child’s college education expenses. Ask for up to five volunteers to participate in the role play and assign them each a role number. Give the group about five minutes to read the case study description to themselves. Then read the case study description aloud and invite volunteers to enact the role play. If you have more than five participants, invite those who do not have a role to observe the process.
Tell the role players their task is to make progress toward a solution, but they needn’t come to a final resolution. Allow 10 to 12 minutes for the role play. Afterward, give role players an opportunity to offer feedback about their role. Was it easy or challenging? Comfortable or uncomfortable? Why?
Distribute Handout 2, Healthy Communication Practices, and engage the full group to discuss the following questions:
- What healthy and/or unhealthy communication practices did you observe among the role players?
- How might people’s reticence to discuss money directly play into healthy and unhealthy communications?
- Are there other healthy behaviors the players might have engaged in, given their roles and circumstances?
Including All Participants
If the group includes people who use mobility devices such as a wheelchair, arrange the role-play space in such a way as to welcome them to take a role; that is, set chairs for the inner circle aside until you know how many you will need.