Brandy Mouritsen
Our step family class, we are contracted through USU Extension to teach this class. The step family classes online are for the adults only but with ours it's for the whole family. So we do the class in person, the whole family comes, we provide dinner for everyone in the family, and then the kiddos break off into their own classes, and learn information at the same time that adults are, and so that's, that's a little bit of a difference. We're doing it in person, and it's for the whole family.
Nick Porath
What's the best part of having the family all together to learn these concepts?
Brandy Mouritsen
Well, one cool thing is, first of all, they having dinner provided for them. So this is maybe one time a week that these families are sitting down and eating dinner together. The other thing is part of our curriculum is while they're in their classes, we have an in class assignment that they do. The adults do it, the children do it. And the last 30 minutes of class, they come back together as a family. And they go over these this in class assignment that they worked over. One of my favorites is it asks different questions like, you know, what's your pet peeve? What makes you the most happiest? Those type of questions? And sometimes parents don't know these answers for these kids. And so this is an opportunity for them to sit down and discuss those things about themselves with their family.
Nick Porath
And what do the kids and teens think about these smart steps classes?
Brandy Mouritsen
One thing that we have learned is when the kids have fun in our class and want to come back, that's what brings our parents back to the class. Not just the good information in the food, but the kids having fun. We've had kiddos be very sad the class was over, we had one child that made a friend in that class. This was many years ago, I'd say probably oh, seven years ago, and they are still friends to this day communicating through Facebook. So they make lifelong friends in these classes. They meet other kids that are in the same situations that they are so they don't know that they're not alone. So kids do enjoy the step family classes.
Nick Porath
Any final things that you'd like to add for our listeners?
Brandy Mouritsen
We are the family place. We have three locations in Smithfield, Logan and Hyrum and we are celebrating our 40 years this year. So here's to 40 years at the family place.
