Building Character

People often have different reasons for choosing to educate at home.  It makes homeschooling a sort of melting pot of ideas and approaches.  Many people think that parents keep their child home to shelter them from the 'real' world.  In my home, we do our best to not shelter our children, the world out there is big, and heartless, and someday you are going to have to function in it.  We see our job as parents to give them as much teaching and training as we can, urging them to incorporate good character qualities into their lives.  Those characteristics is what they will draw from as they interact with all those around them 

As we approach the new year, I was thinking that it might be nice to share with you all how we do that here.  Sort of a Good, Bad, and the Ugly report....  let you see the reality of what we are learning, how we apply it, and the struggle within the process.

Just so you don't get the idea that I am some amazing mom, who thought all of this up on her own....  I want to full give credit for where I found this character quality list.  You can get your own copy, and follow along with us by heading over to the Duggar Family Website.  No other list I have seen, provides the opposite quality, as well as a working definition of the characteristic you are working on.  I remember the first time I saw this list...  I was so excited that it was clear and easy to understand!

I think based on the attitudes and actions that I have been seeing in our home, we will be working on reinforcing a few key qualities in these next two weeks. 

Our list for now is:
Attentiveness, Self Control, and Obedience.

I will strive to meet the misbehavior of the boys with a calm voice, and ask them to think of ways they could be implementing the positive characteristic, praising them greatly when they show Initiative and exhibit the Characteristics without prompting.