Raising Great Kids - Session One

Raising Children of Character:

Despite the blizzard on the night of our last meeting, 5 were able to make it out for YM. We kept to only this first session so that at our next meeting we could do a quick review and then jump into the next 2 sessions of the material.

We began our time with a video clip from the material Raising Great Kids. In the video Cloud and Townsend spend some time talking about some key factors in effective parenting. From the four key factors, the value of love, the value of truth, the value of freedom and the role of God, we were able to understand that we will help our children become kids of great character if we can bring these elements into our parenting practices.

We were able to look at a Continuum of Responsibility and see that over time we parents are to shift the responsibility of our child's life to them. We also saw the unique tasks that we have as parents and the unique tasks that our children have. Our discussion time allowed us to answer some questions about how we can help our little ones take on greater responsibilities. I shared a great handout I received from another class telling of jobs that my children can actually do. Here are a few of the jobs:

Age 3 - get dressed/put pajamas away/ make bed/brush hair and teeth/fold clothes/help empty dishwasher/clear dishes and glasses to counter/pick-up toys before bed/empty garbage

Age 5 - ALL OF THE ABOVE... and vacuum/use a feather duster/set the table/clean drawers and closets/wipe sink counters and tub/put groceries away

Age 7 - ALL OF THE ABOVE... and take garbage out/sweep walks/help out in kitchen/help make lunch/school work/clean out car/piano lessons

We also discussed letting our children be risk-takers, allowing them to try and succeed or fail. Finally we thought about what it would look like to stay 'emotionally connected' and keep good limits when our children disobey.

This final portion of our time was talking about the 6 aspects of Character. Connectedness, Responsibility, Reality, Competence, Morality and Worship are the 6 aspects of Character. Then we discussed things we could do to help our child develop in each of the six aspects of Character. The take home was to begin doing this at home with our children.