School Today

What did we spend time doing in our school today? We shaped our character! What... seriously! Absolutely!

The best lessons in life are in the "classic" books that most of the world claims as being "out of date". What do we know of the Forefathers of our past that made a difference in the world? We know that they studied the Bible and classics. They read from the great minds before them! No liquid down version from a text book, but straight to the source.

I have been reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott out loud to all my children. Today we stopped to discuss something we pulled out of the book. This is the great thing about the classics, there are always vital lessons to be learned. No lesson plans needed. Just read and discuss. So, this was the part when Jo and her mother are talking about how to get a handle on anger. Marmy, as they call mama, always has profound things to say. She is a mentor to me! She says that she has anger  every day of her life. So I asked my kids at that point which of them also has anger every day. All of us raised our hands. Then Marmy says that she has learned not to show it (her anger). So I asked the kids what it would take to not allow others to see their anger. Dallin piped in right away with an example of how he experienced anger yesterday but went out to the porch with the cats instead of letting others see his anger. He said he talked to the cats and they helped calm him. I thought this was a great example, so we talked about other ideas and ways we could not show our anger. Then I returned to reading the book, because in the very next sentence Marmy says " and I still hope to learn not to feel it (angry)". So then we talked about how we could not even feel angry. It was a great discussion! The character shaping comes natural when reading the classics.

If we miss the opportunity to read to our children (even when they can read on their own) then we miss the great mentoring opportunities that these books prompt us with.