Have You Washed Your Hands Yet?

Have you brushed your teeth? O my… look at those long nails! Let’s cut them. Take off your shoes at the door please. Time for bath. Wipe your nose….

We hear ourselves saying sentences like these many times in the course of a normal day. Cleanliness is a big concern for all parents. We want the children, themselves, to adopt and carry out the daily routines of cleaning their body as soon as possible but, it seems to take forever to achieve this….What we might neglect to emphasize is that cleanliness is a virtue and, as other virtues, when we practice it, we feel good not only on the outside but in the inside.

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Do We Need to Learn a New Language for Our Family?

Language has great power to shape character and culture. Our choice of words and the way we use them can motivate and empower our children or humiliate and demotivate them. Sometimes when parents get frustrated with a certain misbehaviour of a child and feel powerless to change it, they give a hurtful label to the child to force him to correct his ways.

The Language of Virtues developed by Linda and Dan Popov, described in the Family Virtues Guide, provides an effective and gentle alternative for family communication. Using this language has proven to result in strengthening the virtues in children and deepening the bonds of unity and understanding among family members.

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Fostering Responsibility

Start of the school year is an exciting time for children. They look forward to meeting old friends and learning new things. However, school year brings its challenges as well. Doing homework, practicing piano and completing projects can become a source of conflict between children and their parents.

Though at times stressful, deadlines and assigned tasks can also present great opportunities for developing character in children. While we have many occasions in pre-school years to call children to practice the virtues of courtesy and generosity, the virtues of responsibility and self-discipline get their greatest boost during school years.

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Developing Unity

Unity may not be the first vir tue that comes to mind when we think of developing character in our children. It is not a common virtue spoken of like courtesy or patience. The closest we might come to it is to call our children to cooperation, consideration or
tolerance. Yet, unity is one of the most powerful virtues for individual, familial and social growth.

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Developing Patience… Patiently

Practicing Patience is an act of trust. It is defined as “quiet hope and trust that things will turn out right. You wait without complaining. You are tolerant and accepting of difficulties and mistakes. You picture the end in the beginning and persevere to meet your goals. Patience is a commitment to the future.”

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