This is a repost from 2017: This is an intriguing book helping parents know what societal changes are going on in their son's lives--Boys Adrift:The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men" by Leonard Sax, MD., PhD. My friend recommended three of Leonard Sax' books, the other two being … Continue reading Understanding The Shift In Our Culture Against Boys
Character Matters
Movies Can Build character
One of my favorite things to do when my children were little happened because VHS tape were invented. In my childhood, we had to wait a whole year for "The Wizard of Oz", or "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown". There was no owning movies!!! In the 1960’s we had to wait and wait and wait. In … Continue reading Movies Can Build character
Academically, Character Matters
Teaching character to our children is a worthy goal, but what about their grades, getting into good schools and getting a quality job? How can we teach them to be honest about their homework and other school projects? The number of inquiries to a ‘homework help’ website grew by 197 % from 2019-2020. Another newspaper … Continue reading Academically, Character Matters
Improving His Character
We read about John Adams last week, who was our second President. Benjamin Franklin was another Founding Father in the United States. In 1726 at the age of 20, he determined 13 character traits or virtues that he wanted to model his life after. He set about creating a daily and weekly system in order … Continue reading Improving His Character
Historically, Character Mattered
John Adams Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ruled Rome as an Emperor from 161 to 180 BC and is a philosopher of Stoicism. There were Five Good Emperors and he was the last one. Ryan Holiday wrote a book about the Stoics and here is what he said about Marcus Aurelius’s character and his teachings: “Marcus Aurelius … Continue reading Historically, Character Mattered
The Book of Mormon Teaches Character
In the Book of Mormon we read how 2060 stripling [young like a new stripling tree] warriors were strengthened spiritually and emotionally for years on the inside of themselves, before they went into physical battle: "They were exceedingly valiant for courage and also for strength and activity but behold this is not all, they were … Continue reading The Book of Mormon Teaches Character
Character–What Is it?
You have agreed to make a trip in a boat. It would be a three or four hour trip across the harbor for a generous fee in order to deliver something. You have never sailed but the boat seems seaworthy, you like the water and so you push off from the shore. What seemed like … Continue reading Character–What Is it?
Learning Packets: Relationships Part 1
We know water is a big issue in the Western United States. The story of Hoover Dam situated outside of Las Vegas is a remarkable tale of vision and compromise between seven of these states sharing the water from the Colorado River. We have driven over this engineering marvel many times, when we lived in … Continue reading Learning Packets: Relationships Part 1
The Collapse of Parenting
This is a repost from Feb. 2020: This week we were getting on a chair lift to ski and the young skier in front of us brushed by the attendant who was checking everyone's ski passes with an electronic gun. The attendant yelled something at him like, "If you do that again---" and I didn't … Continue reading The Collapse of Parenting
Family Stories Are The Gold Standard
I have been posting how much reading books will help our children. We know it helps their language skills, their mental models of how the world works and that reading at an early age will help them do better at school. Starting the love of books at a young age can help them love books … Continue reading Family Stories Are The Gold Standard
"Peace Like A River…" 