More on Character is the Key

I've finished going through the book Character is the Key: How to Unlock the Best in Our Children and Ourselves by Sara Dimerman. Mom Central sent the book to me for my review. As I said in my previous post, this book not only gives parents a lot to think about but also a firm plan for building strong character in our children.

The first half of the book lays the foundation for being examples for our children (modelling character) and gives real life examples on how this has changed families. The second half of the book lays out the plan on implementing this in your own family through four weekly family meetings and then regular monthly family meetings following that. During the first four meetings, you use Dimerman's worksheets so that each meeting has a specific focus for discussion. The meetings that follow from there are completely up to each family. You might be discussing where to go on vacation, where to go for dinner, or more substantial things such as finding ways to spend more time together in the midst of busy schedules. And every month each member can discuss how they've been feeling as part of the family, problems they see, things that are working or not working. The key to these meetings is honesty and respect for one another.

Being a person who likes systems, this really appeals to me and I plan to try it in our family but I still have some reservations on how this will work with a really young family. The reality is that there are many questions on the worksheets that only John and I will be able to answer because our children just won't understand the questions. Emily will be able to answer some, but not many. I do wonder if we should try part of this but not use the worksheets until the kids are older. I need to do some deeper reading and thinking.

I do think this book is worth reading for any parent, single or married, one child or many. And as such, as I said below, the publisher will send one lucky reader a copy of the book. So just leave a comment in the post below for your chance to receive it! I'll do a random draw on October 29.

Disclosure: Mom Central sent me a copy of this book as well as a $20 Amazon gift certificate in return for my review.