Raising Kids Of Character

This is excerpted from How to Raise Kids of Character by Marilyn Boyer, a new ebook that shares principles and tips that she has used to teach her 14 children how to become men and women of character.

Moms, you don’t realize what an impact you have on your children! Thomas Edison went to public school for 2 months when he came home and asked his mother what the word “addled” meant. “Whatever makes you ask that?”, replied his mother. When Thomas told her the teacher had told him he was addled because he asked too many questions, she boldly declared that he would not go back to school. She would teach him herself. (School teachers often still like the kids who retain what they are told and can spit it back on tests, not the kids who are thinkers and are driven to learn)

He spent his life inventing a multitude of devices which in turn have made our lives considerably more productive. Just a few among his hundreds of inventions are: electric generators, phonograph, storage batteries, motion picture machine and of course, the light bulb. Edison has been named the greatest inventor America ever produced.

You may be thinking, WOW, his mother must’ve been so smart!!

But in reality, it wasn’t her that invented all those things. She was wise, in that she succeeded in teaching Tom character, and believing in him and encouraging him to go on, even when experiments “failed”. FAILURE is just a stepping stone on the road to success!!

Once, after Edison has tried over 700 different materials to use as as filament in a light bulb, to make it long lasting and failed again, his lab assistant remarked, “You must be discouraged”. Discouraged? Tom answered, “No. I’m not discouraged. I’ve just found 700 things that WON”T work.” That’s perseverance, That’s Determination, That’s Endurance, That’s Vision, That’s CHARACTER!!

Mom, Dad, you don’t have to be a super brain. You don’t have to know everything before you can teach your kids. (I’ve gotten a much better education since I began home educating my own kids)

What you do have to do, is to teach your kids to read, write, communicate, and HOW to learn. Then, anything they ever need to know, they will be able to learn on their own or find the help they need. Your job is to encourage their God-given love to learn and instill confidence in them by believing God has a wonderful plan for their life and communicating that to them!!

Marilyn Boyer