When I was contacted by Mom Central to let me know I was selected to review this book, Character is the Key, I was absolutely thrilled.  It was waiting for me in the mailbox on our return from California and I have to admit that it took me a couple of days to get started.  Once I got going so many things that I had been worried about became so clear.  This book arrived at just the right time in our lives.

J’s school participates in a program  which I think is called Character Matters.  Each month the school promotes one particular character trait, holds character assemblies and awards children that show excellence in these characteristics.  When at school J participates and shows that he has wonderful character, so far.  My worry is that when at home it all falls away and I get the back talking and disrespect.  Have I (I should say we as Hubby is an equal parent here, but I am writing this from my point of view and the fact that I am the primary Parent at home) done something wrong or gotten off track so much with the kids that I can’t get back the sweet little boy that everyone else sees?

Reading Character is the Key really made me feel much better about myself and how we as a family deal with things.  Hubby and I do try to show good model behaviour, but like everyone we have our moments.  Unfortunately it’s those moments that the kids pick up on more than others sometimes.

The book goes through and describes the ten attributes from the Character Matters program: Responsibility, Respect, Initiative, Integrity, Honesty, Fairness, Courage, Perseverance, Empathy and Optimism.  And how these attributes can be modeled in your own home. Using examples the book shows how people have turned bad attributes around in their children by having the parent change the way they are modeling these attributes themselves.  This for me was a great reminder that my children copy and learn from me and how I show the world my character traits.  As much as I try to do well in all these attributes, I will be the first to admit that I don’t always remember.  Life just sometimes gets in the way and it isn’t a bad thing to be reminded of all the things we learned as children ourselves.

One of the suggestions in the book is to hold monthly family meetings.  I am not sure we could go this far, but we do practice family time every night at the dinner table.  Each night, we set the kitchen table, the TV goes off and we eat together as a family.  It is here that we digest the day, talk about school, work, home-life and whatever else is going on.  We share stories over supper and practice our table manners at the same time. I am so happy that we started this practice a long time ago and continue on with it.  It is so easy to take your plates to separate rooms and watch news or programming while eating supper but, there is something special about sharing your day with your family at the table.  Hopefully, after Hubby gets a chance to read Character is the Key too, we can start adding a few more things to our family time at the table and keep the lines of communication open for many years as the kids grow.

If you have the chance to pick up this book, I highly recommend it.  It offers support and gentle suggestions on how to build children with strong character.  Although J and Apple are still young and moldable, A is almost 18 and it this book certainly will help us to encourage A in a few of the character traits that he is lacking.  It is also a wonderful reminder that we as adults need to continue with our own character traits because we are the best models our kids could ever have.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Character Is the Key: How to Unlock the Best in Our Children and Ourselves and received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.”