Create a "Hero Book"
Who does your child want to be like?
Whose life inspires your child? What kind of people does your child think about
from day to day, aiming to mold his or her character after?
Help your child point more toward
positive, constructive role models than the other kind, who are all too easy to
see in today's world. You can do this by helping your child create a "Hero
Book."
If your child is Internet-savvy, he
or she can do this alone after you give the basic materials and instructions.
All you need is a three-ring binder notebook and paper for your printer that's
3-hole punched or can be.
Now brainstorm with your child about
people throughout history who could be considered "heroes." They should be real
people, not fictional. It's OK to list only Christians, but you sure don't have
to. Each person should be considered "good," although of course every hero is
going to have some gray areas or even black spots. Just don't let your child
veer off into glorifying people who amassed a lot of power, like Adolf Hitler,
but failed to achieve goodness.
Try to mix it up with the list, in
terms of gender, age, nationality, race and area of contribution. Come up with
a list of, say, 10 names to start. Then go to a search engine and obtain a photo
of each person. Put each person's photo on a separate page, with the year born
and the year died, a little about the person's life, including the nation or
American state or city in which he or she lived, and then the key entry: a
sentence explaining why that person is heroic.
Here are some examples. How many more
heroes can your child collect?
Aristotle
Alexander
the Great
Ludwig von
Beethoven
Sir Isaac
Newton
Joan of Arc
Christopher
Columbus
George
Washington
Florence
Nightingale
Mahatma Gandhi
Nelson
Mandela
Amelia
Earhart