― Charlotte Mason, School Education: Developing A Curriculum
“The question is not, — how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education — but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?”
As I homeschool my children, I have to keep this in mind:
Their character is more important than how smart they are. Do my children care about others, about their learning, about the world outside their window? When writing to the Corinthian church, Paul said,
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:2
Raising human beings is hard; raising kind, caring, compassionate human beings who die to themselves and put others first is even harder. I fail miserably every single day; but in that failure, I know that I serve a Savior who knows my heart and who can fill in the gap of every single one of my shortcomings. Praise God!
One thing I have been very intentional about teaching my children is how and when to say “I’m sorry.” Two simple words with such power! They quickly diffuse a hostile situation and offer a compassionate ear (especially if the child has said it in the correct tone) showing that they truly care.
I love how our Experience Early Learning box came with a whole day devoted to Saying Sorry. Our daily discovery bag came with this game, and as my girl worked on her homeschool assignments, my 3 year old and I sat down to play.
Literacy: Family Feelings
Sad- Triste 
Mad- Enojado
We rolled a die, moved our Dad that many spaces and then practiced saying the word Dad landed on. We would say it in Spanish as well- “Estoy enojado…. Estoy feliz! Estoy triste.,” and then make the face that matched. Whenever we landed on the word sad and we said “Estoy triste,” the other person practiced saying “Lo siento. Por que?” which is “I’m sorry. Why?” in spanish. Then we would make up a story. My son had a bad dream recently so that the reason he gave on many of his answers.
When the game was over, we shared our letter cards (when we landed on hearts), and practiced building -ad words. He loved this game! We played a few times, and when his sister was done with her work, he taught her how to play.
STEAM: Tall Stack
Saying “I’m Sorry” / “Lo siento!” when one’s hard work is destroyed is one way to help a person diffuse the situation and try again. I have noticed when I give a compassionate ear and tell them I’m sorry that something happened, my kids are so much more willing to try again.
Each day Experience Preschool provides a Steam Station idea, and all the resources are available online with your Membership. Our Steam Station had these printout measuring strips with animals at the top. The mouse was the shortest, the fox was in the middle, and the rabbit was the tallest. The kids LOVED building towers! And if (and when) they fell, they were quick to tell the other person “Lo siento!” The rabbit was the most challenging, and the towers kept falling; even their dad got in on the action and wanted to build with them. We kept this station out for several days.
Make and Play: Tic-Tac-Toe Faces
Part of character education is learning to be a good sport. Experience Preschool sent each child their own Tic-Tac-Toe game board to make and play with during art time. Playing Tic-Tac-Toe was perfect to practice winning and losing well. It’s such a quick game and there are so many opportunities to win and lose. If he started being sad about losing, I simply said, “I’m sorry you lost. I have had so much fun playing with you. Maybe you can win next time. Let’s try!”
Learning to say “I’m sorry” is fun when playing all these games centered around it, but the real challenge is in the midst of the everyday happenings. Raising compassionate humans is hard work, but it is so extremely worth it. Don’t give up the good fight friends!
