Today two grandsons came over to help me split and stack firewood. They worked hard and we got a lot of wood split and stacked in the wood shed for winter.  All day long as we worked I thought about what I could say so as to influence them so that they would have the character trait of diligence. Parenting and grandparenting ought to have as its goal to build character through influence, training and teaching. When specific character traits are targeted and purposeful training takes place character growth takes place rapidly and permenantly. Every kid is born lazy and building the character trait of diligence takes effort, time, and patience, but truly hardworking kids are rare, and this character trait of diligence will serve them well in life.

Some principles Patty and I followed as parents with our 8 kids to train them in this primary character trait.

1. Never have them work by themselves when they are young. They will just goof off, and the best time to teach the value of hard work is while you work with them.

2. While you are working with them praise, praise , praise

3. While you are working with your child or grandchild be happy, really happy, enjoy the experience of work, and let them see you having fun.

4. Teach, teach, teach. Come up with short statements of wisdom and repeat them over and over again.  A few that I used are; “did you know that the faster you work the more fun it is?” “The best feeling in the world is being tired at the end of the day because you worked hard”.

5. When you work set goals and make everything you can a contest that they can win with diligence.

6. Take breaks that are fun.

7. Have a reward at the end of a project that rewards  good attitude, and working hard.