 A Parent’s Guide to Discovering the Real Me
A letter to the Parent Elementary Level Textbooks 1-4
Dear Parent:
Parenting is one of the most difficult tasks on earth, even as it is one of the most important ones. In the modern world of fast-paced and sometimes questionable changes, to parent well is more difficult than it has ever been, and the stakes are higher than they have ever been. We parents need all the help we can get. Character education can aid us. The Universal Peace Federation has received numerous requests for a parents’ guide to the Discovering the Real Me character education curriculum. This Parents’ Guide was designed in response to those requests. Discovering the Real Me was originally designed for classroom use, so the lesson plans provided in the teachers’ manuals, as opposed to this Parents’ Guide, are more appropriate to a classroom than a family gathering. This manual is designed to aid in sharing the Discovering the Real Me curriculum with children at home. The exercises in this Parents’ Guide are more loving and intimate than those given in the teachers’ manuals of the series, and the lessons taught are simpler and shorter than those used in the classroom. However, we would encourage you at any time to employ any parts of the teachers’
manuals that you find interesting, especially in Books 1 and 2, where the teachers’ manuals are included in the story book text. At times, the Parents’ Guide will refer to or use exercises from the teachers’ manuals, but the exercises are always explained in the Parents’ Guide or available within the student story book text, so no additional purchase is necessary. The main objectives to be achieved are that your children feel loved through your time spent together sharing these stories and activities, and that they take away one or two “big ideas” about and emotional responses to character truths from each story or group of stories, making them want to live out the truths they have encountered. It is recommended that you read the story by yourself first, as well as the corresponding section in the Parents’ Guide, before you share it with your children. This will prepare you to share the stories and lessons most effectively. Some of the stories require materials for the activities, so pre-reading the story and parents’ lesson plan will allow you to be prepared. We wish you joy and success in instructing your children morally through the exciting stories and activities in the Discovering the Real Me series and Discovering the Real Me— Parents’ Guide. We hope you find these materials supportive of your parenting task.
|
