I love the movie Little Men based on the book by
Louisa May Alcott. My favorite character is Jo. She is the tomboy character
from Little Women who is now all grown up and married to Professor Bhaer…not
Laurie. (I know, I was devastated too! But that is a discussion for another
time.) She and her husband run the Plumfield School for Poor Boys. She keeps a
character journal for each of these young men and writes in it weekly. The journal
is called a character journal because she writes about the character traits
that she is seeing them develop. She records the times that they show great
character and the positive traits that she sees in them. She also records the
times that they acted without character and her disappointment in their
behavior. I thought this idea was so powerful that I adopted it for our own
family. I cannot say that I have written weekly but I do try to add an entry
every so often for each child. I try to focus my short entries on the character
traits that I am seeing develop in them.
I know lots of mothers write yearly letters to their
children or keep a diary to record their children’s progress. They plan to give
this special record to their child on their wedding day or at graduation or on
some other momentous occasion. The thing that was different about Jo’s
character journals was that she gave them to the boys each week to read. She
wanted the journal to be a motivation to grow and improve for the future and
not just a record of the past.
When I write in one child’s journal, I place it on his or
her bed to read before I collect it again. I never say anything about the
journal and most of the time my children don’t comment on what I have written
but I have seen the quiet impact certain entries have had on their behavior. My
oldest daughter has now left for college and I sent her completed journal with
her to Virginia. She has told me several times that the words that I had
written throughout her life strengthened her and helped her to believe in
herself when she was feeling discouraged and overwhelmed and a little small.
What more could I want for my Little Women and Little Man.
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