Help Me, Help You, Help Others...

By Jaime Willis

As I mentioned last week, I am going to be attending Camp Mighty in just under two weeks.   Part of our homework assignment is to raise $200 for Charity: Water.  I didn't know a thing about Charity: Water until this assignment, but man, is this organization cool.  In the "teaching people to fish" vein, Charity: Water funds water projects that help people in developing nations that don't have access to clean water get it.  They don't just ship over pallets of bottled water -- they build wells.  Right now, they are fund raising to buy more drilling rigs and other machinery that is required for well-making.  It's not enough that they are drilling wells, they want to drill faster.  This is truly a scalable model for sustainability and a truly worthy cause.

If you are interested, take three and a half minutes of your time to watch their video:

I've been a little lax in my fundraising efforts thus far, but that is about to change.  I am raffling off an iPad (1st Generation) to raise money for Charity Water.  This is my old iPad, so it is used, although still in great shape.  It's a 64 GB 3g + wifi iPad and it comes with it's own case and usb charger.  It was $900 when I bought it last year, and the used versions are going for $400 - 500 on eBay right now. But you could win it for $5!  How awesome would that be?  (AWESOME.) 

For $5, you will have one chance to win the iPad.  How?  Go to Paypal.com, and buy as many raffle tickets as you'd like between now and 12:00pm (noon) EST Friday, November 4th.  I'll randomly pick a winner (using a random number generator) at 12:00pm and announce the winner here on our blog.  

You win either way -- each raffle ticket will help Charity: Water bring more clean water to those in need, and you may even get a iPad and I complete my Camp Mighty homework!  Win - Win - Win!  

Don't like iPads, but want to help?  Check out what my teammates are doing to raise money:

Eden is raffling off jewelry, a cool camera, and an Amazon gift card here.

Amy is raffling off a $25 gift card, homemade brownies, a mixed CD, and other stuff here.  

Lisa is selling some awesome artwork here.

Erica is baking banana bread in exchange for donations here.

Linz is offering 20% off her design services (logos, t-shirts, and more) here. 

Alison is selling greeting cards here. 

Leslie is giving away prints of your choosing for your donations here. 

Andrea of Four Flights of Fancy is selling ad space on her blog here. 

Christine and Asha are teaming up to raffle off a $350 gift basket here or here. 

It's all about Character!

By Jaime Willis

Happy Monday!  I just got back from a very fun three days visiting some of my family, including my adorable nephews, 3 year old Landon and 2 year old Tate.

Tate, left, and Landon at the Pumpkin Patch.

Visiting them (and, let's be honest, spoiling them!) reminded me of a recent article I read in the New Yorker about character. My brother and sister-in-law are doing a wonderful job of raising their boys, so I am confident that my "all fun - few rules" visits are not corrupting them too much.

But, as we all know, raising kids is both hard work and serious business.  Some of the work of educators is ultimately devoted to finding ways to encourage the positive character traits of their students while also teaching them skills and concepts in reading, writing, math, history, and science.

Martin Seligman, a 'positivity psychologist' and Christopher Peterson, a psychology professor at University of Michigan, wrote a (possibly "the") book on character: Character Strengths and Virtues.  In it, they outlines 24 immutable traits that they believe define good character.  The New Yorker article follows two schools, KIPP, a urban charter school system filled with mostly low-income youth, and Riverdale Country School, one of New York's most prestigious private schools, in their pursuit of purposefully injecting character into the school curriculum.

What an interesting thought experiment!

I thought about my nephews -- how do you explain, teach, embody, and discipline a toddler in a way that consciously helps them build character?

Imagine this:  It is one 'o clock on Sunday afternoon, at least 30 minutes past the time when the boys normally eat.  We are getting an 8 person-tribe of family together at a local restaurant for dinner.  We arrive at the restaurant hungry, only to learn that there will be a one-hour wait for a table.  The adults grumble a bit, hit their smart phones for alternative restaurant choices in the area, and decide to wait it out.  But the 2 and 3 year old only know that they are hungry.  No only aren't they being fed, but they are wearing nice outfits and in the lobby of a restaurant where they can't crawl around on the floor playing with toys or loudly chasing each other around.

We are asking them to embody the character trait, as described by Seligman and Peterson, of Self-Regulation.

B.F. Skinner, the father of behavioral psychology, wrote of a similar experiment in his novel Walden Two. In it, children aged three and four were given a lollipop covered in powered sugar, so a single taste could be detected.  They are told they will be able to eat the lollipop later if it hasn't been licked.  The children quickly learn to conceal the temptation (hide their lollipop out of view) and to distract themselves with something else -- say an interesting toy or game.  After a few lessons, the children are become adept at utilizing self control.

Back at the restaurant, I quickly pulled out my iPad and turned on a favorite show for the boys.  They happily sat in the lobby watching the show until our names were called.  Only when we sat down to the table did they remember they were hungry.  The adults distracted themselves in conversation, and my sister-in-law even turned the waiting into a game -- each fifteen minutes we went we were "one lap" closer to the finish line.

Landon, left, and Tate watching a show while waiting for lunch.

Next time you are waiting in line or stuck in traffic, why not think of your circumstances as an opportunity to exercise a great character trait! After all, being upset or angry about things you can't change only serves to make you unhappy.