Tundra Swans and Initiative: Character Lesson With Badger

by Justine C. Tajonera

Badger and our family project: tundra swans V formation

Today, I'm so grateful that we got some "Character First" booklets that were sold by TMA (The Master's Academy) because it makes teaching character so much easier.

Badger loves projects more than writing or reading exercises, though he does the latter. He loves working with his hands and he loves working with me and V. The character we studied today was Initiative. In this series of booklets, each character is associated with an animal. The animal that represents initiative is the tundra swan. Check out the link to learn more about it. Initiative is characterized by the following (not in any particular order):

• Do what is right without being told
• Contribute to the team (team could also mean family)
• Be part of the solution and not the problem
• Look for ways to help
• Don't put off for tomorrow what can be done today

Tundra swans fly in a "V" formation to reduce the drag (love how this term referes to aerodynamics, one of Badger's favorite topics!) for the whole flock of birds, helping them fly faster. Also, when the lead bird gets tired, another bird takes its place, naturally! You gotta love the initiative of these birds. 

Badger loved cutting the paper and the slots on the board. I took care of the birds and V took care of putting the formation in place. 

While we had some difficulties, especially with writing down the five keys of initiative (the bulleted list above), Badger loved the hands-on process of getting to know how tundra swans showed initiative.