Building Cranium Character – Teaching Children to be Trustworthy

We all make mistakes, and we can all think of a time when we didn’t act honestly. The key is learning from the mistakes we have made and working towards more trustworthy behavior. This is true for both children and adults. The first Pillar of Character that our Cranium Character program focuses on is trustworthiness. And for good reason. There’s nothing more central to good character than the components of trust – honesty, loyalty, integrity, and keeping your promises.

Cranium Academy students are learning more about what it means to be honest. Honesty, quite simply, means speaking the truth. To a child, this often presents itself as promise-keeping… doing what you say you will do. As a parent, it’s easy to make promises to avert bad behavior. And while it might seem harmless, not following through on our promises does send a message. Promise-keeping means saying you will do something, then actually doing it. In our lessons on trustworthiness, the children are starting to understand that they have the ability to be trustworthy. They can learn from the mistakes they make, and identify ways to help them be more trustworthy.

There are some simple ideas you can use at home to help reinforce trustworthy behavior and the Cranium Character lessons at home. Break out some dominoes, line them up and push one down to show how one lie leads to a whole trail of lies. Talk about how this can be like our behavior sometimes. Share your expectations for trustworthy behavior in your home. Be sure to praise your child when he or she says or does something that helps you build trust. Most importantly, try your best to set a good example and model the behaviors you want to see in your child!