Poem
Today, October's day, 2011, 8 yr old Eth did a poem without any help.  Sometimes we prance around in a mock chase while composing spontaneous poems and laughing.

THE LEAVES ARE AUTUMN'S FLOWERS
    by Ethan Isak Rohrbach

"The leaves are Autumn's flowers
And the wind is always breezy,
If you have a cold
You are utterly sneezy.

Meanwhile outside
The autumn flowers blow
It's probably uncommon
To ever see a crow.

The leaves are Autumn's flowers
And the wind is always breezy,
If you have a cold
You are very very sneezy.

And if you see an apple
Lying on the ground
And if you see a gopher
You might see a large mound.

The leaves are Autumn's flowers
And the wind is always breezy,
If you have a cold
You are probably pretty sneezy."
Each morning at the beach house we heard wondrous sounds from the resident piano which has two octaves in tune and the rest wildly awry! 
Eth starts each day playing the piano, even before he is entirely awake - as if the brain comes alive with the piano variations.  Wow can he play!  and change keys and do variations on a theme. He does not get discouraged with mistakes but simply corrects them and practices until he gets the piece perfect.
Meanwhile, back home, CT started a new school.  He has been searching for friends whose language is not consumed with swearing and sewer talk.  Hopes to find friends of similar interests and more interesting things to do than criticize people.  His talk has not been shaped by hours & hours of bad talk TV shows.  He rarely watches TV as he has too many interesting things to do. He had a summer full of great friends and fun things at two camps, mission trip, drama theatre, etc.  But at this school he knows noone.  He was rather shocked by the boys' language and rudeness at a get-acquainted event.  Where were the other boys?  Surely there are others.   That will soon have to change and boys of like minds will indeed find each other. 
We said a list of character traits was forthcoming and then found so many lists we paused!
We will skip to a list or two for thought and perusal.

The following is a favorite short list of character traits:
prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, faith, hope, and charity, wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.   These include so many of the other character traits we think of.

-And a list that is quite long and can spring out of the former short list:

Adaptability Appreciation Attentiveness Availability Commitment Compassion Concern Confidence Consideration Consistency Contentment Cooperation Courage Creativity Decisiveness Deference Dependability Determination Diligence Discernment Discretion Efficiency Equitableness Fairness
Faithfulness Fearlessness Flexibility Forgiveness Friendliness Generosity Gentleness Gratitude Honesty Humility Integrity Joyfulness Kindness Love Loyalty Meekness Mercifulness Observance Optimism Patience Peacefulness Perseverance Persistence Persuasiveness Prudence Punctuality Purpose Resourcefulness Respect Responsibility Security Self-Control Sincerity Submissiveness Tactfulness Temperance Thoroughness Thriftiness Tolerance Trustworthiness Truthfulness Virtue.
Much food for thought in raising children!