Mother’s Day

Our Character Ripples

On Mother’s Day, honor the matriarch in your family or any mother by creating a Ripple Map of her character qualities. Gather the family, excluding her, to explain this exercise to them so they can start thinking about their responses. Prepare a sheet of paper with a circle drawn in the center and write “MOM,” and whatever else she is called, such as ‘Grandma’ names, the name in-laws use, or any other family identifiers.

Draw a second concentric circle around the first one, leaving enough room between the two circles for all participants to add a character quality she demonstrates, such as  Patience, Generosity, Kindness, Courage, Flexibility, Responsibility, and Positivity. For a list of all of our character qualities www.charactercincinnati.org/all-character-qualities. (This part of the exercise can even be done ahead of time, without the Mom’s knowledge.)

After all the words are on the page, each person verbally shares why they chose their quality.  The length of responses is up to you, based on the time available and the number of participants. After this, we will take the ripple out a step further by adding how Mom’s character influences them.  Draw another ring around the ring of qualities. Each person writes their response inside this ring.  If there are many participants, do not draw another ring, but place all these statements anywhere outside the last ring. Examples: “Your generosity makes me want to share more”, or “Your courage helps me try new things.”

After the Map is completed, process the activity with these or similar questions:

• What did you think of this exercise?
• Did anyone ‘take’ your quality?
• Did anyone come up with something you didn’t think of?
• Did being grateful for Mom help you to find qualities?
• Can you see how our character is seen in our actions and words?
• Think of this as her character rippling outward like water in a pond. Will you remember this exercise in the future about your own actions and words?

Close with a Family Challenge

Everyone chooses one small action they’ll take this week inspired by Mom’s example.

Example:  “I’ll practice courage by trying something new at school.”