Helps Kids Understand Themselves and Others 5/6/2009 3:41:56 PM
Many companies have their employees take the Myers-Briggs or another personality inventory so that they can recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and be more understanding of their colleagues, friends, and even family members.
The Treasure Tree - by John and Cindy Trent and Gary and Norma Smalley helps children as young as two or three years to understand that people approach the world in different ways.
The story opens when four good friends, Lance the Lion, Honey the Golden Retriever, Chewy the Beaver, and Giggles the Otter, receive a treasure map from a wise owl. With the map are four riddles, each of which will lead to a key that will get the friends closer to the Treasure Tree.
In the course of their adventure the animals learn that the qualities that make them different from one another are the very qualities that make their quest successful. Not one of the animals could have found the Treasure Tree alone.
At the end of the book is a brief personality checklist (five questions per animal). Understanding the characteristics of their own personalities -- and the personalities of their family members and friends -- can help children get along with and appreciate people around them.
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Read over and over again 5/6/2009 3:38:38 PM
I have four kids.. age 8 - 11. I took this book on vacation with us, where we met up with friends who have 3 boys, 7 - 11. We read the book, over and over. I read it first, using different voices for the characters. Then, the kids read it aloud, with each child reading the chapter about the character most matching thier own personality. The results were hysterical.
This story touched each child so differently. Even the "cool" 11 year olds enjoyed the book, but even more, they enjoyed getting to know about the "psychology" of the different personalities. We took the identity test, and found the results very true! It gave a platform to discuss, at their level, how different personalities work together and against each other sometimes.
My friends boy, (age 7) enjoyed the book so much, I had to leave it with him and buy another! Even two weeks after leaving that book behind, my children are referencing the personalities in this wonderful story. |
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