The other day one of my teen sons was giving his four-year-old brother a hard time. The four-year-old had done something offensive and the teen was “putting him in his place”. I interrupted and mentioned to the teen that he was expecting something from his little brother that was WAY beyond his natural brain development.

After my comment, I could see the wheels turning.

Some days later I asked the teen what project he wanted to work on for homeschooling. He said “child psychology”. I asked him to do a little write up about the “why” of this project, and here’s what he came up with:

What does Child Psychology mean to you?

it means knowing how to respond, knowing what they are thinking and being able to react in just and right ways that will get them farther in life

What does it have to deal with? What things can it impact?

i want to impact their life choices so they don’t fall into the same traps i did

What do you hope to get out of it?

i hope to bring people especially [my younger brother] into a stronger place and uplift them to do great things

I’m really looking forward to this project and hope to share what we come up with here.