Bakyak-Hue annually holds contest for the practice journal(home) for the families that participates in Lee's Character Education HPM. When taught at home, it can help children to develop good attitudes and habits that will help them succeed in life. It also gives families an opportunity to come together and share their concerns. Many mothers report that the program helped their family to build a greater sense of understanding and trust, and to gain support and encouragement from each other, by openly discussing issues and making promises together.

The journal shown below was awarded as one of the best in the contest held at the end of each year.

I signed up for this program, offered at my kid's school, Hanam Middle School, because I had always been interested in character education. Mr. Yong-tae Lee's lecture, "A shortcut to a Child's Success Led by the Parents," was hosted by Seobu Office of Education at Hanam Middle School last September. It gave me a good chance to rethink our communication at home and how my children were developing their character.

After the lecture, my wife and I had a talk about the lecture and how we could effectively put what we had learned into action. We announced a "family conversation day" multiple times to gain the attention of our three children and encourage them to participate. We told them that we would find lessons from stories related to the monthly theme and would set practice plans accordingly. We thought that having a natural conversation with our children was important, so we chose a casual setting instead of something formal for the session.

The first "family conversation day" finally arrived. After dinner, while eating some apples, we had our eldest child read <The Story of Yongsik Ji>. At first, the children seemed quite lost and did not understand the story. We had them read it out loud again. After my eldest summarized the story, I emphasized some important parts. When we reached the discussion part of the session, the children did not speak at all. My wife and I started to talk about our experiences and feelings. We introduced the lesson from the story: "let's be grateful," "let's do our best at all times" etc. Then, we thought that it was important for the children to voice their own opinions. We guided them to share their experiences and feelings as well. We came up with some items to practice and titled them "my family practice project." We put them up on the wall in big letters where we could see and passed by every day.

After sticking to the plans, we decided to have another "family conversation day" on the second Saturday at 9pm the following month. A month seemed too long, so I checked on our progress every weekend in the meantime. I kind of made them compete with each other, without them really noticing it.

After a month, we shared our progress and experiences. We motivated our kids by giving a prize to whoever did really well. We figured out why certain things were not really being put into practice, and promised that we would do better next time.

Achieving the goal was important, but the process of achieving the goal is difficult and tiresome. I think the key to the success of this program is the parents. We, as the parents, should set a good example for our children in achieving the goal. The close attention of parents is absolutely necessary.

Through this monthly discussion on various new topics with my family, I not only learned lessons from the stories but also learned that children are much more mature than their parents think. We got to share our feelings and build a deeper understanding of each other. We made sure that we, as the parents, did not lead the whole session by ourselves, so that our children didn't just sit there passively and listen to our lecture. My wife and I led the conversation by letting our children express their opinions as much as possible and summarizing what they had said afterwards.

In the end, it was my wife and I who learned the most through this. There is a proverb, "old habits die hard." If children establish good habits, attitudes and behaviors when they are young, they will grow up to be adults with great personality and character.