Teddy Roosevelt hit mark with his words. To educate a child in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and not about living is to raise a menace to society.

How do we as parents, teachers, and mentors help children build character? Below you will notice five character-building goals to instill in your children. Using questions as practical tools is an easy and excellent way to promote these goals and build character too.

Imagine that a boy named Harold recently moved into your neighborhood. He constantly causes trouble. The school principal just sent him home with a note addressed to his parents about his acting out in class. You and your child discuss Harold’s problems. You center your discussion on five key goals listed below. To instill each goal, ask your child following practical questions:

-Goal 1: Empathy-Being aware of and caring about others' feelings. Question: If you were Harold, how would you feel? -Goal 2: Role Taking-Putting oneself into another’s shoes and understanding where they are coming from. Question: What do you think Harold wanted by acting out in class?

I used to think that parenting took top honors, but really, a good marriage lasts a lot longer than a good childhood. After all, kids do move out eventually, but spouse stays.

Never type to do things half-heartedly, my husband and I up ante when it comes to spending time together. We have breakfast together. We ride to work together. We work all day together. We ride home together. We eat dinner together. We go to bed together.

This could be a recipe for disaster, but instead, we think it's coolest thing ever, and we never take that for granted.

With all that proximity, we have learned tremendous patience and we've got a killer sense of humor. This means that even in our snarkiest moments, we know we will find a reason to crack up about it later.

In fact, some of our favorite stories are about moments of extreme mindlessness, and if truth be told, I tend to be mindless one.

I know, I know. I'm supposed to be mindfulness expert. Well, as I always insist, you can't be mindful of everything AT ONCE, right?

So, here is my favorite mindless moment--and what I learned from it.... While moving from Oregon to Montana several years ago, my husband was driving U-Haul packed with all of our worldly possessions. Inside cab of truck with him was our second daughter, Tara, and our hyperactive yellow Lab, Thor. Meanwhile, I was driving behind him in car with other three daughters.