Your family is the first place to begin exploring art together. The books you read, pictures you color, movies you watch, and music you enjoy can all be a part of your artistic journey, especially if done intentionally. Since the days of the cave paintings of Lasaux, humankind has come together as a community over the creation of art. Make your family the first community where this happens, and then explore how your family’s community can begin to engage in the larger community around you.   

Families are the first place where we learn about the importance of civic engagement, and also things like mutual respect, informed participation, and civil debate. Participating together as a family in the civic process, having healthy but vigorous discussions about key issues, and promoting civic education is a key work of the family.

How you as a family approach your spiritual life is of course a deeply personal issue, but all the research points to its importance. Whether you attend religious services of some kind, pray together (also associated with greater marital and family relationship satisfaction and trust), read faith texts, practice spiritual meditation, or some other practice, your family benefits from a disciplined, mindful approach to faith. Whatever it is, do it together, and probably even with other families. The research generally points to the fact that it is communal faith vs. a more individualistic, personal faith that confers a myriad of benefits. And be intentional about explaining to your children why you as a family do what you do.