These children picked up on their parent's sense of gratefulness and consequently were content in these substandard living conditions, making the best use of what they had, having the greatest fun just splashing in the lake and playing with things they made from leaves and sticks. This fosters an attitude of ungratefulness and, therefore, discontent. Home schooling can help the situation, but without great care on our part, home education by itself will not make the problem go away. To develop gratefulness, children need to see a little more of real life than what they commonly find in advertisements on television and in modern middle-class American suburbs. If they are constantly comparing themselves with the children on the block who have expensive high-tech toys and all the latest trends and fashions, gratefulness will be elusive indeed.
Television commercials are a prime source of discontentment.
My suggestion is to get rid of the television, use it only for watching ad-free wholesome videos, or at least restrict TV viewing to only a few hours per week. Radio is an alternate news source that doesn't show graphic gore and has less compelling advertisements because you can't see them. If, on the other hand, our children grow up reading about Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood, living in a little cabin or sod house or claim shanty with one rag doll and a box of paper dolls Ma made from scratch, bravely carrying on through blizzards, locust plagues, and other setbacks, cheerfully making do in any situation, this can become a source of a more healthy comparison. Our daughter knows that she has more clothes, a softer bed, more dolls and toys, better heating, and an easier life than Laura did, and because of this, she feels content. She enjoys chores because Laura was always doing chores, and she knows that Laura did many more chores than she does.