Understanding you and your child's temperaments can help with parenting. For example, melancholic children respond well to fairy tales describing hardships. The phlegmatic child likes comfort, to be kept warm, and delicious food. Sanguine children respond well to calm parenting but enjoy social situations. Choleric children like to be leaders and you may find letting them be in charge of tasks helps to give them direction. In Waldorf schools teachers work with temperaments to help children grow and develop.
Children of these temperaments are often drawn to these colors:
- Choleric: Red & Fire
- Sanguine: Yellow & Rainbow
- Phlegmatic: Green & Forest
- Melancholic: Blues & Ocean
According to Rudolf Steiner- the founder of Waldorf education - each phase of life has a temperament associated with it.
- Childhood: Sanguine
- Adolescence: Choleric
- Adulthood: Melancholic
- Old Age: Phlegmatic
A goal of adulthood is to bring all four temperaments into balance, to bring harmony into one's life.
Here's a list of animals associated with each temperament.
- Lion (Choleric/Dominance) Strengths— Visionary, practical, productive, strong-willed, independent, decisive, leader.
- Otter (Sanguine/Influence) Strengths— Outgoing, responsive, warm, friendly, talkative, enthusiastic, compassionate.
- Golden Retriever (Phlegmatic/Steadiness).
- Beaver (Melancholy/Compliance)
You can look at the characters in Winnie the Pooh to find the four temperaments - Eeyore is the melancholic; Rabbit choleric; Pooh phlegmatic; and Christopher Robin himself is the sanguine.
Take a quiz to determine your temperament. (A very fun activity to do with children - our family had so much fun discovering our temperaments!)
Let me know what temperament you and your children are in a comment below.
For further reading on this subject I recommend looking at Dr. Gilbert Child's work entitled Understand Your Temperament! A guide to the four temperaments: Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic and Melancholic.
My son and I are both melancholics. Ever since he was a baby I sensed that we were “kindred spirits”. We are so much alike in so many ways. We really see the world similarly and share many of the same joys and fears. It’s a really special connection, I really “see” him and he really sees me. 💙
Jo on
Well, supposedly I’m phlegmatic, and my three children are melancholic, sanguine, and melancholic. These all seem to be rather one dimensional and likely have more of a correlation to life stage and current developmental change than to whole personality or temperament. Also, the moon is not a planet. A really fun activity is to do the MBTI and then look up the characters from the Lord of the Rings movies that match your score.
Sarah on
My daughter and I are both sanguine- and I’m finding these concepts fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing!
Natasha on
I am phlegmatic
Jutta on
My son sounds like choleric. I got phlegmatic and My daughter is definitely sanguine.
Liza on
I’m definitely melancholic and I think my oldest is sanguine like my husband!
Ashley Angell on
My husband got phlegmatic and I got choleric, my son is too young to take the quiz but I would say sanguine!
This is great, thanks for sharing this!
Mikhal Burgos on
Oh my! This is so timely as I have been digging into temperaments this past week and trying to pin down what my daughter and I am. I am hands-down melancholic while I think my 6 y/o daughter is sanguine (at the moment at least!). She also has a melancholic streak, likely her secondary temperament currently. Looking up the book suggestion too! I find temperaments so fascinating. Once you understand yours and the people you frequently interact with, it makes like so much smoother :)
Steph on
I got melancholic. The description did sound familiar re:many of my tendencies. Interesting stuff! My daughter is not quite three, so didn’t do the quiz for her, but I would categorize her as “Sanguine”
Thanks Sarah!
Melodie on
I’m Choleric and my daughters are Sanguine. This is helpful to think about in my parenting, thanks for postinf
Ashley Weston Miller on
My daughter and I are both Melancholic! This was fun!
Kelly on
I’m phlegmatic, my kids are melancholic & sanguine.
Carly on