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.
Melancholic, but definitely with some Phlegmatic tendencies. My twins are both Sanguine, but they express those qualities in different ways, so its interesting to see how, as twins, they are similar and yet still different!
Zara on
Ooh that got cut off… Melancholic married to a choleric with a melancholic and 2 sanguine kids. Oof.
Jenn hen on
Oh gosh melancholic . so much so its scary.
Jenn hen on
The quiz says I am melancholic but I bet have some phlegmatic tendencies. My son is only 3 months old but I would think right now he is sanguine/Phelgmatic because he is very much like my brother!
Andrea on
I am melancholic. Daughter is sanguine. Son number 1 is phlegmatic. Son number 2 is choleric. We got all 4 temperaments in my home. Hopefully we can balance each other out! Lol
Mari on
Hi Sarah I loved this article so much! I am a Sanguine; my oldest daughter is Melancholic and my youngest is Choleric – facinating
Adren Bradley on
Hello Sarah :) I’m fairly balanced between the 4 but perhaps more phlegmatic lately. My son is choleric and my daughter is phlegmatic. :)
Isabella on
My kiddo is choleric & I’m Sanguine!!
ANITHA KUPPUSWAMY on
Iam melancholic . My almost 3.5 year old is choleric !😊😊
Sunanda on
Phlegmatic and my daughter sanguine
Amber N. on
I am Phlegmatic and my son is Sanguine :)
Samantha on
I’m melancholic and my kids are both sanguine.
Mariel on