Poetry

Hope is a thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune

Without the words,

And never stops at all. - Emily Dickenson

I like to teach my children poetry.  For in a few lines, guideposts can be given and learned.  No lectures needed.  No long discussions.  Just simple words that can inspire and be easily recalled and remembered. 
I can not pull the bumps out of the way for my children.  I can just give them a road map...and say don't worry...we all sometimes hit the pot holes in the road.  You will make it through.

Here are a few favourites:
If by Rudyard Kipling
Invictus by W.E. Henley
O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
Magic by Shel Silverstein
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost