Immediate problem encountered: I did not like anything I found. I like peices of what I find, but it is either too watered down, or too complicated for her, or not engaging enough... I decided very quickly that doing a little song and pointing out when she was being (insert positive Christian character quality here) was not going to cut it. While I'm all for letting kids learn as they play and as they go about their day, I do think some things NEED to be purposeful--- especially those things that relate to building their relationship with Christ. So if I want them to grow up displaying Christ-like qualities, I need to be intentional in teaching them those qualities and making sure they know what they are (and are NOT), what God says about them, and how they can display them.
I ended up borrowing (hey, I paid for everything that needed to be paid for) aspects of a bunch of different programs and came up with something that I really like. Let me tell you about what we're doing for Character this coming year and how I came up with it.
First, I started with a chart that was recommended on a message board. It is the Operational Definitions of Character Qualities. This particular link will send you to the Duggars' website where you can download a PDF of the chart. It is available other places, as well.
There are a lot of versions of this list out there. I like this chart because it is quick and easy. I went through and highlighted everything I wanted to cover with Bean (in an ideal world) that I thought she could grasp at 2 1/2. I then ordered it in "importance" (for us), and narrowed it down to 12-14.
Another friend had recommened We Choose Virtues as having great resources for Character Curriculum. After searching this website, I found some things I REALLY love. The first clue that this was going to be great for us was that the 12 virtues the beginner program focuses on were the same ones I had already chosen. I ordered the Kids Virtue Poster and the Kids of Virtueville Mini-Poster Set to use as visuals in our "school room." They also have a great free PDF download of bible supplements that has a bible character and a bible verse to go along with each virtue.
The virtues/character qualities I'm going to cover with Bean for at least the first part of school this year are (in no particular order): Attentive, Content, Diligent, Forgiving, Gentle, Helpful, Honest, Kind, Obedient, Patient, Perserverant, and Self-Controlled.
Then I just kind of looked around, went with some recommendations from others, and found what I needed to supplement the visuals and the information from the first two sources. One source I really like is the Kids of Integrity website. They have free PDF lessons for many, many character qualities. These lessons include memory verses, bible stories that demonstrate the quality and/or its opposite, and (my favorite) suggested prayers for the kids and parents. It is so important that my heart is in the right place when I'm teaching Bean these things, and that I am demonstrating what I want her to learn in my own life, so I really love the prayer and parent prep portion of these materials.
There are also some great activities, visuals, and songs on Hubbard's Cupboard. We will be using some of those, as well.
I am using DVD's called Character Builders. I bought the boxed set (8 DVDs, 16 episodes) on Rainbow Resource Center. The same site has these great little books called the God, I Need to Talk to You About... series. I got 11 of those, as well.
Now that I look at that... it looks like a lot! But you have to factor OUT all the thought processes that go into that long list of information :)
What I ended up with is a basic outline of what I want to cover every 2 weeks. It looks like this:
Character
Quality:
WCV “I am/ I am not”:
Webster’s
Definition:
Age-Appropriate
Definition:
Memory Verse (s):
Child’s Prayer:
Parent’s
Prayer:
Animal:
Bible Stories:
DVD:
Book:
Song/Chant:
Activities:
We won't be doing every item every day. What we will be doing every day is going over the We Choose Virtues materials (They have an "I am... I am not..." statement for every virtue), the age-appropriate definition that I come up with, the memory verse, and the prayers. Bean is at the level where she can memorize about 1 verse/week, so, depending on if there are any memory verses from our family bible study, we will have either one or two verses for each quailty. Everything else is going to be cycled in and out for the two weeks.
So that's that... I'm very proud of anyone who made it this far! It was quite a lot of information, I admit.
Until next time...
