What about Your Kids’ Character?

August 19, 2011 By 16 Comments

It’s back-to-school or back-to-homeschool time. Even though this is typically a busy time for families, I think it’s important to give some thought to your kids’ character. Do you have ways to specifically focus on character development as part of your children’s normal week?

Here are some helpful resources:

For Any Parents

DChitwood_CharacterIsTheRealFoundation “Character is the Real Foundation” Word-Art Freebie

Many people, including me, like to use quotations as inspiration and as starting points for discussion for elementary-age and up. I love quotes and have a word-art quotation freebie each Wednesday. I only use quotes that promote positive values.

Character Counts always has lots of great resources for parents and teachers. Character Counts uses the six pillars of character as a foundation: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.

Character Education Network has resources for any parents.

The Virtues Project and The Heart of Education have resources for parents as well as teachers.

Books like The Book of Virtues are wonderful for character education. When my kids were young, we also read lots of biographies about people with positive character traits.

I have a post on How to Help Your Kids Have an Attitude of Gratitude and other posts on character with links to many resources.

For Sports Parents

DChitwoodItsAllAboutTheJourney

“It’s All about the Journey” Word-Art Freebie

Sports can be a wonderful means of character development – if winning isn’t the only goal. While you as a parent can hope your child’s coach and teammates are encouraging good character, you can’t guarantee that.

You can guarantee that you’ll work to help your child develop good character through sports. There are lots of tools online to help coaches, but I want to focus specifically on resources that can help you as a parent.

I’ve always liked the Positive Coaching Alliance. Be sure to check out its free tips and tools for parents.

Positive Coaching Alliance also powers the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports Program, which has lots of free tools for responsible sports parenting including resources in the Responsible Sports Parenting Toolkit. I like its emphasis on the ELM (Effort, Learning, and Mistakes) tree of mastery:

“At the start of the season, let your children know that:

You will always be proud of them as long as they give 100% effort (regardless of the outcome on the scoreboard).

You want them to constantly strive to learn and improve. This involves them comparing their own past performance to their own current performance (i.e. Are they better than they were two weeks ago?).

Mistakes are an inevitable part of the game. If they are giving 100% and trying new things (as they strive to improve), mistakes are bound to occur, and the best players are those who find ways to quickly bounce back from mistakes.

Teams that focus on giving their full effort, constantly learning and improving, and bouncing back from mistakes, actually win more than teams who consistently focus on the scoreboard.

You want your child to focus on the ELM Tree of Mastery (Effort, Learning and Mistakes) because players who do this well are less anxious during competition and have a greater sense of confidence in themselves and their abilities.”

Here are two articles I wrote for parents: Don’t Forget These Two Words before a Competition Performance and Don’t Forget the Three Most Important Words before a Competition Performance.

For Homeschoolers (and Anyone Interested in Further Study)

DChitwood_WorthDoingWell

“Worth Doing Well” Word-Art Freebie

If you’re a homeschooler, check out the Character Counts Character Education Lesson Plan Bank with character-education lessons for preschoolers through teens. Character Counts Week is October 16-22. There are lots of free resources available simply by registering.

Montessori education with its emphasis on grace and courtesy is a great method for character development. Montessori education was a very important part of my children’s early character training. A number of Montessori teachers teach grace and courtesy on Fridays. You could devote extra time on Friday (or another day) to teaching grace and courtesy.

KONOS isn’t free but has character-based unit studies. We used KONOS in our homeschooling: How We Homeschooled.

Free Homeschool for Kids has links to character education resources.

Lifestyle Homeschool has ideas for character education.

Homeschool Share has a number of resources for building character.

Shiver Academy has a free Book of Virtues Project based obviously on The Book of Virtues.
DChitwoodYourTalent

“Your Talent” Word-Art Freebie

I’d love to hear what resources you use or what you do to help develop your kids’ character! :)

Photo Credit: Photo by Randen L Pederson at Flickr Creative Commons (License).

Linked with Thought-Provoking Thursday and Kirsty & Friends Linky Party.

Filed Under: Character Tagged With: , , , , , , ,


Comments

  1. Dara Feldman says:
    August 19, 2011 at 3:35 pm

    Thank you for your thoughtfulness writing about the importance of character development. As parents, teachers and coaches, there is no other gift that is more important than helping our children develop their unique gifts of character by acknowledging the qualities when they are demonstrated and guiding our children back to them whenever a teachable moment arises. I was a classroom teacher for 16 years and was blessed as Disney’s Outstanding Elementary Teachers of the Year in 2005. I learned about The Virtues Project as a result of that honor and left the classroom a year later to speak and facilitate workshops about the 5 Strategies of The Virtues Project with parents and educators because they help bring joy, meaning and purpose back into teaching and learning. I encourage you all to check out http://www.virtuesproject.com and http://www.heartofeducation.net for free resources and more information. Please let me know if I can be of service in any capacity. With much gratitude and enthusiasm for all you do! Dara dara@giftsofcharacter.org

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  2. Rodney C. Davis says:
    August 19, 2011 at 6:20 pm

    It says, “for homeschoolers” but those are needed EVERYWHERE. Thank you. Gonna steal a couple for my office.
    Rodney C. Davis recently posted..What are Mommies and Daddies for Anyway?My Profile

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  3. sheila says:
    August 22, 2011 at 6:00 pm

    Wow, what an incredible post! LOOOOVE it! It’s so important to help them develop their character when they are young and keep an eye on it as they grow. School choice is also INCREDIBLY important for all you young parents out there. THey are there pretty much the whole day and pick up so much. We were fortunate to find a montessori charter school and I don’t believe we could have made a wiser choice – looking back some 15 years later. Good Character is such an important foundation to develop.
    sheila recently posted..Word of the Week: PrepareMy Profile

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  4. Kirsty
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    August 22, 2011 at 7:58 pm

    Great post as always!
    Kirsty recently posted..Vegan Tasmania + Kirsty & Friends Linky PartyMy Profile
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  5. Marlene says:
    August 23, 2011 at 9:41 am

    We have no character. You, me, your kids. We have no character. It a myth. We create ourselves as we go. It is proven that kids with pessimistic mothers tends to create thoughts in the same way as they mothers. Fortunately being an optimist can be learned in any age. Character development should be explained in school and gain more exposure.
    Marlene recently posted..Netflix – Medieval Romance SpotMy Profile

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  6. Grady Pruitt
    Twitter:
    says:
    August 24, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    This is a great post!

    As a Father, and as a Cubmaster, teaching our kids character is very important. In scouts, we teach the motto “Do your best”. There are two keys to this. First, it’s YOUR best. The best you can do will be different from the best someone else can do. And second is BEST. Try as hard as you can. Give full effort. Do that, and you succeed, regardless of how much you achieve.

    Thanks for sharing!
    Grady Pruitt recently posted..The 3 Ingredients To Being a Great ParentMy Profile
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  7. Lauren says:
    August 25, 2011 at 5:43 pm

    Thanks for this! One of my deepest hearts’ desires is to encourage and help my children to mold their character – providing opportunities and a good learning environment – while keeping in mind that it is really God doing the work! I’ll be looking at those great resources!

    Have you heard of Pearables and Instructions in Righteousness? We have been using the latter for training and oh man is it changing ME!
    Lauren recently posted..Lead Us Not Into TemptationMy Profile

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