No matter what stage of raising children you are in, or even how your own particular raising style differs from others, we can all agree that character building is such an important piece of the parenting puzzle.
Raising up children to be respectful and respected members of society, is just as important of academics- and that is one thing that doesn’t change whether you’re homeschooling or not!
The best part about active, hands-on parenting, and even more so homeschooling, is that we can easily impact our children by living Jesus-led lives. And when we practice being good examples of Christ, our daily activities will easily translate into Bible-based parenting foundations that we can build on!
What exactly is character building?
Simply put, character building means to teach our children in a way that encourages useful and respectable features that will prepare them to be moral, ethical, honorable, and self-reliant.
But even easier than that? We train our children to be good followers of Christ, allowing Him to work those good and perfect gifts of quality character in them.
What are some examples of Character Traits?
A good place to start would be what we know as The Beatitudes, where Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount. Those important featured attitudes were people who were meek, righteous-seekers, peacemakers, pure in heart.
Even looking at the Fruits of the Spirit, we should be able to mimic those same traits to our children!
Any time the Bible speaks about ways we should conduct our lives, how we should act, look, or even live- those are good character traits to focus on!
Other, more common traits are; merciful, forgiving, kind, brave, loving, gentle, generous, sincerity, responsibility, good work ethic, empathy,
17 Character Building Resources for Families,
Biblical Character Training from The Doorposts
The Doorposts always has great resources for parents on raising Christian children. These Character Training books, activities, and resources are a great start for teaching your child with the Bible as a guide!
These resources range from preschool age on up, so there should be something great for you in there!
My Joy-Filled Life Character Copywork
Copywork is a great way to help your children to memorize, comprehend and be able to apply. Why not use scriptures as a guide?
Character Copywork Volume 1 is part of a whole series where we equip you with the necessary resources to combine education, life-lessons, and scripture all in one!
Character Badges from The Well Ordered Parent
If you’re looking for a way to remain consistent in your parenting and have your children actively involved in building their Bible-based qualities, these Character Badges are a great way to do that!
Character Badges helps you to have both equal excitement for good actions and predetermined consequences for bad behaviors, while helping you to explain the importance of quality humanity! Best suited for ages 3-13.
Character Concept Curriculum
These complete curriculum sets are categorized via levels for ages ranging from 3-17.
Character Concepts Curriculum has a variety of resources for you to choose from that are Bible-based, practical, and effective!
Character Matters from The Multi-taskin’ Mom
My Character Matters is available in a multi-part set where you can choose a 5+ age range or 8+. Other options include a student pack, parent pack, activity pack, and even flashcards!
This is a complete self-paced curriculum of 30 character building lessons where all you need is a Bible and a dictionary!
Child Training Bible
This amazing, colorful, hands-on Bible is a great resource for encouraging the study of scriptures in your own lessons of Character Training.
The Virtue Training Bible has tabs that are color coded by a variety of Bible-based character traits so you can easily flip to a scripture and learn more about the importance of cultivating each specific moral quality.
Kids of Integrity: Tools for Growing Godly Character
These free tools are based on the Kids’ Character Series created by Laurel Kirchner from Focus on the Family Canada and are a great resource if you’re looking for easily accessible resources right now.
Kids of Integrity has great lessons for children aged 4-7 and some up to 12!
We Chose Virtues
When your tagline is “Simply Inspiring Character That Lasts” you can bet that building character is a focus point of We Chose Virtues.
Their Character Coaching Tools start with age 3 and go all the way up to age 16 with curriculums specifically crafted for public schools, families, homeschools, churches- even offering Spanish versions!
Little Lads and Ladies of Virtue from The Character Corner
Because the Character Corner is highly focused on building character in kids, the Little Lads and Ladies of Virtue Curriculum is sure to be a great resource!
Specifically designed for the most impressionable time of children’s lives, this particular 6-month curriculum plan is best suited for elementary-aged children and requires very little prep work.
TRAINING & CORRECTING THE HEART WITH SCRIPTUREIf you want to stop scolding your children, but instead truly impact them by changing the focus of their hearts, then Training and Correcting the Heart is a great resource for you! Focusing on 21 Biblical character qualities, you’ll learn about the negative consequences of not having them, and the positive outcomes of following God’s way instead. Description says that it can be used for younger, and older children.
Parenting with Proverbs from Intoxicated on life
By using the “Proverbs Method” Parenting with Proverbs helps parents engage, teach, and correct their children by using the Bible, and more specifically the book of Proverbs, as a guide.
This particular resource focuses on 14 traits (the good versus the bad) from Proverbs and teaches parents how to better explain them to their children and cultivate those good qualities!
Hero Training EbookGreat for kids 3+, the Hero Training Ebook focuses on super hero characters to build on Christ-centered character, even showing how Jesus portrayed these important traits! 12 weeks, one week for each of the 12 character attributes discussed. 60 printable activities, templates, charts, and coloring pages, and 26 oversized poster prints!
Character Builders from Right Now Media
Right Now Media has so many great Character Building Resources!
You can find bible studies for multiple age ranges, kid’s videos, trainings, conference sessions, and other videos that can help you have the confidence to pursue Christ as you explore His ideas for good Biblical, virtuous, character!
Omni-God by Katie Hornor
Designed for middle-schoolers on up, the Omni-God study is filled with themes and examples from Scripture, history, hymnology, literature and science, and more!
Split into a two-part study focuses on personal character with Biblical undertones.
The Character Builders BibleYou’ll find 60 character building stories from the Holy scriptures loaded into the Character Builders Bible. Best suited for ages 4-8, this Bible covers will show the relevancy of God’s word, how it works in their lives, and how to apply it to their hearts!
321 Penguins321 Penguins is an animated children’s show dedicated to teaching younger kids more about about Christ through stories about Biblical virtues. Follow these four penguin buddies as they venture out into space and learn more about moral and Godly principals!
Character Quest with Clive and IanFollow Clive and Ian from the What’s in the Bible Video Series as they learn more about Biblical Character and what it means to have these important traits in the popular Character Quest Video Devotion Series!
Looking for more Character Building Resources?
Check out the My Joy-Filled Life Shop where you can find more of these amazing Character Building Resources!
Monthly Scripture Character Copywork
The monthly scripture copywork calendars are now EDITABLE, making them super FLEXIBLE to fit your family’s needs!! Use month after month, year after year, child after child! One time purchase – lifetime use!!
A 30-page journal for kids that can be used year-round to reflect on and record character development. Each page has a place to record the date, character trait and definition, how to display that trait, a daily reflection, and Bible verse.
Character Copywork Volume 1 of 3
An 83 Page ebook that focuses on the following character qualities; diligent, generous, grateful, joyful, kind, loving, obedient, patient, perseverant, respectful, responsible, self-control.
Character Copywork Volume 2 of 3
An 83 Page ebook that focuses on the following character qualities; bold, content, courageous, dependable, faithful, forgiving, gentle, helpful, hospitable, humble, just, secure.
Character building is such an important part of child raising and we’ve given you a variety of resources to help you make that BIG impact in your children!
Do you focus on character building, what would you add to our list? In what ways do you plan on implementing great foundations for cultivating good morals and virtues in your children?
Another (home) school year is about to start! Maybe you’ve already started your year, or maybe your school year never ended (you homeschool year-round). Either way, what homeschool mom couldn’t use a little extra money for homeschool curriculum or resources? Winning a gift card to a major online homeschool retailer would surely help you check some things off of your curriculum wish list!
I’ve teamed up with a great group of homeschool bloggers to bring you a HUGE gift card giveaway to Christianbook.com. We will be blessing THREE homeschool families with a $200 gift card for you to use on curriculum, books, games, puzzles, or whatever educational supplies you might need!
We know homeschooling can put a financial strain on families – whether it’s from living on one-income or buying curriculum for multiple children – the financial aspect of it can be stressful. Our hope is that we can bless a few homeschool families (although we wish we could bless many more) and ease a little of that financial burden.
To enter for your chance to win, simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter. Now I know this is quite a few entries, but each of these bloggers has generously chipped in their own money to make this giveaway possible, so I hope you will take the time to do all of the entries. And hey, the more entries you do, the better your odds are of winning!
Giveaway ends August 12, 2022 at 11:59pm ET. Must be at least 18 years of age. Must be a resident of U.S. or Canada to enter. Selected winners will have 48 hours to respond to email notification to claim their prizes or another winner will be drawn. By entering this giveaway, you agree to be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers (see the Terms & Conditions on the Rafflecopter form for the complete list).
Hayley R. says
Thank you for this blog! It has really helped me with my homeschool journey as a newbie!
Jessica Miles says
This would be amazing! We decided late to homeschool and would love some extra cash to round our curriculum out for the year! These choices look great, it would be hard to pick.
would be useful
Amelia Tirado says
I actually have been using the Character Builder’s Bible for a while now they have a whole curriculum themselves that goes right with the bible my daughter loves it we got the PDF version.