Sunday, January 22, 2012

We Choose Virtues - A Review

One of the reasons we homeschool is so that we can use every moment as teachable moments. Not just to teach your common "school" subject like Math, Reading, Language, History, etc. But, our goal is to teach our children true character. Character is something that is lacking in so many kids today. Kids are not taught the basic virtues that the Bible tells us to teach our children. For that matter, many kids are not taught any virtues at all. Heather McMillan, creator of "We Choose Virtues" saw this problem in her experiences with young children. She decided to try and make a difference and created the program to give parents and teachers something to help them integrate teaching character and virtues into our lives.


"We Choose Virtues" is not just another study on character traits where you choose one trait to study each week and then move on to the next. It is designed to be a lasting effort to engrain these virtues into our children's hearts and lives.



We reviewed the "We Choose Virtues" Clue Cards as well as the downloadable PDF coloring book and the Teacher's Handbook. The Clue Cards are 12 small cards that each focus on a different virtue. There is information on both the front and the back of the card, with cute catch-phrases to help your child remember what each word means, and how to apply it to their lives. The Clue Cards are available here for only $5.99. The coloring book is available here for only $3.00. The coloring book goes right along with the Virtue Clue Cards and are great for the younger kids. There are also several free downloads available on their website.

We used the cards as a part of our "morning board" which is actually our refrigerator.


I added one each week and we talked about each of them every morning. Going over the catch-phrases of each one, and discussing any moments that may have come up the day before where we either did, or should have used that virtue. The kids also reminded each other of the clue cards. If one wasn't being "diligent" another child might say "remember to 'start fast, work hard, and finish strong'". My favorite clue card for this particular season in our life is "self controlled". Having two boys, we really need to learn this one a little better. "I am NOT...wild, rowdy, or disorderly and I don't expect others to control me" is a little tough for 6 year old and 10 year old boys! But me telling them "Stop Sign Madeline knows you can do it!" is taken alot better than me telling them for the millionth time to settle themselves down.

The 12 character traits that are covered are:
Diligent
Self-Controlled
Gentle
Helpful
Content
Attentive
Honest
Kind
Patient
Obedient
Forgiving
Perseverant


"We Choose Virtues" has many other products to choose from and they just lowered their prices on many of their products! Some of the products have Bible verses and others do not. So you could easily use some of them in church classes, or if you choose the products without the Bible verses they would be great to use in public schools.

Teaching children virtues is a lost art, and one that needs to be re-kindled in today's world. I want my children to have true character and be virtuous in all that they do. I love any product that helps me to reach that goal!

Disclosure: We received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. There was no other compensation given for the review. All opinions above are my own.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

1 comment:

Tiffany said...

I am glad that you were able to review this! I have looked at these before but decided to buy a book with these character traits instead. The book was not what I was looking for though, so may have to look at this again.

Thanks,
Tiffany