Sincerity

Last month the character trait we learned about was Sincerity.  Sounds like a big word to use with a 6, 4 & 3 year old boys, but with the definition and bible verse and activities we did, they soon understood the idea.  Here are some of the activities we did through out the month.

We had a memory verse and four statements that helped us understand what it means to be sincere.  These get written up on our black board in the dinning room.  So we see it often!!

We read Horton Hears A Who.  He is a beautiful example of being sincere and caring for others.  It is a very long book though and so the boys didn't lose interest while I was reading I gave them each a Horton colouring page I found 'somewhere' on the internet.

We talked about sincerity coming from your heart and showing what your heart is like.  To help demonstrate this we made a huge heart to hang on the back of our front door.  During the month, whenever I 'caught' them doing something sincere I would write it on a dot and stick it to the big heart.  (They did many more that in the photo - it was at the beginning of the month). We also made other heart crafts and let them at it with glue and heart stickers.

The word Sincere in means 'without wax' in Latin, this is because the ancient roman potters tried to imitate the high quality pots of the Greeks.  But the romans used inferior materials and ended up with imperfections in their pots.  They then filled the cracks with wax before painting the pots to cover them up.  The customers would not know the pots were flawed until they took them home and placed them in the fire and the wax melted.  As a result, the honest merchants labeled their good pottery sine cere, without wax.

As we made our 'clay' and formed pots we talked about the importance of being truthful and sincere and meaning what we day.

 I think this was my favourite activity because it was such a visual lesson the really showed the point so well.  I put two oranges on the plate to start the lesson and talked about how the both looked good and it was hard to tell what they were like on the inside but that the outside seemed to look fine.

Then I cut the skin off the oranges.  One looked good but the other one was all yucky and muddy.  We talked about how sometime people may look like they are going good things but if their heart isn't doing the right thing then they aren't sincere.  (I had filled the orange with mud before the lesson by cutting a small plug in the bottom and removing the inside and the replacing the plug after I had filled it).  The boys really understood this and talked about being sincere from you heart for the next few days and not having a 'muddy' heart.

The orange idea and the clay activity came from Character First, other ideas are from google searches and some I even thought of myself!!

Next month .... Respect.

Wisdom - what we did

WISDOM 

making right choices every day.

Well its been a little over a month at we have been focused on the character trait of Wisdom.  With a couple of weeks holiday in the middle, I felt like we needed to cover it some more before moving on.  I had lots of fun exploring the different ways I could present the concept of wisdom to the boys (6, 4 & 2).  The main idea that I wanted to get across was that lots of little choices being made right would build up to a life of wisdom.  So here are some of the ways we did that.

Building Blocks.

I built a tower with single blocks going straight up, not very stable.  Then I built another one with a solid foundation and as I did it we talked about how each block was like a good choice.  They all lean on each other and make a strong tower.  We also tried pulling a few blocks out and making gaps and explained how these were like bad choices and it leaves the tower a little unstable.  We also talked about how we want God to be the foundation of our lives and we want to base our choices on what his ways.  The boys then made paper towers to remember this lesson.

Marbles Jars.
Another day I used an empty jar to symbolise our lives.  When we make good choice our wisdom gets filled up (and I put a few marbles in the jar).  Then we make more good choices and the jar get fuller, sometimes we make choice that aren't so good and marble come out of the jar.  We talked about wanting to fill our lives with good choices and then made our own marble jars with a drawing and pompoms.

Treasure
God's word is where we can find out how he wants us to live.  We want to base our choices on what God says is right.  So we had a bible verse treasure hunt.  I wrote the bible reference on a white paper with a candle, rolled them up and hid them in the yard.  The boys took turns in finding them and then had to reveal the hidden message by painting with water based paint.  Then we found the verses in the bible together and talked about what each verse helped us with.

Wise Old Owl
We made paper bag owls and talked how owls make choices.

Crayon Wax Frame
Once again we talked about how many tiny choices work together to form a persons character.  I really wanted them to understand the importance of all those little choices we keep talking about in life.  I had grated a few old crayons - each small piece represented good choices.  By themselves they didn't look like much, but when we ironed it and they all melted together we had a beautiful 'stained glass' looking frame.  The boys loved this activity and it seemed to really help them understand how bringing all the choices together make a life of wisdom.

Compass
An arrow is a symbol for wisdom as it gives us direction and points the way, just like a compass shows us the way.  Guiding your way, wisdom will lead you through knowledge to understanding.  God's word is the arrow on our compass of life.  We each made simple a compass by rubbing a needle on a magnet and floating it in water on a piece of foam.  They had lots of fun with the magnet making the compass go all funny.  While they did that, I talked about how wrong choices can send us in the wrong direction away from what God wants for our lives, but we can always turn back to Him again.

God's Wisdom for Little Boys

We have a wonderful book called God's Wisdom for Little Boys by Jim & Elizabeth George.  We read one page most mornings after breakfast.  Each page addresses a different character trait with a poem, picture and verse from Proverbs.

It looks like we did lots but when you spread it out over a month it works out at about two activities a week.   The boys seemed to really enjoyed it and so did I.  I feel like we've all learnt lots about making right choices everyday!

Character Lessons

This month we are looking at

I'll (hopefully) show you some of what we did at the end of the month.

Benevolence - Here's what we did

Well we had lots of fun learning about Benevolence this month.  I tried to do at least one activity a week with the boys and then talk about it lots during the month as well.

We started the month by making this 'Love is' sign that hangs in our dining room window.  

  

          

Once or twice a week we added these hanging circles to it.  As we did each circle we read the whole verse from 1 Corinthians 13.  Then we talked about what that means for our family and how we actually do it.

We talked about showing others that we love them.  We made these cute little cards for our friends and family telling them why they are special to us.  The boys loved doing this and really took time to think about their friends and why they are special.

We read a Berenstien Bears book about loving your neighbour.

I gave each of the boys a really long handled spoon telling them they could only hold the very end, placed a big bowl of M&M's on the floor and told them they could eat as many as they like using only the spoon.  This was so much fun.  They tried to feed themselves and quickly realised that they couldn't.  The youngest two kept trying and the oldest lay on the floor crying because he couldn't get any!! I left them to it for a few moments and then suggested that they could show love and think of others.  They soon realised that needed to feed each other.  Such a fun activity.  (Then I sent them outside to run off all the sugar!!)

We also made these love paper chains.  At dinner we talked about if they day had been characterised by actions of love or lack of love.  If they had shown love and done well, a link was added to their chain, (they had one each).  We did have to talk about it not being a competition with each other but doing better themselves each day and we did not remove links for lack of love.

We had lots of fun with these activities but I also think that the boys are actually beginning to get these things in their hearts.  Somedays anyway!!

February Character Lesson - Benevolence

In February we are working on ...

In November ...

Gentleness Activities

Let your gentleness be seen by all.  Phil 4:5

We have been (haphazardly) working on gentleness in September/October.  Today I wanted to do an activity with the boys that showed them what exactly gentleness is.  I was planning to do a rubbing of some leaves or an onion bag and show them that if you did it gently it would work but if you were rough and scribbled hard it wouldn't work.  However, when I tried it myself to check it actually worked better if you did it harder!!  Lucky I checked before showing them!!

So I needed a different activity.  A quick internet search and I came up with these.

We did a Banana Relays just before morning tea and the idea is that you have to be gentle with the 'baton' because its about to be your morning tea.  We don't want to eat mushed banana!!  This became a little more real when I peeled the banana before the race.

We then sat at the table and while they were eating, I explained that when we are gentle sometimes it means being slow and careful.  So we did some Spaghetti Threading.  Each get a couple bits of uncooked spaghetti and then they thread buttons on to it.  You need to be really gentle so the spaghetti doesn't break.  Also great for fine motor skills.  To make it a little easier for each of them, I stuck the spaghetti into a piece of fruit.  That way the buttons stayed on.

I love these pictures - Jai completely absorbed and concentrating and Isaiah's joy as he watches the button spin its way down to the bottom.

Character - Truthfulness

Here is the wall hanging we made to remind us about truthfulness.  We talked about cheating whilst playing scrabble, made up a great story to help kids understand exaggerate and talked about how we encourage others to do something without telling them what to do.  

In August ...

Character: Contentment

Here is one of the activities we have been doing as we look at the character trait of 'Contentment' this month.

Each day after breakfast, each of the boys think of something they are thankful for and we write it on a spot and are slowly filling up our giraffe.  It is a great way to remember the little things that we have in life and can be thankful for.  And it is hard to be grumpy or cross when we are focusing on being thankful.  It is really changing the mood/atmosphere in our house.

In July

Accepting how it is!

Normally my first post for the new month would be the character trait we are going to work on that month.  Well, last month we were meant to be doing Self Control.  And we did a few minor things but I don't feel like I spent enough time on it with the boys for them to gain a true grasp of the trait.  I was going to move on to the next one but realised that I need to be real with where we are at, or in this case not at and do what I need to do to fix it.  And that is do Self Control again this month.

The things I have learnt from the past month are

• I need to be more intentional about the activities we do with each trait 
• plan the activities well in advance so that I can focus properly when we are doing them
• make a plan for when we are going to do these activities

So my plan is to do these activities on Wednesdays as part of our circle time and that means I will aim to prepare on Tuesday nights.  Here is what we did this morning.

We made traffic lights, 

• red to remind us to stop and use our self control (I wrote specific things the each boy has trouble remembering to use self control with to help them understand), 
• orange to remind us to have caution - is my attitude right (or do I have a happy heart) and 
• green, all is good, go for it.

Hopefully as we do an activity each week that relates to our character trait and we talk about it more intentionally throughout the month, it will sink in with both the boys and myself.

In April

I don't think this is what I originally had planned for this month but I think I need to work on this with my kids at present. I love the resource Character First that helps us get a better understanding of these character traits and gives the kids concrete concepts to help them at their level.

In March

is the character trait we are going to be learning more about and trying to weave into our everyday lives.