This past school year I added some character development studies to our homeschooling lessons.  These studies have proved to be a great opportunity for our family.  Homelife Ministries has wonderful family character quality guides.  E and B found much to notebook and journal about and as a family, we found much to discuss, memorize, and put into practice.  J, Z, and I made several lapbooks of the same studies from Homeschool Share.   The Homeschool Helper Online has some good ideas for character studies, too.  (Links are at the end)

I was able to include the subjects of Bible, History, Science, Music and Language Arts into each study making for simplified days with lots of time to pursue elective interests.  These charactier development lessons were a welcome break in between topics in our usual history studies.  We  completed six such studies this past year.  We will be adding more next school year.

“Pay attention! ” “Watch what you’re doing.”  “Listen.”  These are things parents say to their children on a regular basis.  I know I say these often during our homeschooling days, whether it is during math, cooking, art, or whatever.  If I would listen, I would hear the Father saying those same words to me just as often.   Attentiveness seems to be an across the board kind of character trait that both my children and myself need to further develop.  Attentiveness was good place to start with our new studies.  Though all of our character development lessons were good, this one was my favorite.  This one is also the most reviewed one.

This is J’s and Z’s attentiveness lapbook.   I covered the back with  clear contact paper so they can do the wordsearch puzzle with washable markers again and again.

Below are the free resources I used for this and our other character development studies.  These are the links I’ll be going to again as we continue our lessons when our homeschooling starts back full time in the fall.

Hymns, Scriptures, application, examples, and science connections for copywork,  notebooking, journaling, and discussion from  http://www.characterjournal.com/  (scroll down a little bit then select the character quality from the list on the right sidebar)

Lapbooking and notebooking materials  http://www.homeschoolshare.com/character_lapbook.php

A few more ideas from  http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/character_studies.shtml

For other posts about character development  https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/03/08/keeping-the-code/ and https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/03/10/calling-for-reinforcements/ and  https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/05/10/but-he-has-a-good-heart/  and  https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/06/10/1654/

betty jo