Fun Self-Control Lesson for Kids

Welcome to my character-building series where I offer helpful parenting and teaching resources, including this fun self-control lesson for kids. If you, like me, believe it is important to be intentional about teaching our kids impulse control, you have come to the right place.

For more lessons on self-control, check out this great collection of ideas.

Character-Building Series

If you are new to my character-building series, I welcome you. Let me tell you a little bit more about these lessons. If you check out my character-building tab, you will discover 52 character traits we work on throughout the year, which equals one word per week to focus on with your kids.

Each character trait has 7-9 lessons, so if you want to work on character daily, this is an amazing resource.

This year, I want to focus on cleaning up my series by re-packaging the ideas in a clear lesson plan format. This activity focuses on self-control (more self-control lessons in the link).

In this series, you will find a word, definition, scripture to memorize, book lists, and several activities and crafts related to the topic. While I am a Christian and have lots of Bible-centered lessons, there are plenty of ideas here for everyone, so I hope you will take the time to explore the series.

My desire is for you to be inspired to work on building character with your kids because being intentional in your parenting will help give great direction to both you and your children. Read more about the series here.

Fun Bible-Based Self-Control Lesson for Kids

Subject: Self-Control

Objective: Kids will Learn the Benefits of Self-Control and Memorize a Bible Verse About Self-Control

Self-Control Verse

“Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.” – Proverbs 25:28

Ask the Following Questions:

What is the meaning of self-control? – If you are following my complete series, this would have been covered in the first lesson on self-control.
What are some areas of your life you have had to show self-control? For kids, this might include how to express anger or frustration, food temptations, how we treat others, taming the tongue, issues with lying, etc. Feel free to share some of your age-appropriate examples from your own life as well as explore their answers further.

Materials Needed for this Lesson on Impulse Control

All you will need for this lesson is a variety of boxes. Maybe you, like me, have a collection of boxes you keep for Christmas and birthday presents. If so, you are all set. You can always collect boxes for free from places like grocery stores, and Costco, or ask online in a buy-nothing group.

How to Teach Self-Control to Kids

Have kids build a wall around themselves with the boxes. This might be most easily accomplished in a corner of a room.
Explain to them that they are creating their own city within these walls. For additional fun, kids might have fun making drawings of their city or setting up some pretend play in their city.
Ask: Why do you think people used to build walls around a city? Answer: for protection. Optional: Watch this YouTube video about why walls are important.
Say: Let’s pretend these boxes were bricks. Do you think this would feel like a safe and strong structure that might protect you?
Pretend: Pretend to be a bad guy trying to get into their city. Show discouragement about the strong walls that keep you outside.
Say: Self-control is like having strong walls around your life. There won’t be protection from everything. An easy and safe life is never promised in the Bible. However, God gave us His commands as a protection for us. When God says not to lie, He knows that hiding things in the dark isn’t good for our lives. It burdens us as well as hurts our relationships. The same goes for other sins like stealing, gossiping, pride, greed, envy…all of these things damage us and others. Having self-control over these things is like having a wall of safety around your life. Self-control is a form of protection.
Now let the kids knock their wall down. This is the fun part. As fun as it is, they are no longer protected. You can now penetrate their safe zone and tickle them relentlessly.
Explain: When we don’t have the walls of self-control around our lives, we are more vulnerable to harm or other temptations.
Memorize: Now work on memorizing the Bible verse together.