Teaching kids about courage equips them to live lives that are more confident and teaches them to take healthy risks. It also leads to greater success and a willingness to stand up for what they know to be right. Courage is a biblical characteristic, and it can be found in every great leader in history. Sometimes it means standing up alone for what you know is right. The benefits of… {Read More}
Printable Verses About Joy
I wanted to create these printable verses about joy for myself and for you. I was inspired to create these while doing my Bible Study this morning. I am helping lead our summer Bible study titled, “The Battle Plan for Prayer ,” by Stephen & Alex Kendrick (affiliate link). This is a super good study about prayer, and I highly recommend it. I want to share with you how the Lord… {Read More}
Teaching Kids to Have a Heart of Appreciation
Do you want to raise a child who has an attitude of entitlement? My guess is no. Today I want to share with you ideas for teaching kids to have a heart of appreciation. Ahhh! Doesn’t that sound nice? Gratefulness is an important trait to teach children. My kids are now 5, 7 and 8, and they are finally (after years of reminders) starting to say “Thank you,” more readily.… {Read More}
Teaching Kids How to Be Generous
It’s this time of year where we hear a lot of “I want…” statements from our kids. I would hate for Christmas time to be centered around teaching my kids to be selfish. It’s about Jesus coming into the world and doing the opposite of me, me, me. He came to demonstrate what it means to be a servant. With His example, we recognize that teaching kids how to be… {Read More}
16 Ways to Teach Kids about Thankfulness
Welcome to one of my hundreds of character development posts. Today we focus on thankfulness. These 16 ways to teach kids about thankfulness include my previous lessons, crafts, activities, book collections and thoughts about teaching kids the importance of being grateful. I am also including other ideas I’ve found around the web so you are well equipped to teach valuable lessons on character. Building character in kids is a heart issue. We… {Read More}
Teaching Kids Purpose
Teaching kids purpose is important. As adults we may all understand that God has gifted us all with a very specific purpose, however this can be a difficult concept for children to grasp as well as a concept that can often be misconstrued, therefore it is important for us as parents to be sure that we do our job and spend time teaching our children this very important character trait.… {Read More}
Character Building Bucket List
Hi there! This is Stefanie with Simple Acres. This simple DIY Character Building Bucket List was inspired by the familiar summer bucket lists, such as the free printable one here, but with an educational twist that focuses on values. I wanted to create something that not only keeps me accountable to create fun memories with my kids but also TEACHES them something! I value the gift and opportunity we get as… {Read More}
20 Ways to Teach Kids about Respect
Welcome to one of my hundreds of character development posts. Today we focus on respect. These 20 ways to teach kids about respect include my previous lessons, crafts, activities, book collections and thoughts about teaching kids the importance of showing respect. I am also including other ideas I’ve found around the web so you are well equipped to teach valuable lessons on character. Building character in kids is a heart… {Read More}
Teaching Respect through Role Playing
Respect, as I mentioned in my last post, comes in lots of different forms. We need to have respect for God’s laws, our elders, our peers, our belongings, this planet, ourselves, etc. One way that children learn is through role playing, so I have tried to incorporate this activity into my character development series in a variety of ways. Teaching respect through role playing is one of the many ways… {Read More}
Teaching Kids How to Be Thoughtful
Welcome to my character development series where I have 52 character traits we focus on throughout the year. Some of you may have figured out that 52 traits means there is one attribute to be worked on for every week of the year. Each character trait has over 7 lessons that include activities, crafts, word pictures, lessons, scripture and book ideas, which means you could be working on character daily… {Read More}
Teaching Kids to Have Self Control
Teaching kids to have self control is one of the most important character traits we can teach. I have put together a character development series for you, and want to give you many resources for working on attributes that we want to establish in our kids. If you are new to my character development series, I welcome you. Let me tell you a little bit more about these lessons. If you… {Read More}
20 Ways to Teach Kids Patience
Patience is a life time lesson, which I’m learning more and more as a mom. I often find my kids being impatient, and I only need to look in the mirror to know where it comes from. I admit these 20 ways to teach kids patience is humbling and can be lessons that I need to hear as well. If you are new to my character development series, I welcome you.… {Read More}
Books About Hospitality for Kids
Books About Hospitality for Kids * Affiliate links are added for your convenience. The character trait we are focusing on this week is hospitality. These books about hospitality for kids should aid you as you aim to parent your children to be pleasant contributors to this world. I hope you are following along with my character development series. We work on 52 character traits throughout the year – one for… {Read More}
Books About Faithfulness for Kids
Books About Faithfulness for Kids * Affiliate links have been added for your convenience. In a world that tells our kid to do whatever feels good, I want to teach my kids what it means to be faithful. These books about faithfulness for kids should help. I’m not talking about the kind of loyalty that harms children and keeps them in unhealthy situations. I’m talking about dedication to ones word,… {Read More}
Books on Wisdom for Kids
Finding books on wisdom for kids is a tricky pursuit. 1 Corinthians 3:19 says, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.” We can try and gain wisdom through books, philosophy, education, science or other men. However, it is empty and deceitful unless it is rooted in the truths found in the Bible. Answers for the hard parts of life (addictions, marriage struggles, money issues, insecurities, stress,… {Read More}
Books About Generosity for Kids
Books About Generosity for Kids Welcome to generosity week at Meaningful Mama. Today I bring you books about generosity for kids as we progress further in my character development series. Each week we cover a different character trait, and the series is comprised of 52 traits so you can have a focus for each week with your kids. Each trait has 7-9 lessons that should help you as you raise… {Read More}
Books About Courtesy and Manners
Books About Courtesy and Manners Welcome to this week’s addition of my character development series. These books about courtesy and manners should be a great aid as you are raising up your kids in virtue. I can’t even begin to explain the immediate positive response my kids had to these books. We teach manners, but these lessons really resonated with them this week. I hope you are enjoying my character development… {Read More}
Books About Diligence
Books About Diligence These books about diligence are a resource to help you as you are working on the character development of your children. This character development series is comprised on 52 character traits with, 7-9 lessons associated with each trait. These lessons on diligence are a great way to get started, and the books here are meant to supplement these lessons. It is important to teach our kids the benefit and importance of… {Read More}
Books on Helpfulness
These books on helpfulness are a part of my Character Development Series. I have 52 character traits to focus on throughout the year. Each trait has 7-8 lessons associated with it. This week the focus is helpfulness. Please click back for my previous lessons on teaching kids to be helpful. Literature is a really useful tool for teaching children. They love stories and relate to the characters in the book. I’ll… {Read More}
Books on Orderliness
As I was researching books on orderliness, I couldn’t help but believe that I’m not the only mom who struggles to teach their kids about cleanliness and organization. I found resources for this topic in abundance. Personally, I will help my kids clean up their room, and within a few days it will be a complete disaster again. This character development week focusing on “orderliness” is always needed. If you… {Read More}
Books on Kindness
The word of the week in my character development series is “kindness.” These books on kindness will be a great way to begin discussion about how reach the world through kindness and why it is important. Please hover over the character development tab to reveal all 52 words we focus on in this series. You can click on the kindness tab to find all of our activities for this trait. There are 7-9… {Read More}
Books on Joy
The word of the week in my character development series is “joy.” These books on joy will be a great way to begin discussion about how to achieve joy. Please hover over the character development tab to reveal all 52 words we focus on in this series. You can click on the joy tab to find all of our activities. There are 7-9 activities for each character trait. I hope… {Read More}
Books on Love
These books on love are the next addition to my character development series. As a reminder, I have a series on character that can be found as you hover over the character development tab on my site as pictured below: This character series has been written over the past 2+ years and has activities, crafts, verses, “I Will” statements and lessons dealing with 52 different character traits, one for each… {Read More}
Books on Respect
Today I bring you books on respect because it’s the word of the week in my character development series. Unfamiliar with this series? I’d love for you to read more about it in my Meaningful Mama tour. This year I’m adding literature to the series. Kids internalize books, so reading is another tool to help us develop character in our kids. This week we focus on RESPECT. The Berenstain Bears… {Read More}
Books on Thoughtfulness
This weeks’ character development series focuses on the word of the week “thoughtfulness.” These books on thoughtfulness will help as you try and raise your kids with character in this world because kids learn from and can relate to books. They internalize stories. I want to review the concept of my character development series here in case you are tuning in for the first time. If you hover over the… {Read More}
Books on Self Control
Self Control is one of the most important things you will teach your child. I hope these books and video on self control will help. If you view our world, you see an impulsiveness that leads to destruction. It is going to take a lot of intentional training to teach our kids to stand up under the pressures they see around us. Self control comes into play as kids are… {Read More}
Books on Perseverance
Perseverance “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” 1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV It’s the beginning of a new year in my character development series. If you have been following along you know that we focus on one word a week. If you hover over my character development tab you… {Read More}
Teaching Compassion to Kids
Compassionate “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” – Colossians 3:12 I’m playing a little bit of catch-up here at the beginning of 2014 in my Character Development Series. Teaching compassion to kids is the focus of today. After today, I want to add another activity to the character lessons on being a “risk taker” and “pleasant” and then move… {Read More}
Teaching Kids Fair Way to Solve Problems
Fairness is the word of the week in our character development series. Before we begin, I need to remind you that life isn’t fair. This is not a post about how life is always fair, and I make sure my kids know that.
Teaching Kids About Worship
This week in my character development series I am teaching kids about worship. As I was thinking about worship, I thought about the verse where Jesus said that if he had to hush his followers, even the rocks would cry out. Let us visit that passage now. “The whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: ‘Blessed is… {Read More}
Working with Kids on Consistency of Attitude
Consistency “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadiest, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” – 2 Corinthians 15:58 Consistency is the word of the week in our character development series. I decided to focus on working with kids on consistency of attitude. We have had some major ups and downs when it comes to attitude. I have… {Read More}
Pop Rocks and Soda Science Experiment Teaches Curiosity
The word of the week in our character is curiosity. This week I decide that the pop rocks and soda science experiment teaches curiosity. Curiosity is involves getting our kids to wonder why or how something works. It is such a healthy attribute for our kids to develop a curiosity about life. I have to admit that part of me wondered if I really needed to teach this to my… {Read More}
Teaching Kids to be Persuasive
Persuasiveness “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.” – 2 Timothy 2:24 This week we were working on teaching kids to be persuasive. I hope you’ll look under the character development tab and “persuasiveness” to find more lessons and the reason behind this character trait choice. Kids will grow into learning to create persuasive arguments in essays. They… {Read More}
Salsa Mason Jar Gifts Teach Appreciation
Appreciation “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” – Colossians 3:15 This week is “appreciation” week at meaningful mama. These salsa mason jar gifts teach appreciation to kids. Biblical character is so important to teach kids. Showing kids how to show appreciation is part of that. If you aren’t familiar with my character development series,… {Read More}
A Meaningful Mama Tour
Welcome to Meaningful Mama. Today I want to bring you a Meaningful Mama tour. Some of you have been coming here for a while. I have been encouraged by emails from people who visit frequently and have been inspired by the content on my site. Those emails keep my going and excited about what I am doing, so thank you. Some of you are new. You just found me recently… {Read More}
Garbage Art Teaches Creativity
Creativity He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers. – Exodus 35:35 (Younger kids can memorize the underlined part) The word of the week in our character development series is “creativity.” Today, garbage art teaches creativity to your kids. If you are not familiar with my… {Read More}
Helping Children Find their Purpose
Purpose “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that will prevail.” – Proverbs 19:21 What is a purpose of life? Helping children find their purpose at a young age will only aid in their sense of importance. Why are they important? They were created by God. They were created in a unique way with very special talents and gifts to bring to the… {Read More}
Mary & Martha Craft Teaches Availability
Availability “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.” – Romans 12:10 Our character development series continues with a Martha & Mary craft that teaches availability. We have done availability activities that are associated with being available for others, but it is important to remember that we first need to be available for Christ. I wanted to create popsicle stick people to represent Martha, Mary… {Read More}
Sincerity with the Real vs. Fake Test
Sincerity “Love one another deeply, from the heart.” – 1 Peter 1:22b Today we worked on the character quality sincerity with the real vs. fake test. To really understand the concept of sincerity, I think it is helpful to look at the opposing character quality, which is fake. So, I decided to have my kids compare things that are real vs. those that are fake and look at the essence… {Read More}
