From Everyday Messmaking to Everyday Homemaking

"Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give aan account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden..."

Hebrews 13:17 NIV

As God's children, we must model in our relationship to Him the same behaviors we would like our children to display toward us. As parents, we should:

• Submit to authority without rebellion
• Apologize if needed.
• Do everything  without complaining
• Work on skills and character (theirs and ours)
• Work ourselves out of a job!

Parents ultimately hope their children will make wise choices from changed hearts and a desire to please God, their parents, and themselves. We want our kids to show stellar character and good judgement in their decisions...Give them opportunities to learn from mistakes when they are young, being sure that the consequences are safe and relatively temporary.

...There are some basic principles that must be understood, a foundation upon which the methods or kideas in the how-to sections of this book must be built. These include:

• Have realistic and age appropriate expectations
• Establish rules or standards.
• Have a working knowledge of family discipline.
• Tie strings to [your children's] hearts

These wise words from the first chapter of the e-book The Everyday Family Chore System byVicki Bentley will strike a chord in most parents' hearts. What parent doesn't want their child to succeed both in life (as in career and/or calling) and in character (as in the value of a good name)?

 

I know I was extremely concenrned with this ideal when I was a young mother of just one child. I only had one sibling, and he was seven years younger than me, and not to brag, but for the most part we were both pretty easy kids to raise. There wasn't a lot of discipline going on in our house. It mostly wasn't necessary, at least as I remember. We had chores and didn't always do them, but after getting in trouble enough times, I learned to do them as soon as I got home so I could spend the rest of my time doing what I wanted...OR I'd time it so that I'd do what I wanted up until about fifteen minutes before the folks were expected home and then I'd rush and unload that dishwasher and carry up that armload of clothes.

Still, I know my mom was frustrated at times that we'd walk by piles of clothes sitting on the steps as if we didn't see that they were ours and that we didn't always get those few things she asked of us done without complaining. So, if my mom, who had to work, doesn't have all the answers, and she is my  best friend and most trusted teacher, then to whom do I go when I want to find out how to get my children to be a bit more responsive and cooperative in a GENUINE way than my brother and I were?

Well, one place you can go is Everyday Homemaking, a site established by Vicki Bentley, a veteran homeschooling mom who writes about homeschooling, homemaking, and home organization and discipline. I was pleased to have a chance to read her book about helping your children learn to be better contributors to your family by teaching them what is expected of them, then holding them accountable for those things. One valuable idea I read was something I've encountered often as a parent, and that is the need to clarify the difference between God's rules (which are unwavering) and our house rules (which can be respectfully appealed when appropriate).

I also appreciated the reminder to just say "yes" whenever possible. It's true sometimes that as moms who are often repeatedly beseiged with requests by small children, we sometimes start saying "no" just for the sake of convenience or out of habit. The truth is though that we can use those moments of requests to teach our children to accept responsibility by putting the achievement of whatever it is they wanted back upon their shoulders. "Yes, you may jump on the trampoline as soon as you pick up the sticks that fell off of the trees after last night's storm." "Yes, you may invite your friends over tomorrow for the Bookmobile if your room is clean and all of your week's school work is done by dinnertime tonight." "Sure, you may play playdoh after you finish your printing and counting papers." "No problem. You may watch Misty of Chincoteague as soon as you go out and brush Honey and Rosie and lead them around the pasture a few times each." The idea is just so good that I can go on and on about it. I know I have used it in the past, but it's something I tend to forget in the momentary urge to say, "NO! No more messy Playdoh out EVER!" It was a good reminder.

The best reminder of all in the book, however, was that children like rules. They prefer if you set the standards and they know what to expect. They also like routines. It provides structure that they need. Be honest with yourself...you benefit from it, too. So I read Vicki's ideas about setting up a chore system and I have to admit that I wasn't thrilled with the idea of me having to be the "slave driver" so to speak.

With my headaches, I am not so good at sticking to a set schedule. I never know when I will wake up with a headache and feel miserable, BUT I promised to give it a try and so I wrote out what the most important tasks to be accomplised were, just as Vicki suggested, and it really didn't amount to a lot. I will be honest and say that I started out simply...with four little ones ages 3-8, there's only so much I can hand out to them to do, or so I thought.

 

It turns out that little guys and gals LOVE to help. My Four Amigos, Ladybug (8), Cowboy (6), Firefly (4), and Boo (3) thought the chore chart we made was fabulous and if I was having a bad morning, they reminded me what had to be done. They even offered to do things I normally did! I was very impressed with them. You will note that my chart is not complex or professional, but using a markerboard did work with my crew. I am sure they'd love the whole shebang one of these days when things slow down, but for now, the markerboard suffices.

 

It is true that just as is explained in the book that you must spend some time training your new helpers about how to do their new jobs (like how to vacuum, how to make a bed properly, how to wipe the dining room table without making a mess of the floor...there are cards to explain jobs to older kids in the book, but I just had to explain things to my younger kids),

but kids are quick learners, and once mine realized that instead of a constant "Hey, it's messy...we need to pick up" coming from me they got a set routine of when things had to be clean and when there was a litle leeway to "get creative," then they completely got on board with the idea of a schedule. Even Tex, eventually, though as my only teenager at home, and my usually biggest helper, he was the least appreciative of the new routine. It sort of cramped his freeflowing style, but he adjusted.

 

It worked so well, that when we had to stop the routine for a few days due to some out of the house commitments, the kids begged to get back to their "jobs" once we had a day completely at home. Sadly, Tex had his accident during our trial of this whole routine technique, and that completely rattled things up (though my mom did mention how extra polite and helpful the kids were when they stayed with her and she continued to work on those things with them for me),

and now we are in the middle of our amazing home makeover so you know there is no routine possible with that, BUT I am completely sold on the idea of the routine and the sharing of the weekly/montly jobs. I printed my job labels and can't wait to get my laminator out to make a chart so once this makeover is through, we can faithfully maintain the wonderful organization and newness of our made-over house...so now we can go from everyday mess making to everyday homemaking.

You can purchase the Everyday Family Chore System for only $19.95. You can also purchase a companion one hour audio cd for an additional $6 about Getting Kids to Help at Home. There is a downloadable version available, but it is only a two dollars cheaper and personally, I'd rather have the print version, but you may prefer the instant download.

To see what others on the Molly Review Crew had to say about the Everyday Family Chore System, check out the Schoolhouse Review Crew Blog for more reviews about this product and others by the talented and wise Vicki Bentley.



Changing the World, One Book at a Time

Me with Emily (on the left) and Liz (on the right)

I was blessed to have the opportunity to attend the Homeschool Librarians Conference at the home of Liz and Emily last weekend, and have been on fire, ready to set up our library ever since.

If you don't know these ladies, I'd like to introduce them to you. Liz is a lovely lady with a passion for great books. She is mother to Emily, another lovely lady, equally enamored with the written word. Most of all, though, these ladies have a heart for sharing the special books they collect with others, so that others may benefit from the wisdom of bygone eras. These brilliant and enterprising ladies collect not just any books; they collect Living Books.

If you are a long-time homeschooler, or a curriculum junkie, educational blog prowler, or book hoarder like me, you will no doubt know that Charlotte Mason used the term "living books" to describe books written by someone who was both knowledgeable and passionate about their topic. This term does not apply to most textbook type books (though I have found a few older texts that seem to fit this definition), and it does not really apply to many of today's flashy and colorful books with lots of pictures (mostly photos or computer generated pix), headings, and info bytes, but little to no personality or "heart." (Check out the book comparison pictures on Michelle Miller's site).

While I personally find that having SOME texts and reference materials might be good for researching a topic very specifically (and sometimes those pictures help certain learners relate to the ideas presented by good text), having nothing BUT those kind of books can turn a kid (and an adult) off of reading and learning...it can also make them lazy learners instead of lifelong learners...and regurgitators instead of relational and reactive readers.

This is the group of ladies who attended the First Homeschool Librarians Conference.

What an inspiring, intelligent group of women...

I was blessed to have the opportunity to meet them all.

I had a lot of time to think on the six hour drive to their quaint family farm in the hills of Appalachia, and I remembered something I hadn't thought of in a long time. The bare bones truth is that I will be one of the first folks to raise her hand in a group when asked, "Who doesn't really like history?" This is a fact I have known about myself for a long time. I mean, dates of battles, births and deaths, and terms of office (or reigns) don't really interest me. And I for sure do not connect people and their ideas with relevant or related events in any way. My teachers never required anything but memorizing the facts, so memorize the facts I did. Then I forgot them.

I also forgot that once upon a time (it was sixth grade, I think) I spent an entire year checking out biographies from the school library. Back then school libraries had really good books in them. Biographies of noble heroes and brave women were my favorites. I think I liked Dolly Madison, John and Abigail Adams, and Clara Barton the best. For a whole year I pretty much checked out nothing else but those biographies, and an occasional autobiography and I loved every book I read (pretty much). How could I go from loving history (biographies) to being bored with it? 

Well, I am not knocking my 7th grade history teacher...not really anyway. I know he meant well. He did thoroughly teach me how to outline, and I've used that skill enough to make the lesson a useful one, though I doubt it has been as useful as he thought it would be. Every DAY we walked into his American History class and we had an outline of the day's lecture to copy into our notebooks. Our copied outlines were a large part of our grade. He'd give us fifteen minutes or so to copy, then he'd go over more specific points so we could practice notetaking by filling in some of the letters and numbers he'd intentionally left blank. 

Sure, he introduced us to some silly history songs on an old LP he had. That was great. He told some funny stories, too, and we played a game like RISK, or something, as I recall, but overall, I was completely over history by the end of that year. Actually, before the end of the year, if I am being honest.

 I went from excited to bored in just one year. Sad, but true...and all because the STORY got taken out of the hiSTORY. And so did the people...and everything else that might have interested a student who wanted to truly understand what was going on, but after that one blissful year of reading biographies, never really did ever again.

Show me some book love...stacks of browsed books left behind means that

book hunters have been by to borrow more books...Bravo!

Now I've seen the books I read back then in living color once again. They are all residing in Liz and Emily's Living Books Library! Well, maybe not the exact books, but books just like the ones I used to read... Books such as The Childhood of Famous Americans series, the Landmarks and the Signature books, the Garrard histories and the Messner biographies. There are loads of interesting, intriguing, inspiring, not boring books out there...somewhere...but they are not easily found these days.

A cozy nook in which to find a book...or read a book...

or buy a book. Check out Liz and Emily's book sale page

for loads of lovely books you can buy to stock your library shelves.

As I walked up and down the rows of books Liz and Emily have painstakingly collected, most published between 1930 and 1970, or during the "Golden Age of Children's Literature," I was reminded of the precious books I checked out from my school libraries as a child, or from the public library. One summer I decided that I was going to read every horse book in the public library. I read all of the Black Stallion books first (easy choice), then I started in on every book that had a horse sticker on its label. After that I headed to the card catalog and figured out other books with horses in them, but no stickers on their spines. I managed to read them all, and then I proceeded to hound the librarian to order more horse books.

Another year, I decided to read all mysteries. Those books had cool stickers on the spines, too (Sherlock Holmes' head), and were easy to spot. The Nancy Drews were an obvious first choice, then some more obscure titles that I liked, and several I did not like at all. I quit my quest to read all the mysteries once I realized that there were those that were a good story and those that were just quite simply creepy.

Row upon row of beautiful books...something for you, if you will but look.

The sad thing is that if you go into your average library today, the only place you might find many of those good books is at the Friends of the Library sale. They are being discarded for more "modern" and "appealing" books like Captain Underpants and a myriad of books about vampires and  zombies. Sigh. How sad.

Last year I reviewed Before Five in a Row by Clare Lambert, the author of the Five in a Row series. The premise of FIAR is that you read the same book daily for five days, doing different activities to broaden the book's scope and appeal. BFIAR leaves out the necessity of reading the book that many times (there's a younger target crowd), but still has gentle suggestions of supplemental activities to go with its list of lovely books. Unfortunately, I was only able to find three of the twenty four books listed available in our town's library. We may be a fairly small town, but we are not THAT small. 

Earlier this summer I came across one of the books I had been unable to preview due to its being unavailable everywhere I checked. God was good and I found Prayer for a Child by Rachel Field on the FREE table at our state convention. Hooray! What is even funnier (odder) is that it came from our very own town's library and was marked "DISCARD." 

I think that proved to me right then and there that these special living books, the ones that will excite our children, teach our children, and incite our children to love learning are a true endangered species. 

Libraries are ridding themselves of these older, well-read and much-loved books to make room for more Manga titles and books about why farts smell (seriously, it is what is on the shelves of our library under the heading "Books Boys Will Love"...I ask you, is this what you want your boys to love to read? Seriously??)

Lovely books on shelves in tidy lines...check out the way

the stickers match on all the spines. ;-)

Some people will insist that as long as their son is reading ANYTHING they are happy. Really? Do you really want your son reading things that convince him a short attention span is a good thing and that understanding bodily functions is appropriate intellectual stimulation for the day? Do you want your child to think that reading is something done only for the purposes of passing a test, understanding a brief article, or for senseless, pointless entertainment? 

Have you ever heard the sayings, "Garbage in, garbage out" or "You are what you eat?" Those both apply perfectly to what you read, hear, and see every day. Think about it.

Have you ever read the books Think Big or Gifted Hands by Ben Carson? If you have not, you should. They're good ones. In them you hear about the tough life Ben has. His mom is a single mother, and unbeknownst to him, she can't even read. She works hard all day to bring home enough money to take care of him and his brother, but her long work hours leave the two of them alone for hours after school, which is plenty of time to get into trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd. She realizes what is going on and that something must be done, so she decides to start taking her boys to the library every week. Yes, I said the library. She tells them they must check out certain kinds of books: a biography, a non-fiction book, a historical fiction title. I forget exactly what her parameters were, but you get the idea.

Then she tells the boys to write book reports on each one in their time after school, once they finish reading their books. Oh yeah, and no TV, except for a favorite show every week (I think...it's been a while since I read it). Then, she pretends to read the reports herself and asks the boys to tell her about what they learned (that folks, is called "narration" by Charlotte Mason) and she praises them appropriately. Over the course of time, the boys develop more diverse interests, Ben starts to feel smarter and less disadvantaged, and his whole world changes...one book at a time.

Today Ben Carson is the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, and has published four books telling about his life story and personal philosophy. There is a very good movie about his life, Gifted Hands, you can check out, but of course, the books are better. If you'd like a modern-day uplifting story about overcoming tough odds, especially overcoming tough odds because of the power of literacy, this one is one you should read. (That movie and one called The Reading Room are two very excellent movies that teach about the influence of books on lives).

Mrs. W., my friend from two towns over who just happens to have

a 12,000 title living book lending library...lucky me!!

She told me about the library conference and we drove over together.

What a marvelous way to spend a weekend...books, books, and more books!

So my point with all of this is that books are powerful. They are remarkable tools in the right hands. The can influence individuals and nations. They can bless us. They can curse us. It all depends on what goes in, and what you do with what you have. 

I don't claim to know exactly the right books for any one person to read. I am absolutely certain that my bookshelves look very different from yours. We might have some similar titles, but where I think a little light magic (think Narnia and Lord of the Rings) is not a problem, you might either think even Raggedy Ann books (talking dolls) are bad, or you might go the other extreme and love Harry Potter (which I think are remarkably well-written, but we choose not to read) or Twilight (not a chance).

Only you (and your spouse) can decide what is BEST for your family, and for each of your individual children...BUT if you are starting from a place where the only books you read come from the public library (unless your library is very special and unusual) you may find yourselves straying off the path you wanted to be on more frequently than you'd like. Some of the best of children's literature just isn't out there any more. Libraries of today are feeding kids on the Mr. Popper's Penguins movie rewrite instead of the original book (and they are sooooo different...read the original, please!). 

The Living Books Library offers totes for all the 

Before Five in a Row and Five in a Row books. 

These totes contain the noted books as well as related titles

that make the studies multi-disciplinary and multi-aged.

One thing FIAR suggests is to have a map and mark where each book "takes" you. 

In this way, you will keep track of your reading journeys and your kids will start to 

really make connections and get excited.

----------------------------------------------

Why am I telling you all of this and what are you supposed to do about it?

Well, I am glad you asked! 

First of all, you MUST start your own home library. Scour online sources and book sales for your favorite good books as a child. If you are closer to my age than your kids' ages, it is likely that you probably read a few good ones in your time, even if you weren't a bookworm like me. Think about not only your kids, but think about what you will have to read to your kids' kids once all of the good, quality books are gone from the public and public school libraries. You need to build a legacy of books for the children. If you don't, who will?

Then, see if you can suggest better titles to your public librarians. Book budgets are tighter than they have been in a while, but if you can get a few good friends to get together and all request the same titles, maybe they will listen and it will benefit not only your kids, but other people's kids, too. You can use catalogs from companies that use literature-based studies as a good start for in-print (reprints) of quality titles. 

If the public library is a bust, check out your church library. Perhaps a group of like-minded individuals will help you build up the supply in there for the common good. If there isn't a library, you might consider starting one, with help, of course. You can start with reprints and see where the Lord takes you from there.

You can also try checking out a history/literature-based curriculum such as TruthQuest (my favorite...written by the one who started the original Children's Preservation Library, Michelle Miller), Biblioplan (looks good, but I have not tried it myself), or Ambleside Online (online and FREE!) for excellent listings of older books that go with a historical era of study (these lists will often include some newer reprints..."out of print" books are usually marked as being OOP and will be more difficult to find) . 

You should also try the books by Jan Bloom of Books Bloom titled What Then Should We Read? (volumes 1 and 2). Jan is another lovely lady who adores books and wants to share them with people (she and her husband, Gary, travel all over searching for special lost books that need good homes). Her books are an excellent and entertaining source of information about living books and their authors. Her insights are honest and revealing, and quite often funny (even funnier once you've met her, I must say). You will greatly enjoy perusing these books if you like children's books even a little bit.

 You can also check out Living Book's Library's post on Books About Books for more great ideas of places to find good book suggestions.

You might also consider giving good book lists to grandparents and others who buy your kids gifts and ask them to help you build up your library of good books at birthdays and holidays...it will make their gift giving a legacy instead of clutter. Oh yeah.

Next, try adding more enjoyable reading of living books to your daily schedule. Even if you follow a "boxed" curriculum, you can still have read-aloud time with your kids, old and young...and you can do this more than once a day, if you like! You simply choose a book, either a chapter book OR a related picture book, and read it to the kids, and sit back and watch them enjoy it. Later, you can get them to tell you about it. That's narrating. It's as easy as that. Soon you will find your kids will want to spend more time reading, or at least have you spend more time reading to them, and that is all right. You may have to invest in some soothing herbal tea, however. 

You will discover that you will all learn the most interesting things from old children's books, and I guarantee that you will wind up wanting to learn more, if you are picking the right books. Over time, you and your kids will tie the characters in the books to the events that are happening in their studies and things will seem more real to them...you will all finally get the education I wish I had had...all from reading good, quality books. *grin*

If you have a "hard sell" child, you can always start your reading aloud journey by listening to a good book on tape during a long road trip. A captive audience, so to speak. My crew liked Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott. Sure, the main character is a girl. But all of the cousins are boys. Little Women and Jo's Boys (same author) are interesting and full of old-fashioned morals and excellent vocabulary, too. My personal favorite as a child was E. Nesbit. Her stories, like The Enchanted Castle and Five Children and It, are fantasies, and I sure did love them. If you object to fantasy, her book, The Railway Children is a good one, too. We listened to it on tape during one trip. You can listen to good audio books at sites like Books Should Be Free, My Audio School, and others, if you don't have access to a reliable library.

Reward your kids (if necessary, or just for fun) for reading extra books above and beyond what is in your regular curriculum. Mine get excited over inexpensive toys and "new" (used) clothes I get off of the local kids' consignment store's $.50 rack...seriously. I buy the unwanted craft projects and long skirts the other parents aren't buying (they buy the electronic toys and the midriff-showing tops I don't), and turn them into rewards for every fifteen books (or chapters) read. We keep track using free reading charts we print up off of the internet. Yes, they'd read anyway, but this is more fun for me (I love to see them all happy over such simple things), and it does keep them hopping from book to book, loving every minute of each rabbit trail they follow.

Tonight Cowboy got to choose TWO things from the box and he picked a hardcover copy of a How to Draw Creepy Crawlies book we've checked out from the bookmobile about five times (it was only ten cents!) and three wooden insect models to assemble. They have one model put together so far and plan to complete the other two tomorrow, AND go on a bug hunt to replace the cricket I made them turn lose at dinner time.

Getting advice from a well-read friend is an invaluable tool 

when choosing good books to share with your family.

Lastly, if you are blessed to live near one of the sweet and dedicated ladies who already owns and runs a homeschool heritage literature library, then praise God, thank Him for the blessing, and go and join up this year!! You will likely pay a fee to defray the costs of keeping the older books in good condition and making the circulatable (maybe not a real word??) by adding bar codes and such (it's not cheap, for sure), but every penny spent will be worth it, especially if your child winds up loving to read and to learn. Most of the ladies who run these libraries are ardent students of books and will be happy to help you and your students find choices that suit your tastes and curricula. They may even be willing to purchase a few of the titles you need, if they seem to be popular ones. 

If there is nobody like that near you and you already have a fairly large collection, consider starting a library of your own. Contact the very helpful ladies at the Living Books Library and I am certain they will be thrilled to help you explore the possibilities. They have an excellent audio on how to teach without textbooks, and may be adding information on how to develop a "living books library" in the future.

If you are on a strict budget, but would like to get a taste of what quality literature is really like, I can suggest that you try the Heritage History website. I reviewed one of their cds earlier this year, and they offer many titles you would find in Liz and Emily's library as e-books for your Kindle, Nook, or as pdf files. You can actually read the books online for free, so you can try books for various curricula before deciding to go out and hunt for the ones you particularly enjoy (all of them!).

You can also find other living books and quality literature (usually longer ones, not necessarily the ones for children...you can find some links to books online at my other site) online SOMETIMES, but it takes work to find them and it is just NOT the same as cradling a treasured old friend in your hands...but it will do in a pinch if you just can't find that certain book, no doubt (our local library did not have The Hobbit and our personal copy was missing...it took Tex ten minutes to locate an online version). You can get a start by checking out my post on Character-Building Christian Literature.

Thank you Liz and Emily for such a marvelous weekend. 

You taught us all so much. 

What a blessing you both are to so many...

and what a wonderful family you have, for they are an 

incredible blessing to you and to others, too.

(PS. Please send more ice cream and Key Lime Pie soon...they were delicious!)

Now all of you, go and find a GOOD book and READ...and change your world (and maybe someone else's), one book at a time.

Blessings,

Serving Others to Build Character

If you stopped by from the "5 Days of..." Blog Hop, I apologize for not having my final post on "Serving Others to Build Character" posted yet. I have had a bad migraine for the last three days and it has finally used up the last of my fortitude. I am going to give in and go to the ER to get a shot, and hope that will break the cycle. Please excuse my delinquency, and check back tomorrow for the post, which I am hoping you will find helpful. I will tell you the stories of how my oldest son learned to serve others in so many ways as the Lord provided us with a multitude of opportunities that became great blessings for ourselves and others. Thank you for your understanding, and enjoy the other posters' entries on the Blog Hop. Have a blessed day!

Heather

Character-Building Christian Literature

This week I've been listening to the seminars at the Lamplighter Publishing website. They are truly transforming, and while very serious in topic, they are also quite entertaining. If you get a chance this week, listen to a few of them and let me know what you think. You might also want to hop over to OnePlace.com and check out the current episodes of one of their audio dramas. We listened to a  "A Peep Behind the Scenes" recently and it was very moving, as well as fascinating. I read the online version of the book in just a few hours and absolutely loved it. The audio version is adapted, but still very good. Some of the topics are pretty heavy (alcoholism, death), so it may not be one to read with your youngest children (though all of mine listened to it, and we had some in depth discussions about sin), but the message is timeless and the ending is uplifting.

Lamplighter Theater Life Transforming Seminars...by Mark Hamby. He is both transparent, convicting, and amusing. A wonderful mix. Husbands will enjoy these, too.

Lamplighter Theater "A Peep Behind the Scenes" audio story (for a limited time) Episodes 1-4
Read  A Peep Behind the Scenes online (alternate format of the book)

It is so important to make sure that what we are reading and listening to is building us up instead of tearing what we are working on day by day down. It is easy to go for the simple fix and turn on the television to a cartoon or children's show (yes, I do it) that may not be particularly harmful, but neither does it do anything to edify. Why not (at least some of the time) choose selections that teach very good lessons to everyone (including the parents), and develop in your kids an appetite for quality literature and stories? I know I am going to try to do a better job of adding more of these Christian Classics to our reading list.

You can do this by reading books, especially older titles, which are written specifically to teach  moral lessons. They may not be silly, or have a pink frosting happy ending (I like those, too), but you can find stories that are rich in character, deep in message, and full of blessings for your entire family. Start small (with 15 minutes or so), perhaps even starting by fitting it in after you read your usual bedtime stories, or while the kids eat dessert or do the dishes. I'll bet you will find that it is not long before your kids are wanting to hear more, and begging you for just one more chapter.

Here are some classic book titles of a spiritual nature that I found online last night to get you started:

(Some of these are available on the Lamplighter site, and have the introductory audio available for listening to...you might get the family interested in the story by listening to the audio episode, then reading the rest of it out loud to them).

The Basket of Flowers by Christoph Von Schmidt
Beautiful Girlhood by Mabel Hale
Teddy's Button by Amy Le Feuvre
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (audio available)
In His Steps by Charles Sheldon
The Hedge of Thorns by Mrs. Sherwood
Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss (or on audio)
Saved at Sea by Mrs. O.F. Walton
Christie's Old Organ or Home Sweet Home by Mrs. O.F. Walton
Poppy's Presents by Mrs. O.F. Walton
The Lamplighter by Maria S. Cummins
Greasy the Robber tr. by Charles Lukesh
Jessica's First Prayer by Hesba Stretton
The Robber's Cave by A.L.O.E.
The Boy of Mount Rhigi by Charles H. Peirce
Ishmael: In the Depths and Ishmael: Self-Raised by E.D.E.N. Southworth

Here are examples from John Ploughman's Talk.

You could teach your children the verses...

John Ploughman's Talk (Plain advice for plain folk) by Charles Spurgeon
John Ploughman's Pictures (More plain advice for plain folk) by Charles Spurgeon

Collection of Little Colonel Books by Annie Fellows Johnston online (I have not previewed these, but they were mentioned other places)

Collection of G.A. Henty Books online (alternate source here)
Collection of R.M. Ballantyne books online

Check out many more books on The Baldwin Project site. 


Project Gutenberg has over 39, 000 free e-books. You may find some of them to not be in the easiest form to read, but if there is an old classic you want to check out, you can check there and have a good chance of finding something.

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Of course, you can't forget about Amazon...Tex and I have collected over 500 free classic books from Amazon and put them in our Kindle collection. Initially, I simply downloaded the Kindle app for computers and he read them from the computer, but recently (for Mother's Day), Hubby was nice enough to give me a Kindle Touch so that I could have the kids read the books from there.

You can find all sorts of old family favorites for free there...books that while not necessarily quite as deliberately character-building as some of the books listed earlier, are sweeter, cleaner, and more innocent than the usual book you find being published today. We've found may of the Bobbsey Twins books, all the Henty and RM Ballantyne books, the Thornton Burgess nature stories, E. Nesbit tales, Robert Louis Stevenson, Clara Dilingham Pearson, James Baldwin, Andrew Lang, Hugh Lofting, L. Frank Baum, and many, many more.

What I did first was to download the free Kindle app for PC from the Amazon site. Then I typed in keywords in the search bar like "free Thornton Burgess Kindle" (these are a favorite of my children, especially Tex, who loves the Reddy Fox stories and Aesop's Fables) and waited to see what came up. You then just go through the "one click" process to add the books you want. 

I find it faster to open up lots of tabs with the books I am interested in, then I go to each one and click on the "buy this book now" button, and move to the next tab. I can "buy" all of the books first, then go back to the beginning and start closing the tabs, because the transaction is completed. Just leave one open to start exploring more from again later. I find new books I want by looking at the "other people who bought this book also bought..." section towards the bottom of the screen. I do take the time to read through the reviews, if there is a book with which I am not familiar. Usually I find the reviews to be fairly reliable.

Here's Amazon's take on how to start finding free e-books for your Kindle.

Jimmie has a nice article on Squidoo about using the Kindle in your homeschool.

Marcy at Ben and Me compiled a great list of FREE Kindle books from Amazon. Her list is an excellent place to start. It will keep your kids reading for weeks...

Here's a list of FREE! Kindle books for homeschoolers on Amazon. I simply Googled " free kindle books homeschool" and found it. There might be more, since this list says it is list number four. I just have to wait until I have some free time to explore it...

Ambleside Online has a great reading list to give you ideas of books to look for. Their curriculum is free, and the books in the list support it. It is a Charlotte Mason approach, which uses Living Books as the core teaching method, so you can be sure that the book choices will be good.

Another huge book list is from the Classical Education website.

Heritage History will give you access to a plethora of FREE! history-related titles on their website. To add them to your Kindle or other reader, you must make a purchase, but if you just want to read from your computer screen, try them out for free online.

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**Another family-favorite source of classic literature, but in audio form, is My Audio School.


You can also head over to Librivox and look up any book you haven't found yet. I can't guarantee the reader will be interesting (some are very soothing to listen to, while others are a bit of a snore. You just have to give them a try...).

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Speaking of audio books, here are some quality audio story sites  from my homeschool-for-free website your family might enjoy listening to together. They are favorites of my kids.

**Adventures in Odyssey is a permanent family favorite in our household. I can't think of a more pleasant way to while away the miles on a long trip than to join the well-rounded characters from Odyssey on a new adventure. This charming Christian radio drama is produced by Focus on the family. Your kids cannot spend time listening to these stories and not gain a tremendous amount of Bible knowledge. Here's another link with an extensive collection of episodes at FAIO.

**Down Gilead Lane is a wonderful radio drama from CBH Ministries centered around small community life. My kids have listened to it for year and higly recommend it. Your kids are certain to engage with the interesting characters and story lines, and will build up their own character in the process.

**Your Story Hour is a classic Bible-based broadcast for kids of all ages. These lovely broadcasts help develop strong Christian character with mrmorable stories from the Bible, famous people, and folks just like you and me. The motto of the ministry is: "Making boys and girls of today, better men and women tomorrow." *Interested in a Bible Study program for your kids? This ministry offers a program through the mail, and every time your child returns two lessons, he receives a new CD from the Life of Jesus Series. By the end of the study, he will have the entire 13 CD set. Now that's a freebie I will look forward to receiving!

Paws and Tales is a broadcast from Insight for Living that teaches Biblical principles to children through stories of friendship and adventure. These stories incorproate music and lovable animal characters, so they will be especially appealing to younger children.

Okay, I won't say that this site is a character-building site on the same level as some of the other more serious content I have listed (can it be when it is so much fun?), but Jelly Telly, from Phil Vischer, creator of Veggie Tales, is hysterical at times, and Biblically informative at others. You can watch full episodes of Adventures in Odyssey and Last 

Chance Detectives here, and it is a good solution on a day when mom or kids are feeling under the weather and need a bit of cheering up. Be sure to check out the Sunday School Lady. She's a hoot.

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Well, that's all I have for today. I hope you discovered a few new treasures. If you know of any more FREE! quality character-building literary and audio materials that we might like to add to this list, please feel free to leave a comment with a link so that everyone can see them. Thanks!

Schedule for the week:

Monday--What is good character and Who needs it??
Tuesday--Why must we deliberately train for develop good character?
Wednesday--How can we develop good character in our children? (with links to character-building freebies and our favorite not free character training resources.
Thursday--How reading aloud to your family will help strengthen character and your family. (With links to online/downloadable free quality literature and audio books)
Friday--When do we train for character and who benefits...Developing character in your children through serving others.

See what 67 other bloggers have to say about 67 different topics during
5 Days of Blogging with the TOS Homeschool Crew!

Blessings,

Heather

Character Training Tools---Help for Developing Character in Our Children

Today's topic is "How does my family teach 

character in our homeschool?"

(with a bunch of freebies you will love at the end)

I want to start off with two disclaimers. 

First, I truly do believe that the best and most important teaching tool we ALL have for instruction in character is the Bible. Here is mine.

It's worn out, falling apart, and currently being held together by the only Vera Bradley thing I own, a bookcover. I probably should get a new Bible, but then I'd have to do all my underlining and note-taking over. That is just purely intimidating to me.

Pathetic as its appearance is, it is the go-to resource when there is a question or a conflict that needs resolving. It is a source of wisdom and strength. If you don't have a worn out Bible at your house, maybe you need to work on that a bit more (*smile*), or else you are one of those folks who likes to get a new one every few years and doesn't write in them...and that's okay, too, but I couldn't do it...then again, I started writing in mine before sticky tabs came out, so maybe now I could...nope, forget that.

Anyway, in spite of what will follow, I want you to understand that disclaimer number one really is true. However, I am wholly and unashamedly (well, maybe a little) a curriculum junkie. I have A LOT of resources I've collected over our thirteen years of homeschooling and we've used them a little bit here, a little bit there. The only consistency is that after our first two years, we never went straight and all the way through any one curricula. We like to make up our own plan as we go.

Each of the following items I am sharing with you is not free (the free stuff is later in the post), but each of them has also proven to be useful and helpful at one point or another, and has been worth the investment. I will start out by telling you what we are doing this year, and then I will share some perennial favorites, and THEN I will move on to the freebies.

These are the flowers Bubba gave me for Mother's Day. They are sitting next to the Character Sketches books my parents gave to us when we first began homeschooling. They are filled with lovely character-building stories centered around nature. For example, a deer is attentive because it must not only pay attention to its mother when it is young to avoid danger, but also to its surroundings. Not being attentive can endanger its life.

Character First and Institute in Basic Life Principles

As you may have gathered, I am not a hard-core follower of any particular method (other than the Bible), but I do find things that work for our family during various seasons in many diverse methods. This is our first year to use the IBLP online courses at the Embassy Institute. 

Mostly I have been the one to benefit from it, and I have passed time while folding laundry or doing some other repetitive and stationary task hearing various speakers on a multitude of topics. For a mere $9 a month, I have access to all of the videos from the Basic course, the Advanced course, the Anger Resolution seminar, and the Financial Freedom seminar. I also have access to many of their online character resources, and have appreciated the way you can easily find seminars (and many printables to go with them) to fit different topics, such as attentiveness and prayer, or speakers, such as Jim Sammons or Gil Bates. 

I do believe that continuing to develop and learn as an adult is as important as instructing your own children. We need to model an enthusiasm for learning and a desire for spiritual growth, so that our children will follow our lead and be enthusiastic growers, too. Other places I frequently find excellent and challenging sermons are at northpoint.org (Andy Stanley), marshill.com (Mark Driscoll), intouch.org (Charles Stanley), and sermonaudio...but guess what? These sources won't cost you a penny...they are FREE!

To go along with our character studies, we purchased the set of coloring books that go along with our Character Sketch books, and the very inexpensive set of 49 character trait cards. We use the coloring books to supplement our other resources and reading, and when each trait has been covered for one month, we add the card to a laminate card holder that is displayed on our fridge as a reward and reminder.

We have also added the online subscription to the Character First online materials this year. The kids have loved this collection of songs, audio stories, printables, and audio files that help them learn their memory work. It makes it easy for me, and for just $20 for the first set of traits for this year, it is a good value for us.

It may seem like overkill, but my kids really like the idea of earning cards, so we got this set of cards for $3.99 to go with our subscription and they are enjoying it a lot.

Using the various materials already mentioned, as well as some free Character First lessons we saved from many years ago when a church we attended gave them away in the library, we prepare our marker board for each month with our character trait defined at the top (along with its negative trait), listing the ways we demonstrate the trait (with little pictures to the side to help the non-readers), and the corresponding family rule listed at the bottom.

Every few days (I will be honest and tell you that I do not remember to do this every day) we review the trait and its actions, then go over any of the memory work from the Character First website. On various occasions, for Bible time or during reading time, I will read from the Character Sketches book, the Bible, or a story book that has a story which coordinates well with the trait.

At various times, I will ask the kids to write the definition and rules for the trait, as well as to illustrate it in different ways, and/or to complete coloring sheets available from the CF website or the Character Sketches coloring books.

Erika Shupe at Large Families on Purpose blogged about using the CF curriculum recently, and takes you through a sample lesson on orderliness. It is worth reading if you are interested in checking out this curriculum.

Here are some pictures of our Character Notebooks to give you an idea of what we do using a notebooking approach.

Ladybug, age 8

Cowboy, age 6

Firefly, age 4

Mom, age (not going to say, but my birthday is soon!)

I found these two books very inexpensively on Amazon and they provide me with a comprehensive and inspiring overview of the traits and give me ideas to help reinforce them, along with our scripture studies, of course.

Here is an example of the sheet I use to keep track of the kids' work, just in case you are interested. This is the sheet for the Amigos. Tex maintains his own records (at least, he is supposed to).

Here are some character training tools we have used in the past, or may refer to occasionally, but are not currently using full-time. These are the ones we liked and trust enough to want to share.

The Pearables and The Learning Parent both have quality character curricula you might like to check out. The Boyers from The Learning Parent have audios, flashcards, storybooks, workbooks, and leveled curricula available for preschool age up through high school. They have added many new items recently and if you go over there quickly, you might find a coupon you can use. It is very tempting to want to check out some of those new items (or at least, new to us), as what we have already used by them has been excellent, but we are very happy with using CF and IBLP right now. Here is a link to their blog (the Boyers) where they post about character training.

We purchased Character for Life at a discount on a whim and have truly been thankful we did. It contains stories of men and women of great character who helped to shape our Western culture. Last year, Tex used it in conjunction with For You They Signed as part of his American History and character studies. It was an excellent example of how learning about good character should fit into every facet/subject of our homeschooling. I highly recommend both books.

Doorposts provides excellent child-training and character-developing tools. Plants Grown Up, a resource for teaching your boys, takes different character traits to be developed and ties Bible verses and activities with each one of them. You will get a full package of memory work,Biblical learning,  evaluative tools, and worksheets. It lasts for a boy's entire education and is definitely something you can use in conjunction with other training tools. They have a similar book for girls called Polished Cornerstones, and a reference tool called For Instruction in Righteousness which are both equally useful and comprehensive.

Notgrass Company is an excellent source of many Biblically-based curricular options. We really like the "Draw to Learn" series and incorporate the pages into devotions as study of a particular Psalm or Proverb comes up. My kids love to draw and these pages are easy to use for a variety of ages. The act of illustrating a particular proverb really brings it to life, and we all know that the book of Proverbs is just bursting with character-building teaching.

We have mostly used Character Building for Families which I got inexpensively at a used curriculum sale as a reference or discussion starter, but it can be used as a complete Bible curriculum and it looks like it would do so very thoroughly. It is meant for the entire family to do together, which is a huge plus in my book.

Almost done with the not-free stuff...hang in there!!

We've been using the Impress Kids website in conjunction with our church's Awana program to work on Bible memory verses. I have set up our account so that we have sections for family verses, various levels of Awana verses, the songs we are learning as a family (hymns and praise songs), their character trait memory work, and the books of the Bible. The kids enjoy practicing their memory work as a "reward" for finishing their other school work on time. 

One last not-free product that deserves a mention, but is not specifically a character curriculum tool are the Keepers of the Faith clubs. They offer both Contenders of the Faith for boys and Keepers at Home for girls. It is kind of like Christian Boy or Girl Scouts. All of the activities will point you back to good character and the books incorporates plenty of Bible learning. Each club book is filled with activities needed to complete various badges and they are actually quite fun and challenging. 

The books are arranged just like the Boy Scout requirement manuals. There are activities like whittling and orienteering for boys, and crocheting and cooking for girls. If you object to this traditional breakdown of activities, this won't be for you, but I like it and so do my kids. There is even a series for the younger kids in the family. We don't use the books all the time, but sometimes when we are looking for a way to organize a project, or give us some engaging (but not overly heavy) focus during a break, this is just what we need. You can purchase badges after all requirements are met. 

Now for the FREEBIES! Hooray!!

There are lots of them, so go refill your cup and settle in. 

Here we go...I am going to share with you some FREE! resources for what I consider to be the most important subject that we teach in our homeschools...character.

I just love this quote from Charlotte Mason. 

I pulled this picture from the Simply Charlotte Mason site.

If you are working on character at your house, you 

might try starting with some of Charlotte's ideas in the book

Smooth and Easy Days by Sonya Schaeffer which is available 

as a FREE! download courtesy of SCM.

They are offering a new title, The Way of the Will, 

for FREE! as well, which looks very promising. 

Head to their main page to view their other freebies 

on the right sidebar. You will really benefit from them. I did.

If you are willing to spend a little bit of money, Laying Down the Rails by Sonya Schaeffer is a excellent resource for habit training (which equates to character training, when approached Biblically). You can also purchase a dvd of her talk on the topic. Here is a free handout to go with the lecture.

The Character Journal from Homelife Ministries is collection of comprehensive character studies for you to use with your family. Each one is an extensive collection of Bible verses, hymns, definitions, suggested Bible stories and activities related to the quality, a list of "I will" actions, quotes and testimonies related to the trait, and resources. This would make an excellent family Bible study. I highly recommend this site.

Download the Character Trait Checklist from Heart of Wisdom (link is at the beginning of the blog post) and also read how to implement the study of these traits into your homeschool using a four-step method of study. This extensive list of traits also includes definitions and related Bible verses. This is a good addition to a family notebook or child's Bible study notebook.

Homeschool Helper Online has a similar list of character traits, each linking to a brief study, suitable for children of all ages (you can vary the expectations based on age and ability). You are asked to look up the definition for each trait, read a related Bible story, memorize a related verse, then answer some thought-provoking questions. This could be done independently by older children, or orally as a family for younger ones.

Bible Class Books offers eleven character trait booklets that also detail examples and definitions of qualities such as contentment and kindness. These would be good with older students.

This is probably my favorite freebie, as simple as it is...

The Operational Definitions of Character Qualities  is available for FREE! at S.M. Davis' site, Solve Family Problems. This chart lists character traits, their definitions, their opposite trait, and a Bible verse to support why this quality is important.  I find this chart to be an invaluable resource. We laminated our copy and put it on our fridge. Ours is a bit smudged because we take dry erase markers and discuss which quality best describes each person is displaying the best at a particular time, then we circle that quality and write the person's name above it. It's sort of a "reward" for good behavior...just knowing you have been recognized for doing right is a great motivator to keep doing it. Cowboy is our "encourager" since he loves to pass out hugs and compliments in a very sincere way. We all need one of those in our family!!


The chart also helps us remember to encourage each other specifically about certain qualities. Instead of just saying, "You are such a good girl," I try to remember to say, "You were so responsible this morning, Ladybug, when you made your bed and put away your PJs without being asked. Thank you very much." 


 Another thing we like to do with this chart is to have a "family meeting" and decide what things we are all pretty good at doing, and which 3-5 areas we need to work on more diligently (we circle them with red). This helps us to not only identify family strengths, but also areas to improve upon, like patience and attentiveness this month. 

Sarah's Sweeties offers a wonderful printable collection of character quality posters with a Bible verse, picture, and definition on each. I printed these on card stock and we hang up each one on the fridge as we study the quality. We are making a wall display in the library with all of our previously studied traits, so we can review them regularly.

I also try to tie the different character qualities we are learning back to the family rules we came up with using the resources of Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson and The 21 Rules of This House by  Gregg Harris. I am listing this in the freebies section since we did combine the two on our own and did not really implement either book. You could borrow the books from a friend, or just come up with your own rules, keeping them as simple or as detailed as works for you, but just the act of coming up with rules you can refer to when situations arise helps clarify parental reactions a lot. 

We have, over time, found Bible verses to support each of the rules, as well as character traits. I feel much more confident telling my child that he is being disciplined for pushing roughly past his sister because God tells us to consider others as more important that ourselves and to remind him that his actions broke one of our family rules, so he must suffer the consequences than if I was just saying, "Don't do that." (which leads to "Why?" and "Because I said so." Not so convincing, huh?)

I also printed up a set of the Character Trait Songs from Hubbard's Cupboard to use with each study. These are catchy tunes that my Amigos enjoy singing which remind them of a better way to act. It is wonderful to hear them singing the tunes together, or to have one of the little ones ask me to sing the song to go with a particular trait at night before bedtime. What a sweet thought to go to sleep on!

The rest of Hubbard's Cupbard's Character Study resources are excellent for 3-5 year olds (there is room to make it work for more diverse age group with a bit of tweaking on your part). 38 weeks of complete lesson plans with coloring pages, letter activities, character studies, and morewill get you started in your homeschooling, or enrich your current program.

Here's an idea: Have a problem area? Make up your own rules on how to follow it (or what defines it according to you), choose a supporting Bible verse and find a picture online, then make a poster for your fridge. Refer back to it when necessary. The THINK poster was great for self-control, honesty, and kindness, and is an enlargement of a badge is saw on Facebook. I'll bet there are some great ideas over on Pinterest, if you have time to go treasure hunting there.

Homeschoolshare offers an excellent round up of resources to help you supplement your character training. You can print them up individually to use as needed during your character study, or you can save them and assemble them into a keepsake lapbook when your study of each trait is finished. Either way is win-win!

WOW!! Have you ever read your kids stories from The Book of Virtues? That book is a favorite at our house. We have a copy of it on tape that we listen to in the car, too. Did you know that there is an entirely FREE! complete book study curriculum online for you to use with your family? Check out The Book of Virtues project at Shiver Academy (links to each chapter are on the right sidebar). Be prepared to be impressed andto run out of printer ink!

I just noticed that Adventures in the Book of Virtues animated episodes are FREE! on Netflix Instant Download (okay, maybe that isn't exactly free, but if you subscribe anyway, it sort of is.)

Here is a printable prayer chart that you can laminate and post on your fridge (can you tell my fridge is covered with stuff?)...it helps you focus and pray for your children about a specific character trait each day of the month.

Another free idea: Find character-building poems and type them up, using your own photos and a related Bible verse. Keep them on the fridge while you are memorizing them, then add them to your school portfolio or notebooks. 

Download a free sample of Character First's character trait cards. You might get inspired to make your own as you study each character trait using index cards...It would be very easy to do using their list of character traits, which is actually an online character library you can subscribe to (check out "alertness" and "availability" for samples). You can print up a free one page poster version of the character qualities and laminate it for your fridge.  


You can also use the Operational Definition of Character Qualities chart  or this list of character qualities defined to make your own cards, then add a few "I Will's" from The Character Journal  to the cards and then take a photo of one of your children demonstrating the character trait (or find appropriate clip art online). Put that all into a Word document (or use Open Office, which is also FREE!), print on card stock, and voila!, you have your own Character Trait cards, useful for review and reminders. You could also make double copies, perhaps with the definition on one and the word and photo on the other, and have younger children play a matching game. Or you could play memory. Or....the possibilities are endless! Also, download samples of their elementary and advanced character study guides. We used to get these at church and loved them.

A last-minute find is this collection of dictionary-linked character traits, both positive and negative. This would be an excellent way to have an older student do a study of different traits, figure out which ones go together, which negatives are the opposite of which positives, and then to find Bible verses on their own to support the Biblical need for the positive ones. Since we are talking about seeing the opposite of good character traits, I just had to add this list of 25 Characteristics of a Fool from A Wise Woman Builds Her Home. I think it is great.

Here is a family favorite read-aloud, A Hive of Busy Bees by Effie Mae Hency Williams. It is a timeless classic that tells stories involving character traits. Chapters include: Be Polite, Be Kind, Be Gentle, Be Helpful, and Be Gentle. This freebie is worth downloading and taking the time to read as a family.

For a useful list of some available FREE! online character-building classics (and a few links to audio versions of the books), check back tomorrow...

Also, you can check out Your Story Hour and Adventures in Odyssey (alternate link) for some character-building FREE! online audio radio dramas. My kids have LOVE, love, love, loved these over the years. If you are going to take the time to have them listen to something, why not have it be something that will do them good? This is a great way to give Mom a break when she needs some quiet time...

My final and favorite FREE! character training resource is YOU. As the sign says, children will think of themselves what you say to them regularly. If you are constantly pointing out what faults they have, they will likely see those faults as the definition  of who they are. Conversely, if, in spite of their mistakes, you are regularly pointing out their strengths, and praising them for their genuine successes, they are more likely to believe that those things make up who they really are and will become.

Even further, always remember that your children are HOMESCHOOLED. This means that you are your child's teacher and one of his or her most important influences. Children will live what they see YOU do. The starting point when working on character needs to be you (and me!).

If, in spite of the minor (and sometimes major) problems you run into throughout your days and weeks, you strive to keep a positive outlook  and stress to your children the importance of living in a way that is pleasing to God, they will learn to behave in the same way.

It might happen almost imperceptibly at first, but eventually, with patience (a virtue!), you will see the fruit of your labors as the seeds of character you have planted grow into beautiful expressions of God's love. In turn, they will plant seeds of kindness and consideration and helpfulness into the lives of others...

How wonderful is it to imagine that??

I think that is why I believe that teaching character is the most important thing you can do for your kids this year. And every year. Start there, and the rest will follow.

I pray you will be blessed by the resources I have shared.

Schedule for the week:

Monday--What is good character and Who needs it??
Tuesday--Why must we deliberately train for develop good character?
Wednesday--How can we develop good character in our children? (with links to character-building freebies and our favorite not free character training resources.
Thursday--How reading aloud to your family will help strengthen character and your family. (With many links to online/downloadable free quality literature and audio books)
Friday--When do we train for character and who benefits...Developing character in your children through serving others.

Join the members of the TOS Review Crew all week for the 

"5 Days of..." Blog Hop. 

Blessings,

By the way, you can check out a previous post called:

How to Homeschool for Free (or at least more inexpensively)

for an exhaustive (or exhausting!) list of ways to cut home education costs. You might want to print it and read it off line...it is chock full of good ideas (and very long)!!

You can also check out my website, homeschool-for-free, for links to FREE! resources in other curriculum areas (but as it has been a while since we ran link-checks, you may find a few that no longer work, but there are plenty more to make up for that...especially on the science links page.)