One of the biggest challenges in our family, as in many families, is getting a good handle on discipline. Not just any discipline, but good discipline. Admittedly, I fail to point out the positive traits my boys show, focusing rather on the on things they are doing wrong (that’s when we notice them most, right?!).

It occurred to me I have all these rules and expectations, but I have never sat down and explained the “why” or the “how.” I have been expecting them to be disciplined in their actions and behaviors, but have never given them the tools for learning how. I’ve set them (and myself!) up for failure.

We were given the awesome opportunity to review a product from the We Choose Virtues program. We Choose Virtues is a faith-based program for teaching kids important character traits (they also offer non-faith based sets, which are sans Bible verse/story connection). The best part about this program (to me) is the way the virtues are presented “I am ______.” Instead of saying “I should be/I want to be ________.” I think the definitiveness of the “I am” statement really helps to set the stage for success. The traits covered are: (I am) Attentive, Content, Diligent, Forgiving, Gentle, Helpful, Honest, Kind, Obedient, Patient, Perseverant, and Self-Controlled.

The Family Flash Cards (faith-based) are double sided, with the Virtue on the front and on the back a Bible verse, catch phrase, and an “I am not…” antonym sentence. Another great resource (free!) from We Choose Virtues is the Family Character Assessment. This gives us (me included) a visual way to work toward becoming virtuous children of God!

Also take a look at the Kids Memory Verses, Bible Heroes and Truths (free!). This gives the addition of a Bible Story/Hero Story to apply to each Virtue. I found this great because it helped meat-up the info on the cards and gave us another way to talk about the virtue easily.

This past week we were doing the letter Gg, so it happened to be perfect that one of our Virtues is “I am Gentle.” This provided me with a great pre-picked Bible verse for the Letter Gg (since I was behind in pre-planning it!). Here’s what we did this week with “I am Gentle.”

I made a tracing page with the Bible verse for Thing One. Not only great writing practice - but good for memorization help too!

Proverbs 15:1 - the Virtue verses are in NIrV, which is a great translation for kids!

Day 2 - we traced the "Catchphrase" and the "I am not..." antonym phrase. I added in a couple of my own antonyms that fit with Gentle - issues we have trouble with (yelling and throwing things!)

The finished work.

We also read the story of Jesus and the Little Children (Mark 10:13-16) from our Children’s Bible Story Book (handy it was in there!) and talked about how Jesus was gentle with the kids who wanted to talk with Him.

We are going to be doing one of the Virtues each week now. Next week we happen to be doing Vv – so I think I will introduce all of the Virtues to Thing One. In prep for this plan, I made these trace sheets for him to learn each Virtue word (he isn’t reading yet, but these can be learned just like Sight Words, for now.)

I'm sticking these in page protectors (or laminating them) to be used over and over.

I think we ware going to really enjoy We Choose Virtues! They have complete curriculum packs for Sunday School, Homeschool, and Family Devotions (but you can get any componet separate too!). They also have a coloring book to go along with all the Virtue Kids – which is a PDF, so you can print it over and over for your kids to color as you learn the virtues.

If you’re going to try this program (without getting an entire curriculum), I would recommend getting the Parenting Cards because they offer additional activities and an actual story about the “Virtue Kid” pictured. (The Flash Cards don’t have these helps or the Virtue Kid story – so you have to be a little more creative to come up with examples and ideas on your own!).

I received the Virtue Flash Cards for Faith-based Family to review in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts and opinions in this post are mine. I do not have to return the products and was not paid for this post.