Why Teach Character Traits to Children?

We all want our children to grow up with good character. We want others to like them, and we want to like our children! Naturally, we teach them traits like honesty, compassion, and generosity. As Teacher Created Materials shares:

With the many varied messages children see in the media and in their associations, we can’t expect them to merely observe and adopt the character traits and maturity that we’d like them to develop. A consistent and thorough teaching of ethical behavior is critical to shaping character for reasons including personal growth, setting a foundation for lifelong learning and relationships, and establishing an identity and anchor.

This highlights an important point: we can’t expect children to wade through the negatives and simply adopt positive character traits on their own. But for Christian parents and teachers, the goal goes even deeper.

While we all desire to raise children who are kind, as Christians, our ultimate aim is to raise children with Christ-like character. This means teaching them not just good habits but showing them how to reflect the love and kindness of Jesus in their everyday lives.

"We can’t expect
children to wade through the negatives and simply adopt positive character traits on their own." = Heidi Franz

It’s Start Here

Teaching character starts by looking in the mirror. As the saying goes, “Virtues are better caught than taught.” If we truly want to raise children who love God and love others, we must first live that out ourselves. Children can quickly spot hypocrisy, so it’s crucial that we daily depend on God, view His Word as our guide, and model a life of prayer. Our example speaks louder than words.

Filling Their World with Positive Examples

Next, we need to fill our children’s world with character words like peaceful, helpful, honest, and forgiving. One of the best ways to do this is by providing positive examples, and quality books are an excellent resource.

I’ve previously shared several character-training books on this blog, and I’m currently gathering those titles, along with new ones, for the Character Training pages on the ABCJesusLovesMe website. There, you’ll find quality picture books that focus on character traits like:

The activities and books on these pages help introduce vocabulary, provide hands-on activities, and offer real-life examples of what each Christ-like character trait looks like.

Recently, the team at Habit Heroes reached out to me for an honest review of their new set of character books aimed at preschoolers ages 2-6 (ad). I was immediately drawn to the precious illustrations of the characters. While not specifically Christian, these books foster positive habits that align with Christ-like character.

In The Helpful Hippo, Harriet travels across town with her mom to gather ingredients to bake a cake. Along the way, she meets several people in need and takes the opportunity to help each one.
The Honest Owl follows Oscar as he faces choices on the school bus, in the lunch line, and at the toy store. Will he stay true to his honest tendencies, even when it’s hard?
The Generous Giraffe, Gina, loves showing her friends how wonderful it feels to be generous with both time and possessions. One concern I had was a scene where Gina texts her friend after a beach day. Because of my strong belief in limited electronics for young children and #delayistheway, this felt a bit out of place.
The Courteous Kitten, Caleb, is a model of politeness. He welcomes a new child to his group of friends, lets others go first, and takes turns at the playground.

These books are a positive addition to your library, offering practical examples of good character for young children.

Habit Heroes Giveaway

And I am so excited that Habit Heroes has offered to provide a HUGE giveaway with five winners! Just in time for Valentine’s Day gifts, enter to win one of the books ($17.95) or the entire set ($59.80).

All you have to do is, click the rectangular image or link below to enter to win. This giveaway ends on Monday, February 10th @ 12:00 p.m (CST). The winners will be announced on this blog, so be sure to come back and see if you won.