Character Trails Anniversary

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The Character Trails Book is…

It’s A Big Anniversary

It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since we released Character Trails, the second book in our Character with the Cousins series, but it has!

We know many of you have followed the ‘cousins’ through the 4 books in the series. SO, to celebrate we thought first of all, we’d catch you up on what those cousins have been up to the last 10 years and some of their goals for the future. Ten years makes SUCH a difference.

 

Discount for November:

Also, for the month of November, we are offering you a 30% discount on Character Trails: Learning to Walk in Paths of Righteousness. AND, I asked the cousins to recommend some of the Character Concepts and Uncle Rick Audios that have been their personal favorites through the years and we will offer weekly specials on those throughout the month.

Be sure to listen to this week’s podcast where I interviewed the cousins (Lauren was out of town, so she wasn’t able to be present). Cassidy, Luke, Anne, Adam, and Melody were all available to share a little bit of their lives with you.

Boyer Cousins Then and Now:

Just for fun, we had Cass stage a photo like the one on the cover of Character Trails, ten years later. The actual log they sat on for the cover picture is now thoroughly rotten, but we found a similar one in our same patch of woods.  Hope you enjoy it.

 

Character Training Curriculum:

Character Trails teaches kids 12 basic character qualities, providing stories from the Bible, history, and everyday life for each one as well as suggestions for practically implementing each one as they learn it. Our aim was to put character definitions and implementation on a level kids approximately ages 6-10 could understand.

So for the entire month of November 2021, get 30% off the Character Trails book. It would make a great Christmas gift for other families.

Purchase more Character Training Curriculum at www.CharacterConcepts.com

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Teaching Your Kids to Care: Part 5

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Teaching kindness - one child helping another up a rock
Teaching Your Kids to Care

In the last 4 posts, I’ve tried to give you some “shoe leather” – real stuff-  you can do with your family, not just pie-in-the-sky ideas that sound good but aren’t practical. I’ve been doing this type of thing for MANY years now. I just completed my 37th year homeschooling and graduated my last child. Whew! But, I’m not done yet. Just beginning. I’ve got 16 grandchildren with number 17 on the way in March. And yes, I’m not their parents, but Scripture does hold me responsible to influence my grandchildren in a godly fashion.

I KNOW it’s not easy having a bunch of “littles” in your home to work around and cart with you in car seats when you go places. Believe me, I know all about it! But, listen to me- IT’S WORTH every minute of it.

What do you want to see at the end of your life? I want to see kids and grandkids and even great-grandkids who are thoroughly committed to the Lord, who are living lives pleasing to Him; a big part of that is investing themselves in others. People go to heaven. Things don’t. People can be saved. Things can’t. People can be encouraged and inspired to attempt great things for God and even do things that others may see as little things, but are really BIG things in God’s eyes.

Continue reading Teaching Your Kids to Care: Part 5

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Teaching Your Kids to Care: Part 2

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Miss Part 1 of this series? Read it here

Mark 12:30-31: ” And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

We want to raise our kids to be kids of character. That means more than just mentally knowing what character is.  Sure, that’s the first step in training your kids. They can’t take steps to implement it if they’re unaware of it. After they’ve learned that though, it’s important to take action. How do we do it? When do we do it? How do we find needs?

First of all, look around you. Look at your neighbors. Look at your church members. Look at your acquaintances. Those are the people God has put in your sphere of influence. Begin listening to them. It can almost be like a treasure hunt to see who can be attentive/alert and find needs that others have.

Continue reading Teaching Your Kids to Care: Part 2

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Learning Hospitality

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Here’s a simple way to teach your kids about hospitality and being sensitive to the needs of those around them.

Recently, we invited some special people from our church over for dinner.  We asked a few of the grandkids to act as “servers” and help me prepare dinner and then serve our guests.

Continue reading Learning Hospitality

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Character Training Tip: Attentiveness

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character-training-tip

What is attentiveness? Simply stated, it’s listening with the ears, eyes , and heart.  It’s paying attention on purpose.

As our kids were growing up we had a family night every Friday night. For a number of years, we would have a “family Bible quiz“. The kids looked forward to this. Dad would simply read from the Bible or Bible story book when they were very young. During or after (depending on attention spans of the kids), he would pause and ask questions about what he’d just read.

The kids would want to be first to raise their hand to answer a question. Sometimes we’d just go around the circle of children so each one had the opportunity to try to answer a question. If they couldn’t get it, we moved on to the next person. Continue reading Character Training Tip: Attentiveness

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“Hidden Sins” Cupcakes (a tasty object lesson)

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hidden sins cupcakes colage

Here is a great and tasty object lesson about sin you can do with your children. It is one of the projects found in our Character Concepts for Preschoolers Mom’s Guide. I found this recipe/idea years ago from an old Bible cookbook for kids that had different Bible lessons with recipes to go along with them.

This one become a favorite. In fact, when our youngest child, Kasey, was a little girl, she began calling sweets ‘sin’ and asking for some ‘sin’ for dessert! That always brought some laughter!

Just last week when I had 4 of the grand kids over for a couple of days, I brought out this recipe to make with them. They wondered what in the world we were doing when Kasey and I suggested making “hidden sins” for dessert!  🙂

Continue reading “Hidden Sins” Cupcakes (a tasty object lesson)

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Philippians 4:8 ‘Tell a Good Thing’ Activity for Families

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tell a good thing correct spelling
This is a simple little game we would play to encourage our children to think on what is true, honest, right, lovely, and of good report as Philippians 4:8 instructs us. ( Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. Phil. 4:8)

Continue reading Philippians 4:8 ‘Tell a Good Thing’ Activity for Families

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Obedience Exercises

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Copy of ringareoundtherosyHere’s a project you can do with your kids to help them become “obedience-conscious.”  It’s sort of a game, but it’s a good way to prime your kids to think in terms of obeying, as we like to say, “immediately, cheerfully and thoroughly.”

Continue reading Obedience Exercises

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