Family Virtues

We all strive to teach our children good morals and virtues to try and master. Well last year I found this book, The Family Virtues Guide, Simple Ways To Bring Out The Best in our Children And Ourselves. What a wonderful way to introduce a virtue a week and review throughout the year. We have made a fall tree with the virtues written on leaves, a Christmas tree with the virtues on ornaments, a love corner with virtues hanging on hearts and now we are making a virtues garden, with the virtues on flowers. Yesterday I had my 5 year old practicing handwriting, by tracing the old virtues. My 8 year old and I did spelling practice, reviewing the letter clusters and rules of vowels. What a lesson for life. As each virtue comes up we have a situation that we discuss, whether it involves a neighbor, friend or family member, it has been great to refer to the virtues, saying "that is not one of our virtues"or "is that the way we treat people?" It only takes a few minutes a week to introduce the virtue and the kids feel empowered when they have the tools to deal with all types of situations.