Top 8 Resources For Teaching Your Children About Virtues, Integrity, & Character Traits

With good intentions, dreams, and desires, all parents want the best for their children. They also want to see integrity and Godly character shine from their children's heart. But how does one do that on top of sleepless nights, never ending dishes, and the millions of other things a mother does? Success begins by having some helpful resources that will guide you gracefully throughout your busy parenting days.

Here in this post I will share my top 8 resources that will shepherd your day as you teach and love your children. Having these resources at your finger tips is the first step to success to help you and your children grow and learn and shine the love of Jesus. 

Titus 2:11-14 (NLT)For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.

#1 Laying Down the Rails by Sonya Shafer
​I really love this one. This book was introduced to me years ago and I immediately fell in love. The theme for this book is to instill habits that form character which is based on the teachings of Charlotte Mason. It is a parent reference guide that includes the thoughts, words, and theories that Charlotte says about each habit- attention, kindness, integrity, obedience, self-control, truthfulness and many others.
There is also a lesson book available to go along with the parent reference guide. It is called Laying Down the Rails for Children: A Habit Training Companion by Lanaya Gore. This is the lesson book that is full of scripture passages, poems, and stories for you to read and apply with your children as you work on each habit.

You may find the quick start DVD called Laying Down the Rails Workshop helpful. It explains how this curriculum works and will get you working on better habits with your children in just one hour. This is optional but might be handy for parents who are not familiar with Charlotte Mason or who are raising up their first child.

If you have young adults or want a book for you, then you will enjoy the book Laying Down the Rails for Yourself by Sonya Shafer. 

Here is a link to their page that explains the resources available in this set. ​

#2 Kids of Integrity by Focus on the Family
Here is a website that offers free character lessons for parents to use with their children. This is for children ages 3-10. The lessons include  sample prayers, scripture references and memory verses, bible stories, discussion questions, crafts and activities and more. ​

#3 Homeschool Share Character Lapbooks
I love lapbooks and kids do to! These interactive minibooks, flaps, and accordion books are a great activity for kids who need hands-on activities to end a character lesson with. They also provide an artistic and interactive method for helping your child with comprehension. My kids like to draw pictures inside their minibooks to accompany the facts they write out. This link provides you with many free worksheets you can print out to go along with a variety of character traits to learn about.

#4 Notebooking Nook Old Testament Character Study
This website offers a free download that has worksheets for the main characters (people) in the old testament. This could be a great addition to studying character qualities as you look at the lives of biblical people. You can learn about Abraham, Ester, Isaac, and others and study the Godly character qualities they exhibit. ​

#5 Teachers Pay Teachers Resources
This website has thousands of lesson plans for teachers, some free, some not. Below you will find a few of my favorite  character trait downloads available. Some of the resources I recommend do not have a biblical focus, however, they are an excellent supplement to add to your biblical character studies.

Bible Character Traits by Jessica Lawler

Character Traits by Kristen's Kaboodle
This download has 40 character traits, each one comes with an explanation poster and worksheets.

Character Trait Posters by The 5th Grade Renegade
This download includes 24 character posters with a definition and bible verse. These would be great to put up on your wall to serve as a visual reminder and a quick reference of the character quality your learning about.

PBIS Monthly Traits by Little Learning Ladybugs
This 99 page download has some cute worksheets on a variety of character traits. It's for K-5th grade. You can easily implement these worksheets into a biblical character study and use for self reflection.

#6 Book Unit Studies
Do you want to read a story then do a unit study that has a character quality as the main theme? Well, here are a few that I like from various sources. 
Some of these are affiliate links, click here for my full disclosure policy.

The Empty Pot by Demi is a story about a boy who lived in China long ago who demonstrated honesty. This unit study has some biblical character projects plus it has other activities for social studies and more.
Click here for the free Empty Pot Lapbook by Homeschool Share.

I'm excited about this one! Here is a website that offers free unit lessons for The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett.  There are 10 unit downloads plus some other resources that include worksheets, lapbooking pages, copywork, comprehension questions, vocabulary, scripture, quotes and more. Wow, this is a great find. Click here for the link. The download links are on the right side of the page in blue.

#7 We Choose Virtues
This website offers excellent character coaching tools for parents and educators. Their materials are lively and colorful. They offer plenty of wonderful resources for teaching virtues to your children. I especially like their copywork pages. For ages 3-16.

#8 Character Development Series by Meaningful Mama
This website has a blog-style page with character quality links. Each link takes you to a page containing numerous ideas that include picture book lists, activities and other ideas. For age 4-8.