It’s tough being a parent. I know that for me, the worst part is that it just wears me down. I know what I should be doing for the most part to raise kids with virtues, but some days it seems I am just too tired to do all the correcting and conversation that needs to be done. And it hurts when you see character flaws in your kids, when you were hoping that your message was getting across. So it’s a constant process.

Last year I bought the We Choose Virtues cards after positive recommendations for them made the rounds at The Well Trained Mind forum. That was good. Then they sat in a folder for a year while I did nothing more than hang the accompanying poster on the wall. That was bad (and incidentally not very effective). This year I knew I wanted to focus on the virtues and incorporate conversation about them into our days.

Pin I discovered the very cool website Kids of Integrity where virtue activities abound. I decided to put together some plans and add in a few picture books and stories and Circle Time Virtues was born.

We have been working on our virtues for over a week now. Conversation from the discussion questions and the literature have been very good. In addition to the stories listed, we have had great conversations about obedience from our recent Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie read-alouds. Who can forget the time Laura and Ma meet the bear by the fence and Laura’s quick, unquestioning obedience probably meant the difference between life and death?

So in the spirit of sharing (also a virtue), I am happy to present to you the Circle Time Virtue lesson plans. You will need to purchase the We Choose Virtues cards and the books (or get them from your library) to have all the materials you need.

The idea behind the lesson plan is to:

  1. Show and read the card daily.
  2. Choose one discussion element or other item from the lesson plan to do most days for reinforcement.

So this, our first week for the virtue of obedience, daily we have recited the card and then discussed questions 1-5, listened to and discussed Peter Rabbit, and made our poster to help keep our focus on the virtue. We also have a song we sing that I made up to go with the virtue card. We sing it daily to help us memorize the card. I will be doing this for each card. On days when we are running behind and have little time, we can stop with reading the card and/or singing the song. The month gives us plenty of time to complete all the provided activities and keep focusing on the virtue.

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What is a morning basket?

I will note that in the lesson plan I link to the original activities as designed by Kids of Integrity. In real life, I sometimes adapt that activity to make it more circle time friendly. As an example, the poster activity for this month called for feet in paint. Instead we adapted it by making construction paper hearts. They colored these while listening to Peter Rabbit. Much less messy and totally okay.

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Our version of the poster from Kids of Integrity with hearts instead of foot prints.
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John adding a heart stamp when he has been obedient.

Obedience Lesson Plan

Discuss
What does being obedient mean?
Discuss the meanings of the antonym words from We Choose Virtues card.
Give some examples of ways you are obedient.
Give some examples of ways you have been disobedient. What should you have done instead?
Why is it important to be obedient right away?
When is it good not to be obedient? (Possible answers: when someone tells you to do something you know is wrong or tries to hurt you.)

Read
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrice Potter
The Story about Ping by Marjorie Flack
The Story of Lot’s Wife – Genesis 19:15-29Jonah and the Whale – Jonah 1-2

Play
“Mom-says” or “Dad-says” instead of Simon Says. (from www.kidsofintegrity.com)

Do
Make a poster to remind the kids to be obedient throughout the month. Add heart stickers to the poster when children obey. Let them catch each other obeying and add the hearts as well.

Remember
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Ephesians 6:1
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Colossians 3:20

I intend to have one lesson plan up a month for the remainder of the year until all twelve virtues are covered. The order will be determined by where I think our greatest personal need for improvement lies. I do hope you enjoy them. Please send me a link if you use them and blog about it; I would love to see what you do.

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