Character is an important development in any home or school. Working on character is an everyday event and no company comes to mind quicker than We Choose Virtues when considering products to work with character studies at home. So when given the opportunity to review some We Choose Virtues products, I was excited to be given the chance.
For our review we were given a set of Kids of VirtueVille Parent Cards and Download Bundle of electronic files of the Parent Guide, Kids of VirtueVille Coloring Book, Butterfly Award Certificate pdf file, Sing Along songbook efile, and Family Character Assessment. After reading through the guide we got started right away by choosing a virtue I felt we needed to spend some time on in our household and making that our Virtue of the Week – Kindness.
How it Works:
The program is set up that, as a homeschooler or family utilizing the cards, you pick a virtue to focus on each week and begin by introducing it. After introducing it you keep the card in plain view. We read through the card and then made a list of things we could do for each other to be KIND. Since an electronic version of the “butterfly award” was provided, I printed out a few copies and hoped I would have the opportunity to use the award soon. I did and boy was I happy.
After discussing ways we could be kind to each other, my son, within about 30 minutes of our discussion, brought me my cell phone from the other room because he thought I might like it. I rewarded him immediately (its the little things right) and then my daughter was shocked that he got recognized for this random act of kindness. Day 2 I got up and came to the kitchen to find my daughter preparing breakfast for herself, my son and me. Award #2. We were off to a good start I thought.
Of course, the novelty died down but we continued to discuss the virtue each morning during breakfast and then with dad over dinner each night, me picking out some random nice things that were done during the day as well as letting dad know of any awards that were given. We included our virtue in our nightly prayers. We decided to continue with Kindness for 2 weeks.
Week 3 we chose a new virtue – Helpful. We erased the board and wrote things we could do around the house, in our own lives, and for each other that would display this virtue. We read through the card, discussed the Bible verses, and talked a little about how being HELPFUL played into this. We sang the song and colored the picture while we read the scripture.
The Parent Guide is very helpful to give ideas on how to work with the virtues, encourage your children, and even review previous weeks. The songs were great. The kids really enjoyed learning new songs to go with the virtues. I thought it was fun and only had to look up one tune for one of the songs, the rest of the song book had songs to tunes that were well-known enough that I didn’t have to look them up to sing the songs right away. The only thing I can say is that the Parents Guide was very much geared toward a group, like in a school setting, so some games wouldn’t work and it would be nice if it were a little more geared toward a family in places.
The coloring books was nice for my daughter, she loves to color. My son really isn’t in to coloring at all (much to my dismay) so that wasn’t a huge hit with him but he muddled through when it was coloring time while i read about the new weeks virtue and talked about corresponding Bible verses and other ways to keep the virtue in play during the week.
The Parent Cards are great and a wonderful way to keep the virtue out and in front of the family during the week. We found a great place to display the card and it was perfect to be mindful of our Virtue in Focus at all times. The cards are very pretty and have lots on information on the back to help the parent talk about the virtue to the children.
Overall
We were very impressed overall with what We Choose Virtue had to offer. They have a poster with all the virtues that is very colorful and has everything in one place. I plan to purchase this during the summer sales as I think this would be a nice addition to our homeschool room to keep these important virtues in our sights during each classroom day.
We Choose Virtues Parenting Cards and Download Bundle are geared toward children ages 3-11. We received the NIV Bible verse version with verses from both the Old Testament and New Testament. We Choose Virtue also offers a KJV version with scriptures from only the Old Testament. Both sets contain the same 12 virtues and activities; they just include different verses.
The Parenting Cards are available for $38.49, and the Download Bundle is available for $7.99. From now through August, you can use Promo Code BTS20 for 20% off anything in the We Choose Virtues store.
We Choose Virtues also offers a Youth Journal program for older children, suitable for ages 12–18. If you click on the link below, you’ll be able to read reviews of both the Parenting Cards and Youth Journal.
Be sure to check out their website for samples of their products and visit them on social media:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/wechoosevirtues
Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/WeChooseVirtues/
Blog –– http://www.wechoosevirtuesblog.com/
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