The Book of Virtues

Hi I did use the Book of Virtues for character training and I used it with the above mentioned website and downloaded the whole thing (its free) and did what it said each week it was great!  We really liked the stories too but we did only use the first 5 units.  Its easy to use just follow the week plan.

Blessings Billiejo

What is the difference between this one and the Children’s Book of Virtues? Does anyone use the later?

blue j, how did you use it in your own way? Read and narrate? I am wondering how this would work along with LDTR for Children?

The Children’s Book of Virtues has selected stories from the big book and is illustrated on every page. It is a picture book for about pre-k to 3rd or 4th grade. We used it as part of Sonlight P4/5 when my kids were about ages 4 and 7.

The original Book of Virtues is a thick book for older children. I have not used it yet, but played an audiobook on cassette we found used somewhere. But I want to go through it more focused than that, at least with some narration.

Oh dear – I’d forgotten how much they offered for each virtue!  If I remember correctly the schedule they supply just has one story (or a couple pages) per day, covering a virtue every two weeks – it’d probably take 15-20 minutes to read following their schedule.  Did you see the copywork and notebook pages?  That’s what we used (NOT ALL OF THEM – JUST ONE!) and then we used ONE lapbook component per virtue so when the kids were done they had a lapbook with 10 virtues listed – some people think lapbooks are busywork, my girls really enjoy them and were in 1 and 3rd grades at the time so they had minimal writing requirements.  We covered one virtue a week in our Sunday School class and used the lapbook component along with the Children’s Book of Character Bible Story.

I am using 4 different resources this year for habit/civics/personal development.  I have been using BoV for two years now.  There is one habit in particular that needs to have reinforcement on a regular basis to keep it current – beyond the norm – for one of my girls.  I plan at least 6 stories/poems from a chapter for 6 weeks worth of work.  However, if  habit is taking us a little longer to instill, I am able to add some in as there are a plethora from which to choose for any given habit/ virtue.  We do narrate, and we also chat about what we, personally, want to remember from the story or poem – ie. what we see in ourselves that we want to change VERY specifically, and we write it down.  I check back in with them on Wednesday regarding their goals and assess the week on Friday.  The next Monday, we add something to our list of VERY measurable behavior we want to add to our list, so then we have 2 things to work on for that week, and so on.  We also use this time to pray for strengthening in the areas each of us would like help.  I do it along with them, because heaven knows I need to work on my own issues.  I also want them to know that just because I am an adult doesn’t mean that I’m not continually striving to keep the good habits I already have and oust the bad ones.

Editted to add that we are doing more notebooking and this is an area in which we are adding it.  I am hopeful that this will help as they will then have a notebook of habits they are covering and a very specific prayer list that they can pray in regard to their own character.  I have one who does not do well at figuring out how to pray for help in these kinds of things.  I am hoping this will give her the direction that she needs and she will see she need not be self-conscious.