Preschool Character Concepts

Responsibility  - Doing my best at every job because Jesus is watching

As part of our Bible curriculum we are teaching the boys how to make wise choices.  For three weeks we work on one character trait, there are twelve character traits covered in this curriculum.  So far we have covered Obedience, Responsibility and Honesty.   We found this curriculum through The Learning Parent and absolutely love it!  

I wanted to share a little bit of our 3 week study on Responsibility.   I have seen God working in my oldest and it has been just so much fun watching him try and be responsible because Jesus is watching him.

Week 1

Big D and I read a story about responsibility from the book Crossroads of Character.  Then we worked on memorizing a Bible verse from our Learning Character with the cousins flashcards...

"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men." - Colossians 3:23

The mom's guide suggest getting a fish to help your child understand responsibility.  So we headed down the street to a really neat fish store.  (They have sharks in this 10,000 gallon tank)

We have no pets in our home so I thought getting a fish would be perfect for Big D.    We found a fish we could all agree upon but told Big D it was his fish and he had to feed and take care of it.  Big D was excited about his purchase and we headed home.

                                        At home with our new pet!          

Big D named the fish "Fish Fish"

Week 2

The second week we read a Bible story from the moms guide; Matthew 25:14-30, The Parable of the Talents.  This story relates to the trait of responsibility.  There is also a coloring page to go along with the story, but my boys are rarely interested in coloring these.  Big D loves hearing stories from the Bible and always asks good questions.

During this second week I found a chore chart that I really liked at Homeschool Creations.  The moms guide also suggest a chore chart for learning responsibility.  We had not yet implemented chores with our oldest except for making his bed and cleaning up his toys.

I like this chart because Big D can see exactly what needs to be done.  And when he has done his chore he takes so much pride in taking off the cards and putting them in the cup.  This chart has really helped Big D take more responsibility in our household.  

Big D's chores:  make bed, brush teeth, feed fish, set table at dinner, help unload dishwasher w/ mom, vacuum bathroom floor, clean up toys in room.  

We have not implemented any chores for earning money.  We want him to feel a sense of  responsiblity in our household,  everyone has a job to do to make our household run smoothly.  In time he will be able to earn money with odd jobs we find him.

Week 3

The third week we get to listen to a history story on CD.  The curriculum comes with a CD of History stories for Preschoolers.  They are about 10 minutes long and in the moms guide there is a picture of the Historical figure we are learning about.  

                                                   Here are the boys resting while they listen to the story.  

                                                   (Yes, I do need to do something about my boys bad habits; sucking on fingers, and the pacifier. Ugh!)

For responsibility the person we learned about was George Washington.  These stories are really great!  I'm not sure how much Big D really understands but we can always listen again later on down the road.

I really like this curriculum from the Learning Parent.  You can find more information on their blog.

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