Being Your Best: Character Building for Kids 7-10

This book is definately a plus for educators and requires adult facilitation, especially for the younger range. We use this book, along with the leader's guide (5 stars!) as a tool in our violence prevention curriculum in an after-school setting. Perhaps it's too "politically correct" to teach kids to respect each other and include others to build frienships, and to be reflective on their own behaviors, but some kids need to hear this message.

Character education is a hot topic, and this book provides activities and resources that educators can easily adapt for use in the classroom. At our school, we began to develop our own program and were looking for a way to continue our activities. What I liked best about this book was its emphasis on having the child evaluate his or her own character, and then selecting those "character muscles" to develop further, such as caring, fairness, honesty, etc. It also included several self-assessments for the child to complete that help in determining strengths and areas for improvement. Our school plans to use this book as a resource for teachers and students this coming year, and we look forward to the release of the Leader's Guide. I'd rate it 5 stars for educators, but fewer stars for parents. While its activities are certainly adaptable in either setting, I wonder how effective it would be for a parent to work from a book in teaching a child about character. I prefer stories to read with your child and then discuss. This seems too academic for home use. Would be interested to see what parents think who've used this.