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Product Review Last Revised February 27, 2009 |
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by Beverly Caruso, Ken Marks, and Debbie Peterson Published by Abba Ministries; 130 pages, paperback 
The subtitle of this book says it is a handbook and resource guide for parents and teachers. The
publisher says it can be used as a curriculum guide for character training for kindergarten through
12th grade. I would say that most of the material and activities are more appropriate for grades 3
and up, although younger children can certainly benefit from lessons done with older siblings.
The first part of the book explains how to design your own program, including setting goals, tips for character unit studies, disciplining and rewarding, correction, and parenting methods. The second part of the book deals with the specific character traits, with are listed on the inside front cover. Wisdom (discernment, discretion, and justice) and loyalty (commitment, fairness, and faithfulness) are covered as mini-units. The rest of the traits are covered individually – brotherly love, faith, fear of the Lord, integrity, joy, obedience, responsibility, virtue, and love (God’s grace). For each trait there is a definition page that includes similar traits. For example, under brotherly love there is acceptance of others, compassion, encouragement, forgiveness, gentleness, and hospitality (just to name a few). The character unit study also includes key Bible verses, related hymns, scripture for memorization and meditation, Bible facts, Bible passages for study, and projects and activities. Naturally, you select which parts to cover based on the child’s age and academic level. This allows the family to study the same topic at once, with age-appropriate activities. Since this is a reference and planning guide, it doesn’t include student workbook pages. But it gave me the background information I needed to work on character training as part of our Bible study program. We chose one character unit per month, and the kids were expected to complete their own character notebooks based on what I presented. We also used the Hero Tales series by Dave and Neta Jackson as part of our study (see related Product Review). We read the biographical sketches of Christian heroes as part of our family devotions, and then discussed the character trait shown by the person in the story. The character traits are already listed for each sketch. The children were able to use these people as examples in their Character Notebook. For my older kids, I used Character for Life as their “textbook” to add more substance and connect our character training to their American History course (see related review). KEY WORD: character, Caruso, godly
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