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Free Character / Habit Training Cards


This page will include the tools I have used to help build habits and ultimately character in my children. They may or may not work for your family. I share them with the hope that they may at least inspire a new idea or method that may work in your family.

I encourage you to diligently pray to the Lord for guidance in this area as He truly knows the hearts of your children as well as their strengths and weaknesses. I have found that just as the Lord teaches me most through my weaknesses, I have some of the greatest opportunities to teach my children through their weaknesses. Our job is to train our children. The Lord will equip you for this purpose if you trust in Him instead of looking to your own ways.

Do not become discouraged because of the character flaws you may see in your children. Instead, understand that the Lord will use these flaws to draw your children closer to Him as they learn to trust in Him for strength and power in their lives.

Sowing Seeds of Character Cards

These cards were inspired by two quotes:

"I am, I can, I ought, I will" -- Charlotte Mason

"Sow a thought and you reap an act; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny." --unsure who the official author is; I found several sources! The oldest was Erasmus.

Click here to download our free habit training cards: Sowing Seeds of Character
(Note: you could use plain white printable business cards because they are so "plain" and would be easier for children to read.)

Other Helps:
Calendar Pages
Goal-Setting Page
Label Template (doc)

Using the Cards:

I have an ongoing written list of habits that I would like to instill in my children (sample of this list). These range from getting up on time to completing particular household chores to taming their tongues. These habits are written on the fronts of the cards (you can use sticker labels - use our free template here). I put the kids' names on the backs of the cards using labels as well. Then we hole punch them and each child puts them on an o-ring. I didn't put ALL of the habits from my list onto the cards at first. We worked through them slowly adding as the kids were ready for more. A great resource for learning more about habit training can be found at SimplyCharlotteMason.com - "Laying Down the Rails, A Charlotte Mason Habits Handbook".

Habit Cards on an O-ring 

Then, each child decided upon some goal-setting "blessings" and wrote these in their notebook. I encouraged them to come up with at least three items, varying in "size". For example, a smaller-sized blessing may be having time to check their emails each day. A medium-sized blessing may be something like time to go shopping for their hobbies or a specified amount of computer time that week. A larger-sized blessing may be to stay up late to have extra blog time, play some video games (which is a fun "waste" of time - we keep this in GREAT moderation in our home), or to go to extracurricular activities like a church lock-in or even a birthday party/sleepover.

Any items that have a goal date (like a sleepover) are put on their calendar. Then together we decide upon a goal setting time period for each "blessing" they would like to earn. 

Then, you and your husband must decide how you will "measure" their ability to earn this blessing by their cards. I had a "point" system that was laid out here before, but it was too confusing to explain via the web and my email box was overflowing with questions (not to mention the fact that as our kids have become more diligent with their chores/habits, the system has "evolved" and changed in our home).  So I'll leave this part up to you to decide. 

You can assign points to the cards or count the number of cards lost or number of cards earned, etc.  Develop some "system" that you can layout for your kids so they know what to expect.  At the time of this writing (10-08), we have two sets of cards - one for chores and one for attitude/behavior.  I deal with chore cards differently than attitude/behavior cards.  When the kids do not perform a particular chore, it's not because they forgot (they just have to be able to read the next card on their ring), it's because they've chosen to be disobedient.  So I deal with those differently than say the way they "reacted" or "behaved" during certain situations throughout the day.  You may decide to handle everything the same.

This year ('08-'09), the kids are building character notebooks.
Character Study Notebooking Pages
Click here to order your own set of our Character Study Notebooking Pages!