What actually are character traits you want your kids to live by?

Here's an extensive list of character traits with definitions and sample sentences to show examples of character traits.

An excellent website that offers a free sample character lesson plan also discusses how different children have different learning styles.

But what about the mom who wants to create her own resources for character education, her own character education lessons, and needs some character education ideas?

You've come to the right place for character education project ideas.

My first idea for teaching character education is for children ages 6-18:
Visit your local hospital with your child and have your child ask the front desk receptionist for a tour of the hospital so she can speak with sick patients.

During the tour, have your child ask as many patients as possible what is the most important thing they've learned about life since they've been hospitalized.

Upon returning home, have your child write down, draw, or share with you her impressions of the trip.

Did seeing all the sick people upset her?

Did the patients feel sorry for themselves?

Did they learn anything important about life and health?

These types of character education lessons

• help children to face their fears,
• inspire them to live with more love,
• assist them in overcoming the fear of asking questions, and
• help them to see the need for compassion and caring.

Regardless of the answers to the questions, your child is exposed to character education traits in each patient she interacts with.

The second idea for teaching character education is by helping your child understand what is character education by talking with a variety of people involved with character education.

Lessons like these are good for children ages 6-18.

In your Sunday newspaper, find a listing of the local churches and other religious groups. Have your child choose which ones she wishes to contact, then have her call and set an appointment to interview the Pastor or Rabbi or even a teen group.

Have her explain that she's participating in learning about what is character education and is seeking a wide variety of people.

Benefits: Character education lessons like this

• increase your child's confidence,
• empower her to take charge of her own education, and
• allow her to learn from a variety of people.

Of course, you can always teach character education through...

Character Education Books - Inspiration Empowering Children's Hearts

A great, fun, inspiring source for character education lessons comes from many of the Dr. Seuss books.

For example, in The Sneetches and Other Stories, the first story The Sneetches teaches the importance of accepting yourself for whom you are. Follow the link for a definition of accepting and it's role in character education.

Being accepting of yourself, leads to being accepting of others, a very key part of getting along well with people and making and keeping close friends.

Here's some rhyming verse I wrote (I won't call it poetry) for my book HeartMinders: Spiritual Lightposts Reminding Your Heart to Love, called

The reason it's necessary to be accepting towards the thoughts you don't like, the ones you can't imagine yourself having, is that "what you resist, persists."

When you can accept and love yourself for who you are, not who you want to be, you master one of the most important character education lessons you'll ever learn.

This is what Bingo must do in Bingo and Bonner, A Read-Me, Draw-Me Book.

In The Zax, the second story from The Sneetches and Other Stories, two critters called Zax find themselves at a crossroads and neither will budge, illustrating the character education traits of pride as well as adaptable.

The fourth story What Was I Scared Of? is an adventure story about a critter who meets a pair of pants without a visible body.

In very funny scenes, readers discover the difference between imaginary fears and real fear. Understanding the negative affects of being fearful in life is an important aspect of character education lessons dealing with fear.

I once learned that FEAR stands for False Evidence Appearing Real.

In fact fear stops many adults from realizing their full potential. Often times, a person fails at a new business venture or a relationship doesn't work out.

The person feels devastated, and begins to think she is a loser, and that she'll never be successful. This often leads to being satisfied with the status quo, when one's heart is yearning for much more.

Another Dr. Seuss book with a few character education lessons is Thidwick The Big-Hearted Moose, about a kind moose who lets animals, birds, and insects live on his antlers and how Thidwick faces his own death because of being so caring.

Here's an excellent discussion about what is character education .

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