Do you have good character?

As a 2nd year member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I have been given the wonderful opportunity to review many homeschool products over the next several months. The only compensation that I receive for my review is the free product. I feel truly blessed to be participating in this review group and I'm looking forward to trying out more products and giving you my honest opinion.

I have been on a search for good ways to train my children in character for about a year now. I've considered charts, books, curriculum... but I can't seem to find exactly what I'm looking for. In all fairness though, I'm not even sure I know what I'm looking for. Aside from simply modeling it, how exactly does one instill good character in their children?

Well, Passkeys Foundation founded by Russell T. Williams has a mission of "building a nation of character". From the website:

"(Mr. Williams is) A life skills educator and minister for twenty-eight years, Mr. Williams brings a rich professional background in public speaking, teaching and spiritual life discovery to the seven Passkeys life values that guide the foundation’s programs. Those life values are: personal responsibility, positive self-worth, purpose, plan, paying the price, partnership and persistence."

Passkeys offers several products to help aid parents and educators in teaching character to kids. One of those products is a set of four book/CD combos geared toward preschoolers called The Good News Express. We received a book and CD titled The Special Wish from this series which focuses in the character trait of friendship.

In The Special Wish, we were introduced to a cast of cute animal characters. One of the characters is Finney who has a special birthday wish. Each of his friends present him with a unique birthday present, hopeful that they will be the one to fulfill Finney's birthday wish. In the end they are surprised to find that they all make his wish come true, because his special wish was for each of his friends to be with him on his birthday.

I was rather impressed by the quality of the CD which includes sound effects, character's voices, and three songs. All of our kids enjoyed the story on CD and the colorful illustrations (even the big kids!) I rarely comment on the price of a product as I think price is quite relative, but I actually think that The Good News Express books are priced at quite a deal. Only $7.50 for each book/cd combo or $20 for all four!

I'm definitely interested in purchasing more products from Passkeys. I wouldn't say that my search for the perfect character-building curriculum is over. Passkeys is a secular organization and it is very important to our family that we build not just good character, but godly character in our kids lives. But I think it's quite possible that Passkeys offer valuable tools that will help us with this task, starting with The Good News Express books.

For more reviews of this product by homeschool moms, visit the TOS Crew Blog.

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