Written by Joymarie Dunlap and LightHome Publications, we were given A Celebration of Christian Character – KJV for this review. There is also a New American Standard Bible edition available.
This comes as a pdf printable book that contains 26 character poems, one for each letter of the alphabet. A is for Alertness, B is Benevolence, C is for Courage and so on. Each of these original poems is 4 lines long, written in cursive font and is followed by small primary lines for your student to copy in their best cursive handwriting. On the same page, there is a matching Bible verse for students to copy as well. Each of these pages contains a vintage-style letter, which begs to be colored in.
After these pages, there is a Character Word Search Puzzle, then 14 pages of New Testament Bible Verses. These pages contain Bible verses from the New Testament, giving your student more instruction in building the right Christian Character. Each of these pages also contains a black and white stained glass design for your student to color in. Once decorated, these designs can be cut out and laminated and used as a bookmark. We have punched a small hole in the bottom of some of these bookmarks and attached a small colorful ribbon to them as well. A page of Bible Verses on Love follows this as well as a crossword puzzle whose answers can be found in these same verses.
For those that are not familiar with copywork, it not only helps improve the students’ handwriting; it also helps them with spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and reading skills. Combining this with character poems and Bible Verses, this book is a fantastic asset for Christian homeschooling families.
A Celebration of Christian Character is aimed for children in grades 4 – 9, so I was able to use it with both of my boys. We found the short poems to be beautifully written and easy for our boys to remember and copy. The matching Bible verses also coordinated very well with the character poems. Over time, we hope to memorize the poems to help our children to better implement these virtues into their lives.
The black and white designs throughout the book are great, especially for our little boy who loves to doodle and be artistic. He has enjoyed decorating the stained-glass designs and we have turned them into bookmarks which will be very handy, as our boys love to read and always have a few books on the go at one time.
Overall, this is a lovely set of poems and Scripture. It is an easy and pleasing way to implement Christian Character studies into your homeschool, while having your child work on their penmanship and literacy skills.
This review was written for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, and can be found here.