For those of you who work in the nonprofit sector, you understand the time you put into an organization with the simple fact that, you advocate for what they stand for. Here are Characters of Character our mission is to provide a firm foundation for children to establish strong civic values. After earning a National Promising Practice Award in 2005, Joni Downey, the creator, formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which was then formed and registered in 2007. Since then, Characters of Character has published over thirty books to help add resources and tools to families, schools and communities in the character messages. In 2010 the organization received a grant to bring the nine characters (meet them here) to life in costume! (could use new ones)
Our organization has made mile stones and there is no end in sight! All of our accomplishments are due to perseverance, and the heartfelt knowledge and experience in witnessing the positive outcome each of the characters has on the life of a child, and how they are gentle reminders to others to be of good character. Certainly what the world could use more of, character, compassion, respect, better behaviors, etc. One of our recent accomplishments is having received a grant from the Nashville Predators to donate our Superhero Activity Boxes to to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville Tennessee. We've donated to the Huntley Hospital in Illinois, the Ann and Robert Lurie's Children's hospital, Rush and a few more in Illinois. We've even donated to a children's hospital in Texas. The work that our organization does is through volunteering our time to reach out to others, to fulfill these boxes, to visit communities to help get the messages out and about in society. There is additional information on our website which we hope you'll visit to learn more about these messages and the impact they have on our world.
I would love for you to nominate our organization in hopes to be featured in the NonProfit Pro magazine. If you have a favorite nonprofit organization, by all means, nominate them and let them know how much you appreciate the work that they do to make the world a better place. You can do so here.

Most children today have attended Pres-School or a Day Care Center before they are entering kindergarten. None the less, it's important to prepare our children for the various grades that they are about to enter, from kindergarten up through college. We at Characters of Character firmly believe that a strong foundation will allow a child to feel confident and better able to embrace all the new topics, situations and new people they will encounter. I was a kindergarten assistant when I was on the Reading Team in an elementary school, and it's true, Everything you learn, you learn in kindergarten!
The fact that most children have been exposed to a school setting by the time they reach kindergarten helps with the transition to entering the school. ME, I cried every year as I took our three now adult kids to their next grade. Their Birthdays didn't effect me as a new year gone by as much as when they entered a new grade at school. I think it's because I could always wee their growth during this transition. My family would laugh at the fact that I cried, until........they began taking their own children to school, they would then understand the emotions.

As I mentioned above, a firm foundation is important, so, first:
1. Allow them to be independent right at home
2. Allow them to problem solve
3. Teach them to be responsible
4. Allow them to express their emotions and feelings
5. Engage them in conversations and activities
6. A routine is beneficial
7. Read, read aloud, read silently, use lots of books
8. Address what good behavior means
9. Introduce them to fine motor skills
10. Build their confidence and they will grow

Characters of Character provides a lot of engaging, empowering and enriching character building activities on our YouTube Chanel. Or, you can meet each character individually, if there is a specific trait you're working on with your child.
Behavior Bear, Do'er Duck, Friendship Frog, Healthy Hippo, Manners Monkey, Respectful Rabbit, Responsible Rabbit, Self-Esteem Elephant and Warm-Hearted Walrus. All of our characters have books on Amazon.

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Learn about our 2021 projects here.
Learn about our Tennessee Children's Hospital donations here.
Learn about our Texas Children's Hospital donations here.
Learn about our Hendersonville Tennessee project here.
Contact me, Joni here.
Amazon Wish-list here.
Donate here to our 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide a firm foundation for children to establish strong civic values. Let's make the world better together!

Characters of Character works tirelessly to promote these nine core values. We hope you find the value in our work and will consider a donation or sponsorship for one ore more of our projects. We have no paid staff, we work daily on our volunteers time who all believe in our work, our messages and our organization.

Learn more about the Characters of Character here.
Learn more about our 2021 Projects here.
Learn more about our Texas Children's Hospital donations here.
Learn more about our Hendersonville, Tennessee project here.
Learn more about our Superhero Activity Box donations to Children's Hospitals here.
Contact Joni here.
Donate here.

Teaching a child to be responsible is an everyday affair! In my opinion, when an adult is a positive role model allows a child to visually experience different qualities in a person. Being a responsible person has so many levels! With constant engagement, constant conversations, along with activities and lessons, a child is bound to internalize the topic at hand. Responsible Rabbit has a few basic tips to help teach a child what it means to be responsible:
1. Allow a child to make choices, choose to happy or choose to be sad. Do they know the difference? When teaching preschool, I started out the morning showing a Popsicle stick with the child's name on it, they would identify their name and come up to share with the class if they were happy or sad and then place it in a cup that said either HAPPY or SAD. Often, I asked what makes you sad today, or happy today? This was a feat in itself! But, it worked, I knew what kind of mindset the child was in to start our day and allowed me to become aware of their attitude, while they figured it out. Believe me, most of them said, 'sad' put it in the happy cup with a smile and a conversation was made and engagement started out the day. Here, the child made a choice of their own attitude for the day!
2.  Teaching a child to be aware of the choices they make is important. This allows them to feel, how it feels when you make a good choice, and what it feels like when you make a poor choice. Remember, redirect a child when a poor choice is made and empower them in the good feeling of making a good choice. This way they will want to continue to make good choices in their daily routine. For example, when you sit with a friend who does not listen to the speaker, the odds are the child will engage with the friend, we all know that doesn't go well! Or, when you don't follow the instructions, you may need to start over with the project at the beginning. Little things mean a lot.
3. Teaching a child to be kind and considerate helps with their conversations and their daily language. Choosing to use kindness goes a long way. If a child us bullying or has nothing nice to say to another person, it is heard, it is pointed out, feelings are hurt and a conversation about being kind is on the forefront. Choose your words.
4. Teaching a child that they are responsible for their belongings is another important task. Is your parent responsible to do your homework, or for that matter, to put it in your backpack? No, the answer is no. While a parent can certainly work with the child on homework, this is great engagement and helps build esteem, a conversation and knowledge to what your child is working on. However, after it is completed, should it sit on the desk or table? No, direct the child to put it into their homework folder or backpack to be brought back to school. Soon this will become habit and you now showed your child how to be responsible for their school work.
4. What happens when a child is not responsible? When they are not responsible for a task, there are consequences. This is where the feelings come in play. When you don't bring your homework back to school you may receive a note from the teacher. When your child is not using kind words or actions, you most likely will hear about it and discuss this with your child. Use your discretion as to consequences, time out, lost use of a favorite video, etc. nothing to dramatic, just make sure you make your point that whatever the task was that neglected is acknowledged and gets redirected to help make better choices. When a child knows the difference between good choices and poor choices, they will want to try harder to make the better choice.

Teaching a child to be responsible at an early age is important, however, when we teach a child through engagement truly enriches the choices that they make. I myself am a hands on learner. With some topics you can talk to me until you're blue in the face, and unless I get my hands dirty in the project, I will struggle to understand the outcome. We hope the video will help you to reinforce and engage your child to be responsible in their choices on financial responsibility. Be sure to  learn more about Responsible Rabbit. Make a Paper Bag Puppet of Responsible Rabbit and watch on Youtube. Read the story  Let's Be Responsible

Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on Pintrest,  on Amazon, on YouTube. If you like what we do and would like to support our mission, which is to provide a firm foundation for children to establish strong civic values, please donate to our cause. Thank you!