I started writing character stories when my children were little. We had just finished a day camp called Growing Up on God's Farm. One of the moms had dressed up as a farmer. Every day she talked about her farm chores and tied it into character traits like diligence and responsibility. The kids loved it, and so did the rest of us! For the grand finale we took the kids on a field trip to an old fashioned farm where they could use a water pump, make butter, ride in a wagon, and watch a blacksmith make horseshoes.
My dad grew up on a 110-acre farm in Pennsylvania, and I spent a year there in second grade. So it wasn't too hard to weave character building into these farm stories At first because I loved reading the Little House series to my children, I wrote them in a similar way with each story about an important character trait like honesty, dependability, and generosity.
In 2020 I pretty much rewrote these stories from the angle of three children that were similar ages to my older sister, brother and me when we lived with our grandparents. In the book Children's Country Character Stories, the grandchildren are just spending a month of their summer vacation on their grandparent's farm.
These character stories are a great way for parents to instill valuable character traits into their children's hearts. After the story, there's what I call a Character Focus that defines the character trait more. Each story has a few questions so the family can talk and share some of their own experiences. Every story also has a family activity that sometimes matches the story, and if it can't, there's a fun recipe you can make together. Many of those recipes are from this blog!
In July 2024, I started working with Amazon Publishing Company to help publish these stories. They assigned a project manager and editorial team to edit them. I chose at the beginning to be a part of that editorial process, and that has been a very rewarding experience.
Instead of advertising, I am using the old-fashioned word of mouth way! So please check out these stories on Amazon, and let your family and friends know!
