This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winner! This month we’re giving away all eight books in the Being the Best Me!® series. Each of these books helps children learn, understand, and develop attitudes and character traits that strengthen self-confidence and a sense of purpose. One lucky reader will win the following paperback books:
- Grow Strong!
- Dream On!
- Forgive and Let Go!
- Stand Tall!
- Bounce Back!
- Have Courage!
- Feel Confident!
- Be Positive!
To Enter: Leave a comment below telling us how you help children build character. This giveaway is now closed.
For additional entries, leave a separate comment below for each of the following tasks that you complete:
Each comment counts as a separate entry—that’s four chances to win! Entries must be received by midnight, June 24, 2016.
The winner will be contacted via email on or around June 27, 2016, and will need to respond within 72 hours to claim his or her prize or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way affiliated with, administered, or endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Winner must be a U.S. resident, 18 years of age or older.
We welcome your comments and suggestions. Share your comments, stories, and ideas below, or contact us. All comments will be approved before posting, and are subject to our comment and privacy policies.
© 2016 by Free Spirit Publishing. All rights reserved.
I help children build character by modeling it.
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We read books, have class meetings, and recognize students each month for demonstrating good character.
As a school counselor my program includes focusing on a character education trait each month. We read books, have class meetings, and recognize students for demonstrating good character.
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I use a lot of different ways to help my children build character—using books, modeling, involving them in activities like volunteer work, therapy (2 with special needs) and try to encourage their passions.
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I help them by showing them historical figures figures and figures from literature that show strong character and giving them chances to role-play and practice.
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I help my children build character through modeling the behavior. Respect, loving neighbors, and taking accountability for self are all things I can demonstrate to my boys and discuss with them to further the point.
As a school counselor, I teach whole classroom lessons; I use books in the classroom but also with individuals to illustrate and reinforce concepts.
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Building character is so fun when you build on the traits they already posess. Feels good to know that every single person already has character and strengths in their character, so starting with self identification and build from there through knowledge and relating it to specific examples such as, “I like how responsible you were when you came straight to the office for support when you were upset. And then you were honest about how you contributed to the problem….
To live by your dreams! What to do what to accomplish today or even tomorrow!! When we say sorry to your friend you need to tell it go and find a different toy to play with!
I work with 3/4 year old children everyday.. we work on saying sorry, being positive!! My favorite part is we ask them what your dream today? What would you like to accomplish today or tomorrow??
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I love to build character by example. Showing children how to be the best they can be
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I’m a counselor for military-connected children. Military children, on average, move 6 to 9 times and often need to adjust to a new home and school. They can also struggle when a parent is deployed and away for 6 months to over year. They know deployment isn’t like a business trip because their parent may be deployed in harm’s way. As a counselor, I help them build character and resiliency through deployment support groups where they can share their thoughts, feelings and stories. I facilitate art, game and team building activities where they can express themselves and learn social skills, responsibility and leadership. My work with military children would be enriched with the Being the Best Me series.
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I am on the board of directors for my local park and recreation district. Our district partners with two school districts in our area to provide after school programs, sports camp, cheer camp and recreational team sports for our youth. This builds self esteem, confidence and brings out the best in our kids, both as individually and as a team and they have a great time doing it.
I support teachers and staff in HeadStart, Early HeadStart, and Migrant Headstart to be positive, present, and connected to the children with which they are working. This allows them to support learning for these children in all domains including social/emotional.
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I support local program providers to build a strong relationship foundation for all children, families and staff to support learning.
I am a middle school school counselor. My day is filled with opportunities to teach and encourage students to be the “best” they can be. I also work in a mental health facility and have more opportunities to be involved in the lives of adolescents. Life’s lessons come hard, and if I can lighten the load, filled a heart with hope, I have made for myself a meaningful life. I feel your publications can be adapted to all age levels, and honestly, the simpler the message, the easier to absorb. I try to model the “Starfish” story, that I can’t reach all, but could make a difference with “one.”
I just started a small non-profit that focuses on sharing the message that everyone matters! We will offer free workshops for families and will participate in local festivals with activities that emphasize that the choices each person makes on a daily basis impact our planet, other humans, and animals, too! Thanks for the chance to win these great books! 🙂
I help my second grade students build character by always setting a good example, role-playing, and helping them express their thoughts and feelings in an appropriate way.
Thanks for the chance! Love it!
Wow! Great giveaway!
The way I encourage children is by working with the parents during pregnancy. So by teaching the parents about empowerment and ways to encourage their unborn child will ensure that by parents being educated about positive parenting will develop strong children that will succeed in this world.
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I teach kindergarten and I love to do activities with them to promote their social growth intergrated in with academics.
I help children build character by allowing them time to reflect on their decisions. I speak with them about how the could react differently to situations. I reassure them that it’s ok to make bad choices as long as we learn from the choices. I make sure that students are aware of the consequence of their choices.
I am an elementary school guidance counselor and it is very imperative that students build their self esteem from an early age. Being confident and brave gives the students the advantage to be the best they can be. Every child is special and having the Being the Best of Me series would impact our children in a great way. They love to read and engage in classroom discussion. Character education is the key to helping to make the world a better place and encouraging kindness.
To develop a positive self perspective to reduce violence, suicide, mental illness and encourages global peace.
I teach students about character through classroom lessons, small groups and one on one interactions. The entire staff has a responsibility to model good character through our interactions with each other and students. School wide we have an expectation for our students to reach and they do! We also recognize those students showing exemplary character. These books would be a useful resource for our younger students as I introduce character to them.
I will be leading an inner city church youth academy where we emphasize positive attitudes, character building and ethics every single morning right, after breakfast. These books would be a fabulous addition to our devotion time when we discuss with the kids various character traits. Because we don’t have a lot of money to spend (our funds are solely based on donations), it would be awesome if we were granted these resources. Have a blessed day!
We model the behaviors we want children to use. Having an adult tell a child they made a mistake is very powerful. We also give children the opportunity to discuss various scenarios (such as reading a book and discussing or performing a puppet show around a childhood dilemma) are all ways that children can “practice” learning those character traits.
Pinterest followed… On a daily basis the staff at Early Head Start and Head Start pass along important character lessons, both directly and indirectly. We talk about the choices of characters and the consequences of those choices. They talk about qualities such as honesty, kindness, and sharing. The cognitive benefits of reading have an everlasting impact on the children we serve. Research clearly shows consistent reading with children improves critical thinking, brain development, and enhanced communication skills. http://www.txns.org
My kids loved to read books
I help students build chracter by being a good person myself and being kind and loving to them.
I love using stories that fit my students and their particular needs in order to build character throughout the year.
I teach Pre-K. I help the children in my room learn to take control of their own learning by exploring, investigating, and experimenting during our classroom learning periods of learning. They learn to build their own confidence by learning to share experiences in learning, finding it is OK not to succeed the first time something is tried (this is how they learn), and to help each other through group learning. We have an open learning concept in my classroom so that the children feel it is their classroom, they take a part of the learning experiences every day. As they evolve they are building their own confidence in learning as well as building each others confidence in learning too.
Like many others, in our first grade class, we build character though developing community. In my view, caring and empathy lead to trust and willingness to take risks, all of which lead to learning.
I build confidence and self esteem by example and helping each child to be their best and feel good about themselves.
Watching movies with morality messages, read books
We ask our class of preschoolers to “make their own good choices”. No one is bad or good, we are all just people making different choices. Good choices make our friends and ourselves feel good.
I am an elementary school counselor. I help students be their best, every day!
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I believe children learn from what they see and how they are treated. If they see kindness and feel secure they will in turn be a kind outgoing child. They can grow into beautiful caring young adults if taught at a young age to respect themselves and respect their peers. Our children in our center are showed and taught these behaviors as well as feeling loved and comforted.
This is a wonderful idea! I am a Resource and Referral Specialist in a small rural area in northern California. I work for a non-profit agency and our funds are limited. I work closely with many families, their children and many licensed child care facilities. The book series called “Be The Best Me” is such a great opportunity to share with so many children along with their parents. I truly enjoy being engaged with all children and their parents or caregivers of these young children.. Many children need the opportunity to share their inner feelings and express themselves. Many children need the confidence to realize they are able to be free and share what they feel. Children need the social and emotional skills to expand themselves. These books also promote and give the opportunity for early literacy. I know these books will be well liked and this would be such a wonderful way to engage children in discussion. This would be a great opportunity for me to share this awesome series of books! This is a fun and exciting way of learning!
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I build Confidence by example and reading books and music.
We intentional plan activities to teach and practice values. We also work with parents and other teachers to support children.
I’ve had the privilege of character building with the preschoolers I work with and my own 4 kiddos buy helping them to learn what empathy, respect and boundaries are through discussion and self-help medias. I appreciate the amazing resources to facilitate that aspect of brain development and function.
I help children develop character by learning to accept their uniqueness, and helping them learn empathy by considering how other’s think and feel.
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Teaching kindness and respect is an art. The teaching takes modeling the behavior and using words that help the child and or children understand what being kind and respectful look like in action. Each and every action and word in the classroom is run through the kind and respectful filter.
I build character within children by providing them opportunity to explore the environment around them and interact with new and exciting activities.
I help my children build character by discussing everyday experiences as well as challenges that my students face. We investigate options for dealing with these situations and experiences, so they have new perspectives on how to deal with them in the future. We stress the notion that we can grow and learn so much through challenges and even failures. Thank you.
Plan classroom service projects or civic activities. At the heart of good character is a sense of caring and concern for others. Numerous opportunities for service projects exist in every school community. Simple acts like creating a classroom sympathy card for a sick teacher or student, or collecting outgrown clothes and toys for charity help children learn the joys of assisting others and develop lifelong habits of service.
Model and teach your children good manners. Insist that all children as members of the classroom use good manners. Good manners are really the Golden Rule in action. Whether the issue is courtesy or other simple social graces, it is in the classroom in a group setting that the true thoughtfulness for others is able to build on foundations taught at home
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I teach special needs children and do daily social skills lessons. These books would help me grow my character education library.
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I would love to have this set of books to share with my preschoolers. I’m a speech language pathologist so I work with children daily that would benefit from the messages in these books.
I like helping children realize their own behaviors and positive encouragement. I would like to win these to give to a special needs child and family.
As a school social worker, I work with elementary children helping them learn social emotional life skills. Being the Best Me Series would be an awesome resource for working with individual students and groups of students.
Good evening, this is the perfect challenge. Self-confidence rises out of a sense of competence. In other words, kids develop confidence not because parents tell them they’re great, but because of their achievements, big and small. Building self-confidence can begin very early. I can help build kids confidence with plentiful opportunities, good instruction, and lots of patience.Then, when other important challenges present themselves, kids can approach them knowing that they have already been successful in other areas. I always told my own child that she was a harder worker and as long as she kept trying she would eventually do great things. Today my daughter is a Sophomore in college on a softball scholarship. and also she made the dean list’s her first year.
I’m a public librarian. We run all our youth programs hoping to instill good character in our kids and teens.
Our school works on different character building activities each month. We post the activity we are doing so that parents can support us at home. These are all ways to show respect–saying good morning, respecting each person’s space, etc. The parents are happy to see this character building goal.
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I help my children build character by giving them a safe place where they are free to share their thoughts and ideas so that they gain confidence in any particular situation. Reading books that bring up great conversation starters help to pave the way for specific conversations on things like following their dreams or standing up for themselves or others. I like to ask daily open-ended questions from “How was your day?” to “When was the last time you were upset?” that can get to many root issues children are dealing with in that moment and showing children coping tools if they are needed. I think the most important thing you can do as a parent or teacher is to be a good role-model so that children see traits that they want to emulate. If you want children to feel confident and courageous, then you have to walk the walk – not just talk the talk. 🙂
I currently work for my local Resource and Referral department. I help families find child care for their children. I work with our licensed child care providers and give training to them in social-emotional behavior and literacy. My agency is always looking for sources and books to help the children in these homes learn about feeling and emotions. I am also a CASA advocate and work closely with children in the Foster care system. I am always talking to children about their feelings and how to express the way they feel in a healthy and appropriate manner. To me I believe children need to be told more that their feelings and who they are matter.
I help children build character by modeling the behavior for them. I own up to mistakes and try to put others first.
As a school social worker, I support students with disabilities in developing social skills they need for school and life. I work in a district with a high concentration of poverty, and therefore I have a very small budget with which to purchase supplies. I love everything i have ever used from Free Spirit!
As a preschool teacher, I help my students build positive traits and social skills through their daily interactions both inside and outside of the classroom. Through stories and role play, we discuss how to share, how to be a good friend, and how to solve problems. These books would be a an excellent addition to my class library!
I work with prenatal parents until their children turn 3 and are ready to enter head start and we use Second Steps to help build positive social emotional skills that lead to interactions with others once the children enter school. Building strong resilient children and parents that have strong character is a main goal for school readiness and having wonderfully written and illustrated children’s books to add to that would help the children and parents to be able to visualize what their children need to be successful and strong when they enter the world (pre-school or kindergarten) on their own.
Followed on Pinterest! As I work on our district wide curriculum for character education, it excites me to be able to incorporate so much wonderful literature that is written with character education. I can’t wait to utilize some of your books too for our district counselors to use.
It is so impoortant to build character in our children today with all the hate out there.
I help children build character by helping them build resilience skills. Many children experience so much stress in their lives.
I incorporate books into my classroom guidance lessons any chance I get! I work at a K-6 school and especially love reading books in my K-2 lessons. These books would strongly supplement my existing curriculum and lesson plans.
I help children build character by encouraging teachers to read books on character building. I believe that we teach children good character traits by modeling, by setting a good example. I believe by our everyday interactions with the children and each other we are teaching children good “social skills” which are just as important as teaching academics.
We use the Calm Down Time book in our relaxation station. When kids know they are getting angry they can go into the relaxation station and have some time by themselves to calm down, consider better ways to handle things, and reading this book helps!
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In their book, How to Raise Totally Awesome Kids, Dr. Chuck Borsellino and his wife Jenni write, “Teach by example. Model what you desire. For our children to develop character and integrity, they must first see the integrity of our character.” As a teacher, it is tantamount that I build on children’s experiences, both good and bad, and use them as teaching opportunities.
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I work with professionals to help them build social-emotional skills and character skills in children. A great way to do this is through literacy experiences: questions, role-plays and practice. Kindergarten readiness should always include these qualities of young children. This set of books would be housed in our free lending library, which is available to all professionals who work with children.
Love these books! They look like they would be a great asset to our Library at the Ontario Early Years Centre! We build character in children by giving them a safe, fun, environment to explore and learn new ideas.
This series looks great and would be a compliment to the program we are developing on instilling social skills to our special needs population. Certainly would enhance this venue!
As a School Adjustment Counselor I help children develop character by teaching about specific social skills every week. Every morning I go over the social skill of the week and then give examples of how to display this behavior. When this behavior is observed, I give a shout out the next day over morning announcements talking about what was observed and how it is an example of the expected behavior we hope all our students are able to exhibit.
I frequently model, and discuss kindness. What are kind words we can share today? What are kind actions we can take today? How can we be kind to ourselves? How can we be kind to our neighbor – even when we are really not happy with what they have done? These thoughts are often posed as questions, because I want children to consider kindness themselves, not “do” kindness the way they are told to “do” by adults. I want to cultivate thinking about kindness & consideration towards others, so it will be a thought for life.
Teaching our special needs students Social Skills is so important and this visual text along with stories will provide the needed context by which they can learn!
I work with birth to Pre-K population. I empower children and support children in being the best little people they can be by supporting their educators. Whether their educator is a daycare teacher, pre-school teacher, early intervention support team, and most importantly their parents. I focus supporting the team who is the “first responders” to these little people and their social emotional development for a strong foundation and base.
As a parent educator, I help build character by giving families the tools and confidence to be the role models that their children deserve. I help them to recognize the innate gifts that they have to give their children and to find the resiliency to power through whatever life throws at them. I show them the importance of validating their children’s feelings and modeling empathy. We offer free playgroups and music classes where families can interact and build connections and supports, and where children have an opportunity to practice the social skills that lead to strong character.
Liked on Facebook! We care about character at our school so much, it’s part of our mission statement “…All our students will exhibit good character.” It doesn’t just take one person working toward this goal, our entire team of teachers and support professionals must buy into this goal of developing outstanding students with good character.
I love this! I help children in early childhood because I train child care providers. I am an inclusion specialist and I train providers in resilience, compassion, social and emotional competence, etc. I would love to have this set of books to share with providers because they can go forward and purchase them for their center, home, ministry, etc. I would love this opportunity since we are non profit and don’t have a lot of funds to purchase materials!
As an elementary counselor, I help students build character. We choose a character trait to focus on each month and we emphasize that trait throughout the school day. I plan classroom lessons and activities for other to teach during our Professional Learning Communities.
I could introduce this series to the classrooms I work in as a consultant and add them to the list of suggested books that I write up in our Social Emotional Curriculum. Our centers are always interested in new resources to help children grow and keep learning fun!
I consisity remind children of their strengths and encourage them to use them to help others.
Hello, this is a wonderful opportunity! I have started a character-building ballet dance program for inner-city youth who may not be able to afford regular dance classes. We build their character by teaching them the disciplines of ballet-style dance and language. We promote emotional and social development by creating a safe, fun, and energetic environment for our ballerinas. We have discussions centered around topics such as “The Character in Me”, ” Healthy Selfie” and “Who are you reppin’?” This would opportunity would also help us promote our “Literacy through the Arts” initiative, where we promote early literacy for struggling or at-risk readers. Thanks again for the opportunity!
I could build “Confidence” using these books at my 2 Elementary Schools either presenting in classrooms with discussions/feedback as well as, in my Social Skills Groups I facilitate each year for students who need more intensive interventions!