When it comes to recommending books it’s often hard to know where to begin. Picture books are a fabulous way to engage children of all ages, as everyone has different prior experiences and can often make personal connections with the characters and/or events in stories. Sharing picture books is an excellent way of enhancing children’s wellbeing and promoting the development of character strengths.
Following on from last week’s ESF Professional Development Day on wellbeing, here is a list of recommended picture books to support wellbeing in your children, specifically in the area of character education. The resource shared in the link above categorises a wide range of picture books into the six Character Strength clusters, identifying 24 strengths in total. These books are a great way of promoting worthwhile discussions on personal strengths and how we use them in our day to day life. After reading a book together, some follow up discussions could be centred around:
- What are some of the ways you used strengths today in your friendships/learning?
- How to handle a challenge using your strengths
- What can you say in your head the next time you are faced with a challenge? (Positive Self talk)
- Similar experiences that have occurred in real life and recognising how strengths might have been helpful
We have a large selection of books available in the Library that support character education. Please pop in and take a look, ask further questions or encourage your child to borrow a particular book from our display.
If you are interested in finding out more about character strengths in your children, please take the time to read the article below which provides some excellent advice on ways to spot and cultivate strengths.