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by Cindy 8 Comments

Fruit of the Spirit Trees Help Teach Children Christian Values

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Character building is one of the best ways to solidify good values in our children. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be taking writing about ideas for helping our children with strong foundations in character. My prayer is that you and I will both be inspired (or re-inspired) to train our precious children in the way they should go with methods that reach deep to encourage and motivate their souls.

Fruit of the Spirit Tree | Our Journey Westward

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Our Go-To List of Virtues

The Fruit of the Spirit is our “go-to” list of virtues as Christians.  \We should strive to exude each of these traits in everything we do! Do we mess up? Sure! That’s part of the learning process – and thank God for His sweet mercy day in and day out as we fail!

Fruit of the Spirit Tree

One tried and true method I’ve used with each of my three children to help them understand and begin to display these values is a Fruit of the Spirit tree.

As early as the age of three or four, whenever I notice that the “fruits” need a little, ahem, fine tuning around the house, we stick a branch in a jar and have great fun catching each other being kind, peaceful, gentle and so on.

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Beforehand, I’ve prepared little fruits tied to strings that get hung on the branches when someone has been caught.

There’s never a competition between kids to see who can gather the most fruit, but instead it’s a cooperative effort to see the good in one another, be good to one another and watch our family tree hang heavy with fruits as a result.

When one child needs a little more encouragement (like the four year old recently), the tree will be all about him. In this instance, as often as we were able, we made a big deal about the character traits he was displaying and let him put his fruits on the tree.

At the end of the day, we counted the fruits together. His goal the next day was to see if he could gather even more fruits than the day before.

After about a week, he had begun a pleasant habit which replaced a not-so-pleasant habit and we not longer needed the tree.

It Works for All Ages

Old or young, every time I’ve pulled out the Fruit of the Spirit tree in our home, positive character has resulted. It’s so easy, too!

How to Make a Fruit of the Spirit Tree

  • Place a tree-shaped stick in a jar/bucket of beans/rice/rocks.
  • Cut out fruit shapes from construction paper, card stock, foam sheets or anything else you like. (The fruit shapes in my photo were from a bag of shapes I found several years ago at a dollar store, but here are some other super-cute ones.)
  • Punch a hole at the top of each fruit and loop a ribbon, yarn, or string through it to become a hanger.

How To Use a Fruit of the Spirit Tree

For very young children, I don’t write anything on the fruits. I simply let the child hang any fruit of his choosing and we talk about the appropriate virtue.

For young readers, I assign each type of fruit to one of the Fruits of the Spirit and write that name on the back of the fruits. For example, the apples might represent love, the bananas might represent joy, etc. When a particular virtue is displayed, the kiddo finds the correct fruit to hang on the tree.

For older children, I place a list of the Fruits of the Spirit near the tree along with the blank fruits and a marker so they can create their own as a virtue is “caught”.

That’s it!  What are you waiting for?  You could have new, wonderful habits started tomorrow!

Extra Learning Fun

These fun extras can reinforce your lessons and help you teach about the Fruits of the Spirit. 

Fabulous Foam Fruit Shapes - Crafts for Kids and Fun Home ActivitiesTeacher Created Resources Fruit of the Spirit Stickers, Multi Color (7041)Teacher Created Resources Fruit of The Spirit Headliners (7075)Kids' Travel Guide to the Fruit of the SpiritFruit of the Spirit Coloring/Activity Book (Pack of 6)9 Fruits Alive (GodCounts Series)Music Machine: The Fruit of the Spirit

 

The Rest of the Teaching Values Series

Cindy West's resources for teaching Biblical values to children

Teaching Values with Literature

Teaching Values through Service and Leadership

Teaching Values through Chores and Jobs

Teaching Values through Discipline that Reaches the Heart

Teaching Values Using For Instruction in Righteousness

Practical Lessons for Teaching Values

Teaching Values Using The Pilgrim’s Progress

Resource List for Teaching Values

More Help with Character Building

You can enjoy a Homeschool Masterclass on this very topic! It includes specific training to help you successfully use creative tactics like this one to set your children up for success in good character.

  • Learn all about character training for multiple ages.
    Character Building Masterclass
    $15.00
    Add to cart

I know you’ll enjoy these other posts on my website, too!

These character building picture books can be so helpful in your home!
These character building chapter books for boys make great read alouds or read alones for all ages.
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Last Updated: February 15, 2021 Filed Under: Bible & Character, Christian Homeschooling, Elementary, Middle School Tagged With: Bible, Character Training series, Christian, fruits of the spirit, habit training

Previous Post: « Teaching Values with Books
Next Post: Fun with Leaves »

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Comments

  1. Tricia says

    November 7, 2011 at 7:02 am

    Love this values visual!

  2. Gertha says

    November 7, 2011 at 10:06 am

    Ingenious! Thank you.

  3. Susan @ christianmothering.com says

    November 23, 2011 at 10:43 pm

    I love this! Will definitely be trying it out. Thanks!

  4. Stef Layton says

    January 19, 2013 at 10:44 pm

    oh I just love the fruit of the spirit tree!

  5. Cindy says

    January 20, 2013 at 8:10 am

    Thank you, Stef!

Trackbacks

  1. November’s top mothering posts | Christian Mothering says:
    November 25, 2011 at 4:55 pm

    […] Teaching Values – Fruit of the Spirit Trees. Cindy of Our Journey Westward writes about encouraging godly character traits in her kids by using a fruit-and-tree teaching tool. “Whenever I notice that the “fruits” need a little, ahem, fine tuning around the house, we stick a branch in a jar and have great fun catching each other being kind, peaceful, gentle and so on… Beforehand, I’ve prepared little fruits tied to strings that get hung on the branches when someone has been caught.” Fantastic idea. […]

  2. Tabletop Devotions says:
    October 13, 2012 at 11:23 pm

    […] is a fun and easy way to do devotions as a family. It is a combination of this post on Fruit of the Spirit Trees and something I heard from Deb Weakly (a Mom Heart Leader)—  while […]

  3. Teaching Values with Literature – Day 2 | Our Journey Westward says:
    December 13, 2012 at 7:29 pm

    […] I mentioned the Fruits of the Spirit as defined in Galatians 5:22-23 as our “go-to” list of values for training our […]

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