Lessons in Responsibility for Boys

Boys are curious creatures if you ask me.  One day I think I’ve got mothering boys down, and the next day I realize I have no clue!  They want different things than girls – they need different things than girls.  One thing I’ve seen in both of my boys, as compared to my daughter, is the need for independence.  They both want to do things their way, feel like they’ve made the decisions and done the work, and feel as if their efforts have reaped wonderful fruit.

The problem – they aren’t quite ready for all this independence yet.  In other words, projects go disastrously awry as poor, uninformed choices are made, or the things that truly have to be finished are pushed to the side while things they want to work on are attacked with gusto.  Moms of boys can tell you story after story about volcanic eruptions in the living room, clocks that will never work again after being disassembled, building projects that ,um, “beautifully” grace our homes and so much more.

I’ve come to understand that this journey to turn my little monsters boys into men – men that will take that independence and boldly go into the world for God – requires purposeful teaching about one main thing… responsibility.  Biblical responsibility that translates into daily responsibility.

Earlier this year, I went on a search for some sort of Bible/devotional curriculum that would help me teach this topic of responsibility to my boys.  What a blessing it was to find exactly what I was looking for from the Pearables company.

Lessons In Responsibility for Boys, Level 1 is written for any boy six or older.  In this book, you meet Ben who is just learning the idea of responsibility.  In short lessons that only take about 5-10 minutes, Ben begins to understand responsibility as it relates to such things as chores, siblings, possessions, friends, television, grooming and plenty more – there are 30 different lessons to be exact.

In each lesson, you read a short story to your son, ask a few questions and complete a simple task.  The task could be anything from writing a list of household rules together to planning healthy snacks.  A reproducible coloring page with an appropriate Bible verse is included with each lesson, too.

The lessons are meant to be used once per week, but we chose to go ahead and read through one lesson per day since I was starting with a nine year old.

Lessons in Responsibility for Boys, Level 2 is written for any boy eight or older.  In this book, Ben’s older brother, Josh, continues learning what it means to be a responsible young man.  The lessons in this book are more in-depth and require 10-15 minutes to complete.

Again, a coloring page with a Bible verse is provided with each lesson.  The lessons, however, include more Bible verses and discussion about how those relate to our lives.  The questions from the first volume are replaced with a suggested prayer this time around, while a task is still offered.  Most of the tasks encourage your son to be in the Word himself in order to make connections in his own life, or ask your son to have real conversations with his parents about the topics.

Topics covered teach responsibility in the areas of reading the Bible, fellowship, being considerate, clothing, money, learning to care for and fix things, and much more – again, there are 30 lessons.

My older son and I have made it through the 1st volume and are about 1/2 way through the 2nd volume.  Our time together has been VERY well spent!

-Written by Cindy, eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of 3.  You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and Shining Dawn Books.