Character Building Activities for Kids & Teens

We all want to raise “good children.” But what can we do to shape a child’s moral compass and mental characteristics? You can incorporate character-building activities into their routines to inspire discipline, responsibility, leadership, and consistency.

In this article, we’ll provide helpful pointers for teaching character development and tracking your child’s progress over the years.

What is Character Building?

Character building shapes a child’s inner qualities, behavior, and moral beliefs. Think of the process as molding clay—you are helping shape your child’s essential character traits, cultivating positive virtues, morals, and values.

Through character building, children can develop valuable traits such as self-reliance, healthy risk-taking, endurance, confidence, and empathy.

Parents and caregivers can categorize the core ethical values of character building into four categories:

• Intellectual (i.e., curiosity and reflection)
• Civic (i.e., community awareness and neighborly duties)
• Moral (i.e., honesty and integrity)
• Performance (i.e., teamwork and motivation)

Benefits of Character Building

Character building goes beyond academic attainment—it shapes how children experience the world when they enter the workforce. Here’s a closer look at how character development activities can contribute to a child’s growth in their formative years:

• Increased resilience. Children with strong character don’t give up easily. Instead, they persevere during hard times and leap through hurdles, which can better equip them to approach new experiences confidently.
• Deeper integrity and honesty. Building character doesn’t always mean being right. Children with good character can admit when they’ve done something hurtful or dishonest and commit to doing better.
• Calculated risk-taking. Risk is in every choice we make, whether we can discern it or not. A well-rounded child will take calculated risks that make them braver, more confident, and better leaders [*].
• Develops self-discipline. Sometimes, we must sacrifice and face hardships to make the right decisions. As children learn to build character, they’ll find ways to motivate themselves even when in a slump.

Character Building Activities for Preschoolers

Children develop character earlier than you might think. As preschoolers, they start learning to share their toys, wait patiently, and work together. Here are a few fun and simple activities for character-building to try with a young child.

Cooperative Games

In preschool, children develop their social skills through play. When children work together to achieve a common goal, they adopt a valuable teamwork mindset and sense of accomplishment.

You can keep your child motivated through cooperative or turn-based activities like tower-building, drawing a picture together, or role-playing with stuffed animals. These activities can nurture your child’s creativity and inspire independence.

Acts of Kindness

At preschool age, it’s not uncommon for a child to blurt out what they observe in their environment, even when it means being rude. They might yell out, “Mommy, that man looks silly!” or “Daddy, why does that woman look like that?”

However, children start developing empathy between the ages of two and four, so parents have an excellent opportunity to fortify those behaviors through acts of kindness [*]. Start by encouraging your child to share their toys with a friend or to compliment their teacher. Encourage them to perform one act of kindness a day.

Character Building Activities for Elementary Students

By elementary age, schools start actively implementing character education. Teachers focus on instilling positive traits in their students and developing their life skills. Here’s what you can do with your elementary-age child to develop their best qualities.

Build-Your-Own-Hero

Start the discussion by asking your child to name their heroes—perhaps they’ll name an outstanding community member in the local news or a television character they admire. From there, ask them to list the traits they like about their heroes and inspire them to create their own.

Then, ask your child to draw a self-portrait and turn themselves into a superhero by listing their ideal characteristics and selfless acts of kindness they want to achieve.

Compliment Circle

Children in their elementary years are more emotionally evolved and can better understand another person's feelings [*]. You can encourage your child to boost their classmates’ confidence through a compliment circle.

Assign buddies and have each partner take turns giving each other positive encouragement. They can express these compliments verbally or write notes.

Character Building Activities for Middle School

As children go through puberty, they can become easily distracted or have trouble focusing. Thus, character-building activities in a child’s tween years can spell the difference between positive and negative development. Here are a few activities you can try.

Pay-it-Forward

Paying it forward is responding to one person’s kindness by being kind to someone else. In a school setting, students can quickly pay it forward by offering to carry someone’s books or helping a classmate struggling with their assignment.

The simple act of paying it forward teaches children to be gracious while expecting nothing in return.

Gratitude Journal

Children are more familiar with their emotions by middle school but may need more discipline to manage them. They might be too hard on themselves or blow negative experiences out of proportion. A gratitude journal can encourage middle schoolers to self-reflect, improve their self-esteem, and prevent negativity bias.

Gratitude journaling also has wellness benefits, such as reduced anxiety and better moods. Children can develop a more positive and resilient mindset by practicing consistent gratitude journaling.

Character Building Activities for High School

High school is a time of self-discovery. Teenagers are realizing who they are and what they want to be, so activities for character-building are more important than ever. Here are a few you can try.

Personality Tests

Personality tests are a helpful way for teenagers to get to know themselves. Of course, personality quizzes don’t define someone, but they can help put certain behaviors and actions into perspective.

For example, a Myers-Briggs test or Enneagram can help teenagers identify specific strengths and weaknesses. They can also give high schoolers a better idea of the most fulfilling career paths.

Moral Debates

Teenagers can become overly passionate when fighting for what they believe in, and they might become emotional or upset. Through moral debates, teenagers can learn to express themselves and their beliefs in a safe, nonjudgmental space while receiving peer feedback.

Encourage your child to discuss topics that matter to their friends or siblings. For example, they might talk about the relevance of certain school subjects, their thoughts on ideal workplace conditions, or how to handle relationship problems. Remind them to respect their peers’ opinions and avoid black-and-white conclusions.

The Bottom Line

Highlighting the importance of character development in a child’s early growth through character-building activities can help shape them into self-reliant and well-rounded young adults. You can further improve your child’s skills development by practicing our character education worksheets.

Sources:

1. Arundati Shinta, Dewi H. Harahap & Eny Rohyati. “Character Building On Young People: Investment To Be A Tough Leader.” Jurnal Psikologi, 2014.
2. Decety J, Michalska KJ. “How Children Develop Empathy: The Contribution of Developmental Affective Neuroscience.” The MIT Press eBooks, 2011.
3. Fatum B. “The relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement in elementary-school children.” University of San Francisco, 2008.