Nonna's Book of Moral Virtues

My dear friend, Tracy Tucciarone, has written a book for parents to read to their young children to help inculcate the moral virtues.

Here is her introduction to it:

"Nonna's Book of Moral Virtues" is a course in the moral virtues, designed to be used by parents with their young children. The course should take weeks to get through, depending on the speed at which your children absorb information -- and, of course, how much time you have as a parent.

The course first covers the idea of habits, and the moral virtues as habits. It then moves on to explain the four cardinal virtues -- prudence, fortitude, temperance, justice -- in general, including how these virtues are symbolized in art. Each of the four cardinal virtues -- and all of the virtues attached to them, from abstinence to religion and everything in between -- is then explored in detail.

Each section (except the section on chastity) comes with associated stories from the Bible, Aesop, and the world of fairy tales and legend to illustrate the virtue at hand. All of the stories are contained in the second section of the book; the lessons will tell you when to jump to them.

Some sections have activities to do -- things like pages to color in; games to play to illustrate prudence and to help with piety; making family trees when studying piety; making gratitude trees when studying gratitude; etc. Some of these games and activities are meant to be printed out. There are also questions for parents to talk to their children about, both during the lessons and at the end of most stories.

To get the most out of this course, it's recommended that parents buy, rent, or borrow Disney's "Pinocchio" (1940) and "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (1971). The book lets you know when to show these movies to your children. Check with your local library; they're very likely to have these movies to loan out!

The book, which is 159 printed pages long, is free and in PDF format. (Link)

 'Nonna' is the Italian equivalent of 'Grandma', and Tracy IS a Nona, so she knows whereof she speaks. If you have children or grandchildren who still enjoy being read to, please take a look at it.