Character Training Program – Leadership Garden Review

This Leadership Garden Legacy review has led to many good conversations in our home. As we worked our way through the U.N.I.Q.U.E. KIDS: Growing My Leadership Garden paperback book ($18.95) I was able to talk a lot about character training with our children.

This beautifully illustrated simple to read chapter book is perfect for children ages 5-12. This can be an independent reader for older children and is also a great read aloud for the younger children. This book introduces you to different aspects of your character garden. It strives to teach children through the story of a friendly, lost sheep named Hugh, that they have a Leadership Garden within each one of them and they should choose to grow good things that will help them to blossom into a great leader one day.

For something fun and different or just those really busy, “We are going to be in the car a ridiculous amount of time today” days this program even has a fun mp3 audio version ($8.95). It has chimes to help learning readers know when to turn the page and the pleasant voice of the narrator makes the book seem to “come alive”.

The UNIQUE Kids Activity Guide ($8.95) book helps the character training leader present the lessons taught in the book in a fun and practical way. With questions, projects, and even field trip ideas this guide is a great way to make the program even more memorable! This guide also includes a printable journal for the students to use. I loved this journal in that it gave the girls (ages 8 and 10) a chance to really show me that they were understanding and grasping the concepts taught. We used the journal as a book report as such after each chapter. This part of the guide was one of my favorite things because it let me see into the girls’ thoughts and feelings about the lessons and sometimes they even shared ways they needed to change in their own lives. In this guide you will also find notes at the end of each section for how the activities line up with the Oregon State Standards and can easily be matched with any state for those that need it.

This character training program even has an adult book aspect to it as well, so that your whole family can be involved with the same study. The UNIQUE Grow the Leader Within paperback book (18.95) and the Leadership Garden Guidebook ($18.95) work together to help even adults find the leader within themselves and help it to blossom.

For my family personally, I wish that there had been a Biblical aspect to this character training study and there really isn’t one at all. Now I realize that not everyone is looking for that and it is not marketed as a “Biblical” character training program at all. So, I didn’t really expect to find a strong emphasis there. But, as you my reader know, Biblical training in our home is of top priority and for the most part all of our schooling focuses on moving forward in that goal. Overall, my children enjoyed this program and I really feel that it was presented in a way that has impacted their way of thinking and the choices that they make day to day. They can still tell you stories of what happened in the first few chapters so I know that they are retaining the information and it will stick with them for years to come!