Learning about character strengths

Getting started on character strength research? I started my journey here: Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification, a thorough overview of research, science and classification; and, more recently, learned from The Power of Character Strengths, a quick read that is accessible and scientifically up-to-date.

In learning with my kids, I often visit the VIA Institute on Character website. Here you’ll find the VIA Strength Surveys, including a character strength survey for kids (8+), and reports, resources and all kinds of great links.

The Greater Good Magazine and Character Lab are both full of free actionable advice, tips and research.

Some books that relate virtue to kids include The Whole-Brain Child, Raising Good Humans, Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child, No Bad Kids, Parenting from the Inside Out, The Awakened Family, and Good Inside.

Other helpful books related to the good life and learning include: The Happiness Hypothesis, which explores virtue, philosophy and ideas of happiness throughout time and culture; The Talent Code, which explores how greatness is grown; The Courage to be Disliked, which reads as a conversation between a philosopher and a cynic across topics of philosophy and psychology; Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids, which explores bringing philosophy to the dinner table; and A Sneetch is a Sneetch and Other Philosophical Discoveries: Finding Wisdom in Children's Literature, a fun one combining philosophy and children’s books.