Encouraging Diligent Behavior in Kids + Helpful Bible Verses

Encouraging diligent behavior is a big challenge in homeschooling. Here are ways to build this character trait in your child and Bible verses to help.

Tips for Encouraging Diligent Behavior in Your Kids

One of the hardest and most frustrating things about parenting is encouraging diligent behavior. Kids aren’t naturally diligent – they don’t always look at details or put in the maximum amount of effort when completing tasks. They have short attention spans! They just want to get through things quickly so they can play. It’s only natural.

But there are times in life that our kids need to have the strong character traits that will bring them success in life. And it’s our job to teach them. A careful and persistent effort will get them far in life.

The child who completes his schoolwork neatly and with attention to detail will learn skills that will help him or her in college.
Teaching children how to keep their room clean will result in your grandchildren having a mother or father who maintains a safe and healthy household.
When a child has to persevere in situations that are uncomfortable and difficult, he or she learns that good things come to those who stick it out and see things to the end.
Working through relationships with difficult people teaches confidence in oneself and in the ability to focus on one’s purpose and goals without taking things personally. This will come in handy in the child’s future workplace when the grown child inevitably works through adversity without experiencing character injury. We want our children to become adults with social-emotional strength, who can provide for his or her family consistently, despite competition or criticism, or even bullying in the workplace.
Sports can give kids experience in “getting back up after a fall” – failure is a part of life that one must learn from. Those kids who fail and keep on trying, experience a personal responsibility for their success. They learn a growth mindset – essentially, that their success depends on their effort and not necessarily their innate ability. Practice really does make perfect!

Is Your Child Diligent?

Does your child have what it takes to succeed? Can he or she persevere, work hard, and stick to it? Ask yourself:

What does my child want to be when he or she grows up?
What character traits will he or she need to succeed in that occupation?
Does he or she have those traits now? Is diligence one of the required traits?

Most likely, diligence is one of the top traits your child needs to adopt. You would do well to begin teaching it – now! It is one of those things that we want to be innate – a natural character trait in the child.

Give Them Responsibility.

Diligence grows from responsibility. What this means is that you, as the parent, need to allow your child as many opportunities as possible to be responsible for himself or herself. Responsibility is basically: knowing what must be done, and DOING it. Diligence is doing your BEST at it.

Encourage your child from this day forward to do the following things daily:

Give it your best shot. If you fail, get up and try again, attempting to do better than the last time.
Details matter. Children should learn that it’s not ok to just haphazardly clean their room – throwing things into the back of their closet or under their bed. They should be taught to clean the dustbunnies under the bed, and hang their clothing neatly on hangers, placing socks within the designated drawer, etc.
Stay focused. Kids need to learn that diligence is not easy – it’s hard work. It’s easy to get distracted. Plus, there are a lot of things that are way more fun than working at the small steps it takes to reach a goal. Help them find ways to stay on task and work towards completion. Breaks are reasonable, and can be permitted, but the end goal should always be to finish a task knowing that you did the best you could at it.
Ask for help. When your child needs it, they should be able to depend on you. Give them the powerful option to remain in control of their outcomes while still asking for help if they need it. Be there for them to depend on, but let them own the responsibility of asking and receiving help, so they still gain the confidence of completing a task themselves.

Teach diligence to your children, and reap the rewards of seeing them succeed and possess confidence in all they do.

Bible Verse Copywork Pages for August: Diligence

It’s “back-to-homeschool” time for most people, and if you’re interested in using some Bible verse copywork pages for August, these will be perfect to start your year. These Bible verses for kids are focused on the theme of diligence since you most likely want to start the homeschool year off on the right foot! This is part of a year-long set, so be sure to download all of them. Homeschool families with kids of all ages will enjoy these because they’re made with multiple ages and abilities in mind.

If you are hoping to start your daily homeschool routine with a daily Bible verse, or include Scripture memory in your homeschool, you’ll love these. Whole-family prayer and Bible reading is a great way to bring the family together and be focused on what’s most important. These seasonal Bible verse copywork pages are beneficial for the whole family. All the children in a family can work together on the same verse but at their own writing and comprehension level.

There are different versions of the printables for each child in your family, younger and older! It will allow everyone to discuss the verse together, and work as a family. That makes these Bible verse copywork pages great for all the children in your homeschool.

Subscribers first had the opportunity to download these for free, in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. ALL my printables are free at first to my email/social media following. If you missed this temporary freebie, feel free to check them out at their current price in my store. I never charge very much for my printables – after all, I’m very frugal myself, and wouldn’t charge you more than I’d be willing to pay – all the individually priced items in my store are under $5 (and with bundles, you’ll save even more)! And when you make a purchase, you are helping me to provide for my family, so I thank you for your support! This is my full-time job. Sometimes, though, I still mark things as “free” occasionally, just for the fun of it! So, go check out my store – it may just be free still!

Included in this printable Bible verse copywork pack:

4 Bible Verses about “Diligence”:

Colossians 3:23-24
Colossians 12:23-24
Hebrews 6:11
Philippians3:13-14

4 Different Levels of copywork pages:

Preschool/Early Primary tracing pages with a shortened version of the verse
Primary/Elementary Lined pages with an easy-to-read manuscript type to copy
Elementary cursive pages
Upper grades smaller lined pages with just the verse reference so the child can look the verse up and copy it directly from the Bible

To gain access to this printable pack, please check them out at The Frugal Homeschooling Mom Teachers Pay Teachers store at the link below!

Bible verses that Teach Kids Diligence

(limited time/periodic freebie – follow by email to be notified of freebies like this)

Again, these were free for a limited time. Be sure to “follow” my TPT store – all my printables are always free when they first come out! If you follow, you won’t miss any. You can also follow this blog by email as well, by the way. Either way, you’ll never miss a freebie. Thanks so much!