Life skills, told not preached

What it is

A book can be built around one life skill. You pick a group, Values & Character, Healthy Habits, or Everyday Responsibility, then one focus inside it: honesty, bravery, drinking water, keeping commitments. That focus is fixed into the book before a word is written, and the plot is built to carry it.

What it is for

A value a child is told is a value they nod at. So the focus never arrives as advice. It arrives as a mistake and the repair the character chooses, a promise kept when breaking it would be easier, or someone standing up while the group pushes the other way. We take one more pass over the finished draft looking for any line that explains the moral instead of dramatising the choice, and we rewrite that line.

How to use it

1. Tap New Adventure and stay on Topic, the first step along the top.
2. Tap Life Skills & Values, then tap the group that fits.
3. Tap a focus card. Each one carries a line saying what that focus means to us, and only one focus travels into a book.
4. Tap Next to carry on to Cast, and build the rest of the book as you would any other.
5. Read the story ideas at Ideas, the last step, and pick the plot that gives the focus the most to do.

What we suggest

Choose the focus that matches something happening this week, rather than the virtue you most want them to hold. A story about a broken promise lands hardest in the week a promise was broken. Pick a different focus next time, so the same shape of story never arrives twice.