PLAY TIME

The Mission Virtue Challenge Magnet can be used to PLAY as a board game. Life is a journey in which we strive to stay on the path that leads from Heaven’s Front Porch (our life on earth) to Heaven’s Pearly Gates (life forever with God). Habits of virtue are what keep us on that path. The Mission Virtue Challenge is a simple game in which players take turns to roll a dice to advance from the porch to the gates. First player to reach Heaven’s Pearly Gates is the winner. Game play can be enjoyed by children age 3 - 10 and up.

PLAYING THE MISSION VIRTUE CHALLENGE:

Game Play Circles: First time, or younger players, can simply roll and move along the board from start to finish without doing anything extra on the character circles. 

Mission Virtue Challenge players who want the full challenge can additionally play this way:

• Players who can name the character they land on, move ahead one bonus circle.

• Players who can name the virtue power that the character represents, and move 2 bonus circles. 

• Players who can name both the character and the virtue power move 3 bonus circles. 

• Players who land on another character can continue giving name and virtue power till they land on a non-character circle. 

Tokens: For the simplest approach, the child can use any game piece on hand to mark their progress. You can also create tokens for players to move on the board with Tiny Virtue Heroes™Labels affixed to flexible magnets, or smooth stones.  This is the child’s pretend partner to play the game with. There are 35 different Tiny Virtue Heroes™. The child can pick a different character to team up with each time they play. **If using TVH label tokens and a player lands on the character they are using as their game piece, they get to show virtue and give all the other players the choice to move one bonus step ahead. This is in addition to their next turn.

Rainbow Bridges: Landing on a circle with a rainbow bridge is a chance to jump ahead. (A reminder of Grace.) Rainbow bridges work in both directions. Players can make the game last longer and choose to go backwards on the bridge to wait for other players who are farther behind.

Black Dots: Players who land on a black dot are stuck and must lose their next turn. (A reminder of how sin and selfishness get us stuck.) 

Prayer Power-Ups: Players who land on a Mission Virtue Region circle with a part of a world map get to say, “God bless everyone in (name one region) Asia or Oceania or Europe, or Americas or Africa) and jump to the next Mission Virtue Region circle to continue their path. Only one jump. Normal progress continues after the jump turn.

PRAY TIME

The Mission Virtue Challenge Magnet can be used as a simple aid to PRAY with for children age 2 - 5. When a family plans time for devotional prayer together, the Mission Virtue Challenge board gives the child a structure to participate actively in the family prayer. Place it on the floor in front of the child and give them some kind of token to follow the path as you pray.

PRAYING WITH THE MISSION VIRTUE CHALLENGE:

Prayers: The circle shapes on the board are designed to flow perfectly if you invite your child to engage with the devotional prayer of the Rosary. For families not praying the Rosary, each circle shape can be a chance to add an intention or an “Amen” to prayers said by others.

Pretend Prayer Partners: Each Tiny Virtue Hero can be a pretend prayer partner for a child as they join in family prayer. For a child who is easily distracted, re-direct them to pray on behalf of themself and whichever character’s circle they land on. For example, If they land on MO the mouse, the child can say, “Mo and I say, Amen!” Jesus sent out his disciples two-by-two. Praying with the Tiny Virtue Heroes™ enables a child feel like they are one of Jesus’ disciples, praying (imaginatively) two-by-two.

Prayer Power-Up: The five “Prayer Power-up” circles encourage the child to super-size their prayer, and pray for a different region of the world. “God bless everyone in (name one region) Asia, or Oceania, Europe, Americas, or Africa”. By the time they go from start to finish, they will have prayed for everyone in the whole world. These Mission Virtue regions are color coded. Yellow is Asia, the land of the rising sun. Blue is Oceania, the islands located in the Pacific blue ocean waters. Silver is Europe, the land of many shimmering ice-covered mountains. Red is for the Americas, with abundant ruddy red clay earth. Green is Africa, with so many green jungles and grasslands.

Prayer Options: You can pray any way your family may like. It also can work well to include different kinds of prayers, so that the child learns to focus their prayer on more than personal needs.  A range of of prayers can include: 

• Adoration (loving God)

• Contrition (sorrow for offending or forgetting God) The circles with a black dot can be used as opportunities for an, “Dear God, I’m sorry for my sins,” prayer of contrition. 

• Thanksgiving (appreciating everything as a gift from God) 

• Intercession (asking God for blessings for the good of others) 

• Supplication (asking God for blessings for personal needs) 

Tokens: You can create tokens with Tiny Virtue Heroes™ Stickers affixed to flexible magnets, or smooth stones for the child to pick a prayer partner to pretend to pray with them. There are 35 different Tiny Virtue Heroes™. The child can pick a different character to team up with each time they pray. For a simpler approach, the child can use any game piece on hand to mark their prayer progress.

EVERY DAY TIME

The Mission Virtue Challenge can also be used as a an EVERYDAY family virtue motivation and reward system. Parents, grandparents, or teachers are “Virtue Leaders”. Children are “Virtue Heroes”. Let your child’s imagination and “friendship” with the Tiny Virtue Heroes inspire them. This is “character inspired“ character development.

HOW TO MOTIVATE VIRTUE EVERYDAY:

Everyday Virtues: The Mission Virtue Challenge is structured around a group of 35 Everyday Virtues. Download and print the Virtue Heroes™ Parent Guide page to have easy access to the list of characters and virtues, with short descriptions to refer to as you gently guide your child’s behavior through their day.  Download and print the Virtue Heroes™ Character Guide page for the children to learn the character’s names and virtue powers.

Mission Virtue Magnet: The Mission Virtue Challenge Magnet is both a magnet and a dry-erase board. You can simply use it on a refrigerator and mark a child’s progress with a dry-erase marker. Heroes get to move ahead a circle for each time they think or pray, do or say one of the 35 Everyday Virtues. When the child lands on a Tiny Virtue Hero image circle as they move along the path, pretend that the hero is cheering the child on, and is challenging the child to do that hero’s signature virtue next. Plain circles are where you reward any kind of virtuous behavior. Circles with a black dot are an opportunity to focus on a trouble spot...where the child tries to overcome a specific weakness with virtue-strength.

Prayer Power-Up: These circles are a bonus spot emphasizing the power of prayer and God’s grace in making us virtue-strong! All the child needs to do to move forward is say, “God bless all the people in (say the region).” Praying for people in each different part of the world focuses children’s prayer virtuously - beyond themselves.

Tokens: To more deeply engage the child in the process, you can create tokens with Tiny Virtue Heroes™ Labels  affixed to flexible magnets, in which a Tiny Virtue Hero becomes their partner to represent them on the journey. There are 35 different Tiny Virtue Heroes™. The child can pick a different character to team up with each time they do the challenge. Or you can add a character magnet on the circle where their image appears when a child behaves or speaks with that virtue. The Mission Virtue Challenge is flexible. It leaves lots of room for creativity to fit the rhythm of each different family’s life.

Time: You can do the Mission Virtue Challenge as a “virtue building season” (like a sport season) with an official start and end date or, you can make this an on-going incentive program. When used as an ongoing incentive, it can ebb and flow. If you don’t use it for a while, that’s fine. Just pick up where you leave off.

Guidance: In this approach to behavior motivation and reward, you want to gently guide your child or children. Never use this punitively. Once they have made progress, do not move them backward for bad behavior. Always invite them to get back on track and move forward. The areas of virtue behavior that are emphasized in this challenge are: Think, Pray, Do and Say. Since two of these are interior, it will require conversation between the Virtue Leader and the Virtue Hero. These ordinary conversations provide a simple and natural structure for family virtue formation. The thinking and praying are where virtue begins. You will at times reward these more than the doing and saying.

Reward: Once the child has navigated the board from start to finish, the player has earned the POWER to plan something fun for the whole family to enjoy! (Not a reward just for him or herself.) Parents who want to reward children along the way, can get  Tiny Virtue Heroes™ Key Chains, or a Virtue Heroes™ Pillowcase featuring the child’s favorite virtue color or characters.