Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Teaching moral reasoning?

Anyone have any recommendations for books or resources that help kids think through moral/ethical situations, like moral dilemmas, and develop moral reasoning? I'm not interested in anything that is based on any particular religion.

Kids are 8 and 9 years old.

Kenneth Merrell's "Strong Kids" is a solid social-emotional learning curriculum (designed for classroom implementation, but no reason you couldn't adapt it for home use) for this age group. Not specifically about moral reasoning, but has relevance for related topics.

http://www.amazon.com/Strong-Kids-Emotional-Curriculum-Curricula/dp/1557669309

Arnold Goldstein's Equip/Prepare curriculum, designed for delinquent adolescents, might be a bit of overkill, but it does include moral reasoning as one of its three prongs (social skills, in the form of Skillstreaming, which I've referenced elsewhere, and anger/aggression control are the other two prongs). "Aggression Replacement Training", by Barry Glick and John Gibbs, is the updated version of this, revised after Dr. Goldstein's death.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Prepare-Curriculum-Prosocial-Competencies/dp/087822419X

http://www.amazon.com/Aggression-Replacement-Training-Comprehensive-Intervention/dp/0878226370

On a different note, www.emotes.com sells fun, child-friendly products and curricula for social-emotional learning, which also overlaps with character education. I haven't actually used their products (unlike the Goldstein and Merrell curricula), but what I've leafed through at convention exhibit halls looks promising, and very appealing to children.

I would imagine that some of the critical thinking products (such as from Critical Thinking Company) could be useful in moral reasoning.

Search prufrock press for stuff. I know they have a variety of books in this area.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look them up.

aeh, our district schools use "Second Steps", ever hear of that? Current school does "Responsive Classroom" but I don't know if that actually entails any learning curriculum.

Second Step is also a good social-emotional learning curriculum, with a decent research base. Responsive Classroom is more of classroom management system, though, of course, any really good CM system has some SEL or character education components in it somewhere, even if only incidental. RC is actually more about the teacher than the students.