When it comes to learned behaviors, you are your child’s best model. Displaying kindness can shape how your child interacts with others and helps build positive relationships. Showing kindness helps your child understand and share the feelings of others. Parents, educators and caregivers play a vital role in modeling and fostering kindness through everyday behavior.
Random Acts of Kindness Day occurs each February.
Take the time to encourage your child to practice kindness by engaging in the following fun and simple activities.
- Role play with puppets or dolls exchanging polite language that express kindness (e.g., Thank you for helping me. I hope you feel better. I will be your friend.).
- When you are in public, recognize and discuss kind interactions observed between others.
- Encourage your child to share and be kind to his friends and family.
- When driving, ask your child to share how his friends and teachers demonstrated kindness at school today.
Promoting kindness with your child will enhance social connections, promote cooperation and boost happiness and self-esteem. Teaching kindness early is key to laying a solid foundation.
There are many ways to display and teach kindness to your child. You can search for ideas online to further illustrate the meaningful concept of kindness with your child.