Teaching Kids Kindness: Why It’s So Important
Teaching kids kindness is so important. As a parent, showing your child how to be considerate and care about others is a vital part of your role. So why do we need to teach children kindness?
By instilling a sense of thoughtfulness in your children at a young age, they will grow to be compassionate and self-aware adults. Plus, being kind will enable them to form much better relationships with their peers (and maybe increase the number of playdate invitations they receive!).
What is kindness for kids?
First things first: how do you explain kindness to a child? It’s important to understand that kindness can take different forms. While children can be kind at any age, make sure you take your child’s development stage into account — they are still learning, after all, and they are bound to make mistakes along the way. However, that doesn’t mean your efforts won’t be fruitful.
In essence, a good way to explain kindness to kids is the act of performing small actions — or even words — that show someone you care about them. Plus, being kind feels great, so doing something good will help to fulfill your child’s innate desire for happiness.
Teaching kids kindness: some suggestions
There are many kindness activities for kids that you can encourage or even partake in. It may seem like a daunting task — and trust us, we know how busy parents can be! — but it doesn’t have to be difficult.
If you’re not sure how best to teach your child how to be kind, we’ve come up with some suggestions below. Read on for some ideas of excellent ways to teach your kids kindness that are sure to work wonders.
Give them compliments
Children do as children see, and your child is sure to benefit from some positive feedback when they’re behaving. If you notice that your child has done something nice, put extra effort into a particular task, or even shared their favorite toy, let them know that you’ve seen this and praise them for being kind.
This way, they will associate kind actions with positive reinforcement, making them even more likely to be kind more often. Try to pay your child compliments whenever you can, to help them build a good self-image.
Share kind stories
Sharing tales of compassion and generosity is one of the best ways to teach your kids kindness. Whether you choose to tell tales based on real-life experiences or pick a book with positive role models, stories revolving around kindness are a useful tool for instilling a sense of compassion in your child.
For some inspiration for your next book choice, check out this list of stories of kindness.
Volunteer
How do you teach kids about random acts of kindness? Well, one of the best ways to do this is by volunteering. Volunteering teaches children to offer their help and time purely to help someone else — without expecting anything back in return.
Children can volunteer in small ways, such as helping to collect trash in the local park or bringing old belongings to the local charity store. It doesn’t have to be anything too demanding, and we bet your kids will enjoy it!
Pay a visit to an elderly relative or friend
Loneliness is becoming more and more prevalent among the elderly. Why not visit a nearby elderly relative or family friend with your child, to check in on them? Alternatively, residents of the local retirement home are bound to be appreciative of a young visitor!
Your child may not be totally thrilled at first about the idea of spending time with elderly people, but they’ll more than likely enjoy it, and their visit is guaranteed to make a positive impact. This is a wonderful way to teach your child thoughtfulness and care.
Give someone a smile
Smiling often is a wonderful way to spread kindness. An unexpected smile can brighten up someone’s bad day — but that’s not all. Smiling has been proven to boost mood, lower stress levels, and even help the immune system to function better!
What’s more, smiling is contagious, so if you smile more, those around you are bound to smile more too. What’s not to love?
Make thank you cards
If your child has recently received a gift for their birthday or some other occasion, ask them to make a thank you card for the person who gave it to them. Not only does this allow them to showcase their creativity, but a homemade thank you card is a very special thing to receive — even better if it’s sent the old-fashioned way by mail!
By taking the time to sit and make a personalized thank you card, your child is showing their appreciation in a creative act of kindness.
Positive affirmations
Kindness comes from within, so make sure you show your child how to be kind to themselves, too!
By practicing positive affirmations, you’re teaching your child not only to recognize the parts of themselves that they like, but how to see these things in others and to express them healthily.
Teaching kids kindness: why it’s so important
All in all, there are tons of ways to teach your child about kindness, and it’s really important to do this while they’re young. The best part is that being kind will make them feel really good about themselves, too.
We hope this list of kindness activities for kids gives you some inspiration for ways to teach your children about the simple act of being kind.
