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Do you ever wonder if your child is being kind to their friends and other people when you aren’t around? This article shows 17 ways to teach kindness with kids.
The google dictionary defines kindness as, “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.”
How do we teach kindness to kids? Live it! Lead by example! Be kind to others around you. Let your children see your kindness and how contagious it can be. Share with them what happened today as you were kind or served someone. Maybe let your kids be a part of your service to others. Also, talk with your children and share your examples of times when you were kind as a kid and times you weren’t. Let them know what happened and how you felt. Your children will be able to see the contrast of the two stories and the importance of being kind can help you feel happier. Let them know when they are kind and serve someone they will in return feel of their love.
Here is great advice to help your child show kindness to their friends and people they interact with on a daily basis.
This post is all about ways to teach kindness with kids.
1. Include Others
Suggest to your kids when they are at an activity to look around and see if any of their peers are sitting all by themselves. If there is someone alone to go talk with them and ask them if they want to join you in the fun. This is a good way to help everyone feel included in the activity and also a way to make new friends.
2. Be a good friend.
Everyone needs a friend to help them stay connected and not feel lonely. A kid can be a good friend by listening and being there for their friends. They can ask their friends how they are doing. Stay in touch with them often. Support them by going to events they are in and be genuinely happy for them when great accomplishments happen. Recognizing their birthdays with a kind note and chocolate bar is a kind way to be a good friend and they will love that they were remembered on their special day.
3. Be Committed
Teach your kids if someone invites them to get together, and they say yes, to stay committed to that. Let your kids know it isn’t okay to skip an activity with a friend because another activity came up that sounds more fun. A good idea is to instead invite the friend to see if they want to go to the activity that sounds more fun. If not, have your child try and stick with the original plan to hang out with their friend. This shows that their friend is important and they are committed to what they said they would do first.
If your child decides to go to the other activity and their friend finds out, it can cause contention and your child might lose a friend over it. Encourage your child to have open communication with the friend and see if they will go to the other activity. If not, maybe your child can split the activities. Spend time with the friend and then go to the other activity late. But have them be open and honest in a kind way with the friend so it doesn’t cause hurt feelings and drama.
4. Avoid Drama
Sometimes avoiding drama is hard to do. Try to teach your kids to avoid confrontations and avoid drama as much as possible. Have them understand both sides of the story and not judge harshly. Let them know they can still be friends with both sides if two friends are fighting. Your child can tell the friends that they both are loved and encourage them to resolve it by communicating.
5. Be a Good Listener
Teach your child to be attentive with friends and others they are having a conversation with. This helps the talker feel like they are being heard. Making eye contact and participating in the conversation shows interest as well. These are all great communication skills that will also help when your child is conversing with adults.
6. Teach Kindness with Patience
We live in a fast paced world and kids have a lot on their plate. By teaching your kids to show patience with their friends helps to reduce hurt feelings. It helps others feel comfortable in certain situations and they become better listeners. Working on patience skills, like waiting on people, with friends will also help them have more patience with adults.
7. Give a Compliment
Have your child recognize what others do and to give out compliments. They can tell someone they look good today or did great on a performance. Let them know that this opens up conversations with others that builds trust and friendships.
8. Say Please and Thank You
Saying please and thank you shows your child has good manners, is kind, polite and respectful. People are impressed when kids have good manners. It also teaches good communication skills.
9. Help Someone in Need
Teach your child to help others in need. By doing something for someone in need helps them feel good about the service they have done and to appreciate their life more. It reduces selfishness and helps your child connect with their community.
10. Be Polite and Smile at Others
A smile goes a long way. Smiling at others brightens their day. People also like to hear their name. So if your child sees someone they know, encourage them to smile at them and call them by their first name.
11. Teach Kindness with Good Language
Let your children know it is important to speak kind words around and about people. Teach them not to gossip, although there might be times they do need to vent to someone. Have them choose one trusted person who they can speak with, but try not to talk to multiple people because it can get misinterpreted and this can cause gossip. Let your child know it is important to talk about everyone nicely.
12. Give Notes
A good way for your child to show people they care is to write them a note. They can lift their friends or others up and tell them with a message what a good job they did on an assignment, activity, performance, etc.
13. Be Compassionate and Smother with Kindness
Let your child know if someone is being rude to them to be nice back. They might have just had a bad day, so try to give them a second chance. Smother them with kindness. Lift them up. Show compassion for them. Compliment them and maybe they will soften up. After a while, your child might even see a friendship starting to form.
14. Help a Coach Set Up for a Practice or a Game
Before or after a sporting practice or game, have your kids help the coach clean up the cones, pennies, balls, goals or other equipment and take the gear to the coaches vehicle or equipment room. The coach will really appreciate your child’s effort to help and this will build a bond between them. Other kids will see your child do this and join in.
15. Teach Kindness with Acts of Service
Teach your kids to do acts of service to help strengthen their relationship with their friends. This shows they care and their friends will want to be around them.
16. Help Clean Up After a Party or Activity
After an activity an adult has put on for your child’s group, have them help clean up. This is so helpful for the leader and shows that the child appreciates all the effort they did for them. It also helps others see what a good kid your child is and they come across as a kind individual.
17. Be Loyal and Honest
Teach your child to be loyal and honest to their friends. Teach them to keep confidence with them and not to spread gossip. Keep sensitive information to themselves or the group unless it is a safety issue, then they need to know to talk to a trusted adult. Miscommunications do happen but it is good for your child to talk with friends if any issues do come up.
We do a service for our kids when we teach them how to show love and respect for others by being kind. Kids need to know when they are kind to people they will make connections with them and a new friendship can be formed. It benefits the giver and the receiver and brings peace and unity to the world and makes it a better place. Being kind can help reduce stress in your kids’ lives and help improve self esteem and self worth. It also brings happiness and people like to be around people who are kind and happy.
When we are kind it is usually returned back with kindness. So, share with your kids the importance of going out to serve, to lift up another, and simply to be kind to others. Teach them all about kindness with kids and to follow the golden rule principle to treat others as they would want to be treated. Promote kindness and let your kids know…
Kindness begins with them!
Let’s Serve!
This post was all about ways to teach kindness with kids.