Teaching Kindess to Children

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If we want to ensure a positive future for our planet, we need to be teaching our children the power of kindness while we still can. This can be a very simple task, believe it or not.  One way to encourage your child to show kindness is by helping them make a new friend. The first step in making friends is meeting someone new. You could take a walk to your local library and find children's books about making new friends, or going to a new school. Read these books with your child, and act out scenes which promote kindness to friends with some puppets. Most libraries have puppets on hand for the children. You may even meet a new friend who is reading books at the library at the same time. That way, you can practice kindness in person.  Another possible way to model kindness to children is through using good manners and modeling behavior that you want to see. Again, you can show this to your kids with the use of books and puppets. Find books that talk about using the words "Please or Thank You" or which discuss the general manners people exhibit daily, like holding doors open or helping someone with a task. Use dolls or toys at home to mimic situations where kindness is shown. Be sure to let children know that they need to show kindness to animals as well. If you have pets, demonstrate how to gently handle the pet, and other proper animal care.  Model the language and actions for children that you want to see them use during play time or other tasks so they can hear new words, learn proper sentence structure, and listen to great examples of appropriate conversations between adults and children alike.