Teaching Kindness To Your Child: Three Simple Steps

What does kindness mean for a child?

For preschoolers, it may be sharing their cookies with a sibling or saying hello to the neighbor walking his dog. If they are older, they may show kindness by comforting a friend who looks scared or worried or donating their allowance for a good cause.

How do you ensure your child develops the virtue of kindness?
 
Let your words and actions speak the language of kindness and compassion. Ensuring your child grows culturally aware is also very important to nurture kindness in them. So, talk about diversity and buy multicultural picture books.
 
Here are some things you should do for creating a culture of kindness in your home:

Inspire Your Child’s Imagination
 
An active imagination will help your child develop kindness and compassion. It teaches them to be empathetic. Pretend play with your young child to practice empathy. For instance, ask your child what will they do if their favorite doll or teddy fell and bumped their head? As they grow older, ask them to imagine real-life scenarios. Point out differences and diversity without being judgmental. Reading children’s books about diversity is a great way to do that.

Encourage Them to Say Positive Things

Teach your child how their words can greatly impact someone’s life. Help them develop the habit of saying positive things and remain quiet if they do not have anything nice to say. For example, when a friend asks if they liked their drawing and your child did not, they can find something good to say about it, like “I love the colors you used,” rather than giving a negative opinion.
 
Celebrate Diversity and Differences

Don’t hesitate to talk about diversity with your child. Engage them when they ask you questions like, “Why is that person in a wheelchair?” or “Why does that girl look so different from us?” When your child grows culturally aware and has meaningful relationships with children from diverse social groups, they develop empathy and compassion and become more confident and comfortable with themselves.

Start early by investing in multicultural picture books. Be Kind by Livia Lemgruber teaches the value of simple acts of kindness to your young child. Errol’s Garden by Gillian Hibbs talks about uniting a diverse community. Both the books are available at Language Lizard, LLC.

Final Words
 
Model the behavior you want your child to inculcate. Be kind to others and to yourself. Always be respectful. Say Thank You and Please more. Choose children’s books about diversity for your child’s bedtime reading ritual.

Your child will grow up into a wonderful human.