Teaching Kindness

Warm-Hearted Walrus is one of nine Characters of Character. This character helps to teach and reinforce kindness. This is a skill that is learned. When a child has a positive role model to look up to they are more likely to follow their behaviors than any one else. Here are some tips to help teach and reinforce this trait in your child:

• How do you teach kindness?

  Try incorporating some of these practices into your daily routines.

• Be a role model for your child

• The old cliche’ we’ve all heard: “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”

• A kind word or a simple smile goes a long way (don’t judge anyone, we all have a bad day, try to life their spirits with a simple smile or a kind word)

• Allow your child to see you do acts of kindness, they will want to follow suit

• Allow your child to feel kindness in their own being from when they do an act of kindness

• Allow your child to do acts of kindness to help another person, chores at home, helping a neighbor, you decide knowing who are safe people to surround your child

• Share stories of kindness with your child

• Listen intentionally when your child wants to share a story of kindness

The above coloring and activity book is a great way to discuss what kindness means to a child, what it looks like, how it feels and how a child can engage in ways to be kind. The book is available on here. We have a YouTube Chanel with a coloring activities you can watch here. There is a social story called, Let’s Be Kind which is available here. A Resource book filled with ideas, templates and activities can be found here and a Bulletin Board and Poster book can be found here to help you teach and reinforce kindness. What a wonderful world it could be!

As I taught Pre-School for many years, was a Teaching Assistant in an Elementary School and a member of the Reading Team, I’ve taken my experiences and really enjoy sharing them to help with our literacy. This is done with the character activities and lessons which will engage a child, impact their decisions and support their academic adventures! With the activity book, not only should you color the pages, I encourage you to use them as a Journal cover for your child to build their own journal, to use as a sticker chart or visual reminder at all times to reinforce the trait. Plus, use the words for your word wall, make a dictionary of words, draw pictures and write letters using new words you introduce to your child.