#Collaborative post
All children are born with the instinct to be kind. As author Alfie Kohn shares, it is almost in our being to be upset by another’s pain which naturally gives us some capacity to care. The rest is up to nurture and what we teach children about emotion. There are 7 ways that you can raise a kind and compassionate child as an independent school in Wales shares.
Show Them How to Be Compassionate
Children learn most of their behaviours and attitudes from their parents as they look up to them as their role models. By demonstrating kindness to others in their presence, you can show them how to go about showing compassion and help them do the same. You can do so by verbalising your actions like why you’re choosing to buy your friend a gift or writing them a card. This means being consistent in your modelling as being unkind to others in their presence can confuse them and encourage them to do the same.
Point Out Bad Behaviour
As well as the good, it’s also important for children to understand what bad behaviour looks like as this can teach them about how not to treat others. This is something that you can do by standing up to unkind behaviour and pointing it out if your child happens to.
Children’s Programmes
TV can teach children a lot. It exposes them to different social situations, how others may feel in response and what those feelings look like. This understanding can make them more emotionally intelligent and help them to respond appropriately when encountering similar situations.
Role Play
Role play is a fun way that you can give your child the opportunity to practise being kind and compassionate. To make things entertaining, you can put on a show with their puppets or toys.
Create a Dictionary
You can also create flash cards of the different words used to describe emotions. That will not only help them when interacting with others but also with identifying their own emotions and how they’re feeling.
Respect
We all deserve to be treated with kindness regardless of who we are and our background. By teaching your child this, you can help them to be a better person and get along with all irrespective of their differences.
Do Your Bit for Charity
Charitable donations and acts can help children to see why it’s so important that we all take care of one another and encourage them to do the same. There might be things that you do together to do this like volunteering at a shelter or a sponsored activity.