4 Tips to Teach Your Kid Kindness
Image of sisters sharing their torta by @chavez_vida_bella
Kindness sounds like a basic life skill that is instilled in children, but as parents and caregivers, we are the people who teach our little ones how to treat others. We constantly ask ourselves, how can we teach our child about kindness or how can we make sure they are kind? To help you, we put together a couple of tips to ensure our little one is learning to treat people with kindness:
The first rule of kindness is telling your children the definition of the word: the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate
Be the human you want your child to be:
Remember, our little ones are observant human beings and will repeat almost everything we do. If we want our children to be kind, we must be kind as well. Your child will exude kindness if that is how you treat others in everyday life. Whether we open the door for somehow or say, “please and thank you,” your child will most likely do the same. Kind actions coming from parents, can then we transferred other to their children. Be kind to others at home and outside as well.
Image of children sharing their Lil’ Loteria by @mamivida
Kindness isn’t always easy:
Your child might not always understand why kindness is necessary in certain situations. For example, your child doesn’t want to share their new toy with someone else. We need to teach our little ones that being kind is important. Although they may not want to share their toy, it’s always a nice gesture to share it anyways. Sometimes we do things we don’t want to do and treating kindness in situations isn’t always easy. But showing kindness makes us better people at the end of the day.
Actions speak louder than words:
While kind gestures are important, we need to teach our children that words are more important than actions. People always remember kind words since they hold meaning behind them. Saying simple words like “please”, “thank you,” “you’re very nice,” or “I appreciate your kindness” are meaningful phrases that stay with us. We can say these words are related with manners or politeness, but truly they are everyday necessities. Teaching your little one to speak kind words leaves a positive impact on the world.
Practice kind gestures at home:
Children feel their most comfortable at home and practicing kind gestures in a safe environment is important. We can teach our children kindness towards friends and family daily. Kind gestures at home can be cleaning up after playtime, saying “please” when asking for something, or doing things without being told. Children might not realize they are showing kindness but need to understand that it comes in all shapes and sizes.
Kindness is taught through action and is not always easy, but as parents we always try our best. Find books about friendship and kindness like Luna Oscura and Amor de colores at LilLibros.com.
In the deep, dark forest, there exists a community of cats. And, within that community, there sits Luna, a black cat ostracized by the others due to superstitious beliefs. Aided by her trusty companion, Toad, Luna goes on a mission to not only find her forever home, but also her power, realizing along the way that black cats are magic.
Following the success of Singing - Cantando de colores, Amor de colores will introduce your little ones to all the colorful ways we see love in the world around us and teach them the colors of the rainbow. What color is your love today?
Lil’ Loteria is a fun twist on a traditional classic that turns the game of bingo into a bilingual learning game! Kids learn memory and matching skills plus vocabulary words in English and Spanish. Once the game board is filled with the matching cards, they shout LOTERIA! The first to shout, wins.
