Teaching Children to Show Compassion

 

Everyday we come across situations where we can show compassion towards another person. It could be as simple as smiling or asking someone how their day is going. It is nice to open doors for others or pick up items that have been dropped by someone else. Teaching children simple acts of kindness is one of the most important things we can do. It is never too early to teach our children what compassion and having empathy for others looks like. Children first learn this from us when we model it to them on a daily basis.

Friends and Neighbors:

This game is amazing, especially for younger children. This game is recommended for children ages 3 and up. What I love about this game is that it tells children what kind of feelings the child is feeling and this helps young children understand that others have feelings as well. There are 14 different scenarios where your child will be able to show compassion and empathy towards another person. This game is a matching game and the objective of this game is to complete 1 game board with 9 matching tokens before there are 5 red tokens on the stop sign.

How to play the game:

-Place the 14 tokens in the helping bag.

-Choose 1 game board . All 4 players use one board game, working together as a team.

-Set up the stop sign near the game board.

-Let the youngest player go fist.

– Pull out one token from the helping bag. Look at the picture on the token and see if you could use that token to help someone who is on the board. If you can help someone then place it item-side up on its match on the board. Read the start of the poem that is on the board game and the end of the poem which is on the token.If you are not able to help anyone then place the token upside down on the stop sign.

To order your game visit http://www.peaceablekingdom.com…

 

 

 

Cardboard Neighborhood:

This is so easy and fun to make. All you need is a cardboard box, scissors, paint, paint brush, and your imagination. We made houses, a hospital, church, people, and trees. It is a good idea to cut out a rectangle and paint the person or tree on it. The reason you want to do this is because if you make it to thin on the bottom it won’t stand up. On the bottom of each of your cardboard creations make a slit through it. Then place a thin rectangle piece through that slit.

Have children make up their own scenario or simply reenact the scenarios from Friends and Neighbors game.

 

 

What to share and what should not be shared:

“Sharing is Caring” – so let’s learn to share.

I decided to have my 10 year old teach this to her younger two sisters. Sharing is very important but there are a few things that are not recommended to share with just anyone. Some of the please don’t share items can be shared (in my option) with siblings or cousins but not with everyone.

What is not recommended to share: underwear, toothbrush, earplugs, hats, hair pieces, hairbrush, nail clipper, or drinks.

What is recommended to share: toys, pens, crayons, books, jump rope, and other things.

 

 

We love the parables that Jesus shared especially : The Good Samaritan. Check out my post here http://www.homegrownadventures.net/the-parable-of-the-good-samaritan/                     .