How to Teach Siblings to do Good Deeds for Each Other

Teaching children about good deeds is an important life lesson. What better place to do that than at home with their own siblings? Here are a few simple ideas that could make children crazy for caring and have them looking for good deeds to do.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Slips of paper with each siblings name on them.
• <br>Jar
• <br>Marbles, decorative rocks or dried beans
• <br>Small candy of choice
• <br>Small bowl

1. Take small slips of paper and write the names of the each sibling in the family on them. Then fold them up and put them all in a small bowl or bag. If you have an odd number of children or family members, you may want to consider putting parents, neighbors, or someone else's names onto a slip of paper.
2. Hold a family meeting and explain to everyone that you have the names of siblings and or other family members and each of them are going to draw one out. Let them know that they cannot draw themselves so if they do that will have to put their name back and redraw. Once everyone has a name explain to everyone that the person whose name appears on their slip of paper is their "Secret Sibling" for the week.
3. The purpose of having a "Secret Sibling" is to try to kind and thoughtful things for that member of the family. Encourage them to try to do the good deeds without their secret sibling's knowledge. The lesson that you will teach them is that you do not have to receive praise or thanks to do a good deed.
4. You can add some extra incentives to reluctant or skeptical family members by incorporating a good deed jar also. Take a jar of any size that you choose and next to it place a small bowl with marbles, decorative stones or rocks, dried beans or other items you may want to use. Each time that you see someone doing a good deed for another you can transfer one of the items into the good deed jar. Encourage other family members to do the same, by adding an item when they witness or are benefited by a good deed. However, they are not allowed to put one in for their own good deeds.
5. When the good deed jar gets full you can take out the items and replace them with a treat that the whole family will enjoy such as M & Ms, Starburst, jellybeans, gumballs or other small candy. This is a nice way for everyone to enjoy the benefits of being a more benevolent family.
6. Make it a weekly tradition to have dinner together and share about your "Secret Sibling" experience for the week. Then use the time to redraw for new names. This can go on for a few weeks until everyone has had each person in the family as their Secret Sibling for the week.