Activities About Selflessness for Kids

Sharing toys is a concrete form of selflessness for kids to practice.

You can train your children to develop valuable character traits like selflessness. Activities designed to introduce the concept of selflessness and to reinforce a child's selfless decisions will strengthen his willingness and ability to put the needs of others before his own desires. Use modeling, positive reinforcement and concrete language to help children grow.

Teamwork Time

Teaching children to become involved in what others want to do is one way to help them develop selflessness and empathy for others' desires. When children are playing with blocks, dolls or toy cars, tell them that it is "teamwork time." Let one child pick an idea for a game or goal, like building a fire station or having the dolls go to the mall, then guide the children in working together to play that game. Let a new child pick the focus after an age-appropriate amount of time passes.

Switching Places

You can develop empathy and selflessness in children who enjoy playing pretend or dress-up by pretending to switch places. Think of a situation in which your child is usually selfish or demanding. Let your child dress up as you, while you pretend to be your child. Set up the situation with reversed roles by helping your child pretend to prepare dinner or take a rest after work. Act demanding in a way that parallels your child's common behavior, then help your child think of ways you could be more selfless and replay the situation with selfless behavior.

Serving Meals

Letting a child help serve a meal provides an opportunity for her to practice the actions and attitudes of sharing. As you serve the parts of the meal that are hot or could cause messy spills, choose a simple item like toast or biscuits for your child to put onto each plate. Guide her to serve others first, then tell her she can take one for herself if she would like one. Reinforce her selfless behavior by thanking her for letting others go first, and by having the people whom she serves thank her as she gives them food.

Games

Board games and card games can help older children practice taking turns and working as a team. An easy way to modify any game into a practice in communication and compromise is to put kids on two-person teams instead of having individual players. Add a rule that both teammates have to agree before they can act on a decision. Kids can develop their own approach to reach compromise, such as taking turns leading or discussing each choice.

References

• Family Education: Attitude Makeover: Selfish
• Ziggity Zoom: Teaching Your Child Selflessness