Children's Activities for Learning Care & Compassion
Children are not born caring or compassionate. They learn the skills necessary to treat people with respect and kindness from their parents and teachers. Teaching care and compassion is enjoyable when you find age-appropriate activities. Teaching children how to balance their own needs with the needs of those around them will help them maintain healthy, well-rounded lives as they grow.
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The Six Pillars of Character
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The Character Counts approach to character education is a way to teach care and compassion through many activities and lessons. This program is not politically, culturally or religiously based. The program uses the concepts of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship, and incorporates a color-coded system to help children remember the pillars. This program encourages the use of the Six Pillars as a value base when making ethical decisions.
Start a Food Drive
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A food drive is a way to teach compassion if the drive is explained properly to children. A food drive can be a way to perpetuate the stereotype of a "poor person" by failing to teach the underlying causes of poverty and the ways to improve the situation. If a food drive is not oversimplified, then the desired message will easily be understood. A food drive that empowers children to take responsibility in their community will benefit them for years to come. Helping the children see where the food is going is one way to increase their understanding of the role they are playing.
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Volunteer
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Spending time with your child while volunteering provides learning time for you both. Discuss who your child would like to give his time to and then find out when you both can go tour the facility. Determine how much time you have available prior to signing up. If your child is interested in animals, take him to the local shelter where he can walk the dogs or clean out the cat cages. He can also collect food or blankets for the shelter, or brainstorm ways to raise money or items for the shelter. Be creative and spend time discussing and planning the volunteer options with your child.
Find an Attitude of Gratitude
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Taking your child to a homeless shelter may not reap the results you are hoping for from them. They may see the children that live there all playing together and think it would be fun to do that also. Engage them in discussions to help find the sliver lining in a bad situation or put a gratitude calendar in a high-traffic area and have the child say what they are grateful for each day. This will bring about conversations between you and your child about the positive and negative things in life. Every day, a new lesson can be learned, if you are willing to engage your child.
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- Photo Credit children image by Marzanna Syncerz from Fotolia.com
