Hi everyone! I’m Mandy Bush and I am the online business manager for Cardinal Rule Press (Maria’s publishing company). I am a mother of 2 (son and daughter) and I will be blogging on Be the Difference and will be recapping some valuable tips from Maria’s new show, Empowering Kids With Character – The Show!
On April 12th, Maria continued her April Character trait of friendship with another visual way to teach our children how to be a good friend- you can watch the full video here. (For the printable Maria referenced, you can find that here.)
Activity:
Take a stuffed animal (or you can use yourself, your child or the printable) and point to each of the below as you discuss;
- Eyes: A good friend will make eye contact when someone is talking to them. Remind your child to look in their friend’s eyes and make eye contact. If they’re uncomfortable looking directly into someone’s eyes, they can focus on their friend’s eye color or the bridge, in between their eyes.
- Head/brain: This is for memory – remember things about your friend. What did they say the last time you saw them? Did they have a birthday or some other celebration? A good friend remembers and will ask about it the next time they see someone!
- Ears: Be sure to listen to your friends. Actively listen – let them know you hear them. You can do this by nodding your head and commenting appropriately to what they are saying. Let them know you are paying attention!
- Hands: You can extend kindness to your friends with your hands! You can hug them, rub your friends back or hold their hand. Did they fall down? You can help them stand back up. Show them, with actions, that you care about them.
- Heart: Your heart is where you the caring and thinking about your friends starts. You can show your friends they are important to you by putting them before yourself. Try to have a mindset of “we” and not “me”.
- Mouth: We can be a good friend by using our mouth – we can tell fun stories and smile with friends. We can laugh and say kind words. Our mouth is a VERY powerful tool when it comes to being a good friend. We have the power to lift up a friend when they are feeling down and we have the power to create a new friend just by saying something kind!
This activity isn’t just for young children. It can be used as a reminder for children of all ages – we don’t want our children to grow up to always think of only themselves and not remember to think of others. As adults, we can admit that talking to self-centered adults is extremely frustrating. I know, personally, that when I am talking to someone and they remember something about me, it just makes my day! I love to know that they care enough to REMEMBER a tiny detail. We want to raise children who think of others and are good conversationalists, which is vital to friendship!
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