Teaching Kids Kindness (with a Kindness Jar)

The following post is from Becky of This Reading Mama:

Homeschooling has been such a blessing for our family. Although I never thought homeschooling would be an option for me, God had other plans. On the flip side, homeschooling has its challenges. And some days, it seems the challenges out weigh the joys. On such a recent day, the kids were bickering and arguing about everything, it seemed. I was about to pull my hair out. Seriously. It was cold and wet and we had been stuck inside with each other for days. I was tired of asking them to be kind to one another and felt my efforts were falling on deaf ears.

Then a still, small voice spoke (that I quickly recognized as God), “This is one of the blessings of being a homeschooling mom. You get to develop their character as well.” Blessings? Yes, I had forgotten that one of my main goals was to teach their hearts, not just their minds. Instead of being proactive in teaching their hearts, I had become reactive, which is not the prettiest of sights.

Teaching Kids Kindness

I quickly called a family meeting in the kitchen. I sat my three oldest down (ages 8, 5, and 3) and explained the difference between a kind word and an unkind word. I modeled a few examples of each.

I quickly dumped out a change jar, gathered a few “kindness jewels” (when you have preschoolers, you find that you have all kinds of manipulatives that can serve more than one purpose), and explained a new system that would start immediately. Whenever I heard a kind word being spoken by any of the kids, I would place a kindness jewel in to the kindness jar. And when the kindness jar became full, our family would do something special together (such as go get ice cream or have a picnic lunch together.)

Before the meeting was adjourned, we role played for just a bit, because I wanted to be sure they understood what I was asking them to do. I also inserted the rule that if they asked me to put a jewel in because they were kind, I would not at that time.

Our kindness jar sits in a prominent place on our kitchen counter. The kids like to hear the sound of the bling hit the glass bottom. Has it solve all our problems? Absolutely not. That was not my intention. But it is a wonderful reminder to me that I need to model kind words and encourage them within my kids. I need to teach and train their hearts as well as their minds.

What are some ways you teach and encourage kindness at home with your kids?

Becky Spence is a homeschooling mama to four little blessings who keep her on her feet {and knees}. She is passionate about teaching, specifically literacy. She is the author of This Reading Mama, where she shares reading and writing activities and tips as well as free literacy curricula and printables. You can connect with her on Google +, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter.