In this day and age, young people are increasingly encouraged to focus on themselves. With the media and our culture at large constantly sending such messages, it’s important to teach children to care about the welfare of others instead of concentrating solely on their own satisfaction. Here are just a few ways to go about it.
Volunteer With Your Kids
There are plenty of kid-friendly was for children and adults to volunteer together. You can visit a nursing home to cheer up elderly patients, or to an animal shelter to help wash rescued animals.
Take Them To Charity Events
Events like charity runs and walks, bake sales, dinner nights, and dances are fun ways to get your kids involved. Make sure that they understand the reason behind the event, and that their involvement will help the cause.
Talk About Current Events
Disasters like the earthquakes and war can seem like heavy conversation for a child. Our first instinct is to try to shield our children from suffering. However, having discussions about current events can help develop your child’s level of compassion. Discuss with them what is going on in a current crisis, and possible ways that you and your child can help the situation. For example, you can say something like, “There is a war going on in a country called Syria. Sometimes wars happen when two countries can’t agree on something. I thought we could talk about some ways to help the people who have lost their homes because of it.”
Teach Them To Give
If you give your child allowance, teach them the importance of giving to those less fortunate than them. You can take them to donate through their church, synagogue, animal shelter, or any other local organization. UNICEF is a great charity to give to as well.
Be An Example
The most important way for you to teach your children about charity is to be an example yourself. Demonstrate acts of kindness to people, such as helping an eldery couple rake leaves, or baking for a service man or woman. Actively demonstrate charity in your own day to day life.
These are just a few ways you can raise your children to be compassionate. Doing so can help them to live a richer, fuller life.
My children learn this at a very young age as I always told them every time we have to send something for family back home.
These are great tips. My children are still too young for this but I’ll keep these tips in mind to help me raise compassionate kids.
Giving back is something I want my children to learn as they grow. Thank you for all of these tips, they’re all helpful!
Very helpful tips especially for newbie parents like me. My baby is still 7 months old but I’ll make sure to apply these when he gets older.
I think the school teachers and parents play a large role in molding children. Also, leading the way and walking the talk will help in demonstrating how being compassionate should be like.
I think it’s nice to expose them to the real world or have them attend outreach program. They’ll grow up more conscious with the world.
Thank you for these suggestions. The kids nowadays are so wrapped up in their own fantasy worlds thanks to their computers and iPads. There just has to be a balance with the real world.
I sincerely loved this post. I myself am a huge fan of volunteering, donating and being involved. I just realized that I should do this also with my kids:)