Teaching Young Children Kindness
That lady bug up there in the picture is our love bug. His name is LoveBug. We’re kind of in a literal phase right now 🙂
LoveBug is a gift I gave my daughters at the beginning of this month and his story is very simple. LoveBug just wants to be loved. With your help, he does nice things for the members of your family and then he gets to sit around and take all the credit.
The “rules” are really pretty simple. You do something nice for someone in your family (make their bed, pick some flowers, make their favorite cookies, etc.) and then leave your love bug instead of a note. If you find the love bug in your possession, it’s time for you to do something nice for someone else.
Depending on the age of your children, you may need to adjust how LoveBug works. Our 18-month-old really only benefits from LoveBug, she hasn’t been able to work with him on any projects. But she LOVES cuddling with him and also getting into all kinds of trouble with him in tow (see photo below for Exhibit A).
My 5-year-old really enjoyed the process of thinking about and listing all the nice things we could do for the others in our family. Some require help from me (or dad), but getting her excited about doing nice things for others has been a great lesson in kindness for the sake of kindness. You don’t get a thank you when you use the love bug, he gets all the credit. But you get the joy of knowing your loved one is having a nice day because of something you did, even if they never know it was you.
With your help, he does nice things for the members of your family and then he gets to sit around and take all the credit.
LoveBug teaches children that small acts of random kindness can bring much happiness to others. While you can choose to start this lesson anytime of the year, I’ve found February to be a logical choice. We already spend a good part of this month talking about romance (to my 5-yr-old romance is all about candles!) and love and valentines. It’s the perfect time to discuss how we can show love and give love to those we care about most and how good it feels to do so.
Does your family have a love bug or some other type of activity you use to teach young children about kindness? Share your ideas in the comments. You can never have too much love!
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