“Kindness is a gift everyone can afford to give.” - Unknown
We all want to raise kind children. But it’s easy to forget that skills like compassion, empathy, and kindness—what educators call social-emotional learning—need to be taught, modeled, and practiced.
Author Catherine Newman writes, in her article “6 Ways to Teach Kids to be Kind:”
“The best thing you can do to make the world a better place is to create a culture of kindness in your own home.”
Boy, this can be really hard, especially when we’re under significant, chronic stress.
Newman writes: “We should remind ourselves and our kids that kindness is hard sometimes…it can be challenging to be generous with a sibling who’s annoying you. It can be scary to stick up for a friend or a classmate who isn’t being treated right…but the more that children get in the habit of behaving kindly, the more natural it will become.”
YES!
Kindness is the theme of the first episode in my new series, Zen Sessions for Kids.
It’s mindfulness and music, together, for children—yahoo!
In each episode, I’ll read a mindful moment from my bestselling children's book Breathe Like a Bear, and perform a song that goes along with it from one of my five albums.
In this first one, we practice the essential skills of compassion and thoughtfulness for others, and sing the simple, sweet Kindness Mantra (which you can download free here)!
Go watch it now! (And be sure to subscribe to my channel, so you don’t miss any new episodes!)
I’d love to hear what you think—please get in touch!