Teachers will be talking about what this looks like and sounds like both inside and outside of the classroom. This is all about being inclusive, respecting each individual, accepting other people’s  differences and uniquenesses and being empathetic to each others needs.

This also ties in well with our RR topic!

You may wish to talk about this as a family and what this will look like in your family setting.

Today’s article also ties in nicely with this theme by looking at how we can teach our children to be more empathetic towards others and why this is so important.

Over the next two newsletter articles there will be some strategies you can look at to help your child become more empathetic and understanding towards others.

Happy reading,

When it comes to kindness, you are your child’s primary teacher. Here’s how to develop empathy in your child as a character trait and value.

How Empathy Grows
Empathy — the ability to understand another person’s feelings — develops over time. A 2-year-old may try to comfort a crying playmate by offering her own pacifier or blankie. While she is not able to understand why her friend is crying, she remembers times when she felt sad and knows what comforts her. At 3, children are more aware of others, but they still have trouble relating to how others actually feel. They may delight, for example, in knocking down someone else’s block tower and not understand why the child who built it is so upset.

By age 4, children can better understand when they’ve hurt someone and can sometimes offer an apology without being told. They are also quite empathetic about another child’s injuries.

By the time children are 5 or 6, they often can share more easily and take turns. And they are able to discuss what it means to be kind and can brainstorm ideas for how they might help people.

6 Strategies for Encouraging Kindness
The following suggestions will help you to teach your child about being goodhearted and compassionate. But in the words of author/psychologist Dr. Julius Segal, nothing “will work in the absence of an indestructible link of caring between parent and child.” When you kiss your daughter’s sore leg or read cozy bedtime stories to your son, you are giving your child the base that enables them to reach out to others.

1. Believe that your child is capable of being kind. “If you treat your kid as if he’s always up to no good, soon he will be up to no good,” Kohn cautions. “But if you assume that he does want to help and is concerned about other people’s needs, he will tend to live up to those expectations.”
2. Model positive action. What you do and say is critical; let your child catch you in the act of kindness, such as driving an elderly neighbor to the store or offering a comforting word to a friend. Most parents start this role-modeling from day one. “They talk while feeding their baby, saying, ‘a little bit of food for baby, a little bit of food for me,'” says Stacey York, a child development instructor. “This lays the foundation for a lifetime of give-and-take and openness with people.”
3. Treat your child with respect. This can be as simple as alerting your child that playtime is almost over. “I always wince when I see parents suddenly decide it’s time to leave the playground and snatch their children away abruptly because it’s time to go home,” Kohn says. “That’s a disrespectful way to treat a human being of any size.” You might also point out successful conflict resolution through real-world experiences. At home, for example, you could say to your child, “Mommy and Daddy don’t always agree, but we listen to each other and treat each other with respect instead of putting each other down.”
4. Coach your child to pay attention to people’s facial expressions. This is the first step in learning how to understand another’s perspective. “We are more likely to reach out to other people in need when we are able to imagine how the world looks from someone else’s point of view,” Kohn says.
5. Let your child know often that how they treat others matters to you greatly. For example, a child might think it’s funny to see someone get splashed if a car drives by and hits a puddle. You can point out, “That lady is not laughing at what happened. Look at her face. She looks sad. Her clothes are dirty and wet now.”
6. Don’t let rudeness pass. You might say, “Wow, that cashier must have had a really bad day to talk in such a mean voice to us at the supermarket. What do you think?” This teaches your child that when someone is nasty to you, you don’t have to be mean in response.