From taking turns on the swing to donating a toy, making kindness a part of everyday life can go a long way in bringing up empathetic children. Showing compassion and grace, and treating everyone with respect are lessons that can be taught from an early age.
To help parents teach kids about kindness and empathy in age-appropriate ways, Highlights recently launched its kindness collection — books, an interactive activity booklet, and sticker set designed to encourage kids to be their best selves wherever they go.
Highlights is a magazine launched in the United States in 1946 with the purpose of teaching children how to treat others with respect, kindness and sensitivity by using their creativity and imagination. Today, the company publishes books and activity booklets, sells lifestyle gear and has a website for parents.
The kindness titles include:
Highlights Kindness Library
This set of three hardcover books are filled with cheerful illustrations and simple words that explore what it means to be kind. The books feature kids of all abilities and backgrounds and everyday examples of simple ways to practice kindness, compassion, empathy, and gratitude at home and out in the world (available at Toys R Us, $60, ages 2+).
Learning Kindness Book
This 192-page interactive activity book includes prompt questions for discussions, stickers, puzzles, poems, stories and more — all to help build social-emotional skills (available on Amazon, $17.00, ages 3+).
Learning Kindness Activity Set
The write-on wipe-off pages of the activity pad introduce preschoolers and kindergarteners to the importance of kindness in a fun and creative way. 96 pages of activities cover a range of school skills from letter and number tracing to critical thinking in activities, puzzles, and games (available at Toys R Us, $19.99, ages 3+).
Stick with Kindness Reusable Sticker Playscenes
Designed to help kids 3-6 understand real-world examples of kindness, the reusable sticker activity set includes six fold-out play scenes and more than 175 vinyl cling stickers inside a resealable storage folder (available at Toys R Us, $19.99, ages 3+).
Credit: Highlights
Highlights also offers a new website with resources for adults on raising kind children and nurturing confident parenting. At Highlights Parents, families can explore articles about learning and school readiness, social and emotional development, and find craft and family game activities. Parenting tools include expert tips on how to deal with school avoidance, ways to help children manage anxiety and grief, and how to help children deal with cliques. The Dear Highlights podcast on Spotify lets parents hear discussions about a variety of topics, from which scary movies are good for kids to helping kids develop a positive body image.
Connect with Highlights Parents at parents.highlights.com
