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Our Theme of the Month: Integrity and Good Character
Our Theme of the Month: Integrity and Good Character
Integrity is known as "the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions."
When we live with integrity, we show that we are honest and follow strong moral and ethical values. Our character is seen by others through what we do or don't do and what we say or don't say. When we speak honestly and follow the rules set before us, we can find inner peace, create positive relationships, and have success in our work and leisure pursuits. Actions often do speak louder than words. When we reflect on our day, be aware of what you have done that may or may not support a strong moral code. It is not too early to start teaching our children the value of good character and holding strong moral values.
Read here about teaching Integrity and Good Character to Children.
Teaching Kids About Honesty
Teaching Kids About Honesty
7 Ways to Help Kids Learn about Integrity
(https://howtoadult.com/activities-teach-kids-honesty-7856793.html)
(https://www.imom.com/good-character-for-kids-how-to-raise-trustworthy-kids/#.V3zuCctOlAh)
Always be honest. Tell the truth (in age-appropriate ways) when speaking with kids.
Read books that focus on the main character learning about honesty/integrity. Discuss with your child about the story and how the character responded both positively and negatively when faced with dilemmas. Remind your child that people who tell lies are seen as untrustworthy by other people. This means people may not believe you when you do tell the truth.
To instill the value of honesty in a child, use art. Have your child draw a picture of how it makes him/her feel when someone is honest and trustworthy. Give him/her an example, like when the child dropped a dollar and a friend gave it back. Have your child draw another picture of how he/she would feel if the person had not been honest with him/her. Your child will learn empathy in this way and recognize the positive aspects of honesty and the negative associations with being dishonest.
Play Games. Many times children will absorb a lesson more effectively if they feel like they are having fun playing games. Play a game with your child where you make two true statements and one false statement. She has to choose which of the statements is the lie. Next, allow her to make honest statements and tell a lie. Repeat the process for several rounds. Whoever guesses the most lies wins the game. This process helps to teach a child what is the truth and what is a lie. Purchase or make your own board game that focuses on honesty. Make a series of index cards that include a hypothetical situation and ask your child how he would respond. Talk about the consequences of his decision. Pass the set of cards to the next person. Complete this activity on the weekend or during dinner each night.
Role Play-you can role play real life scenarios to help practice showing honesty/integrity in daily situations. You can act this out with your child or have a young child make a set of puppets with you. Then act out different scenarios where one character is caught in a situation in which he might lie. Reinforce the message of honesty by always having the character tell the truth. Prompt your child to make sure his/her character stays honest or have the character face consequences for dishonest behavior.
Praise actions of honesty and truthfulness.
Explain the moral element of integrity- Even young children can understand the difference between the truth and a lie. In so many ways, trustworthiness is essentially about honesty—saying what you mean and meaning what you say. Following through when you make a promise. Help your child to understand that being a person others can trust is very important.
Strong Character Traits
Strong Character Traits
10 Character Traits to model, teach and practice with your kids/students.
Gratitude-being aware and thankful for the people and things in your life.
Encouragement-praise and encourage others and self. Encourage through successes and failures to keep trying, learning and growing.
Honesty (integrity)-telling the truth, doing the "good or right thing" even when no one is watching. Also, not hurting others to gain something for yourself.
Compassion-helping out and being kind to others, even if you may not like or understand the other person.
Fairness-Treating others kindly and equally according to their unique situations.
Respect-Taking care of belongings, treating yourself and others nicely, not intentionally harming anyone. "waling" in someone else's shoes to understand their perspective and challenges.
Caring-Putting other people before yourself, helping those in need and volunteering are great options to show how you care for others.
Loyalty-Supporting other people's interests, sticking up for friends and family if someone else is being mean to them, and supporting people who trust you to support them.
Responsibility -Following rules and directions from authority figures, taking care of yourself and your belongings, being careful with money, and accepting consequences when not acting responsibly.
Bravery-doing something even when you feel nervous or afraid. Standing up against people who talk and act in a mean way. Tackling challenges and accepting struggles as the pathway to success.
Bravery Badge activity
Bravery Badge activity
You can help your child learn to face their fears by making a Bravery Badge that they can wear any time they need a little extra boost in confidence. The Bravery Badge also provides a great opportunity to talk with your children about what situations make them scared or uncomfortable and allow you to address their fears. In addition, this also provides a fun activity for your children to exercise their creativity and ingenuity! (From PBS.org)
Things You Will Need:
Colored Construction Paper
Pencil
Scissors
Circular items for tracing (bowls, glasses, lids)
2 cut pieces of ribbon, 5" long, 2" wide
Glue
Star Stickers
Safety Pin
Instructions
Sit down with your child and discuss what sorts of situations make them scared or uncomfortable. Ask them about things that are coming up in the future like school. Talk about bravery and what it is and how it can help them stay positive when they're trying something new for the first time.
Have your child identify a few colors of construction paper that will make him or her feel "brave". Using your circular items, have them trace a few circles for the badge. Encourage your child to make circles of different sizes.
Using the scissors, have them cut out the circles, following the lines they traced carefully.
Use markers and the stickers to decorate the circles.
Have your child pick a few of the various circles, and have them layer them (largest on the bottom, smallest on the top) to form the badge. Help them glue the circles together.
Once the glue dries, remind them of their bravery by writing something helpful like "I am Brave!" or something similar on the front of the badge.
Finally, glue the ribbon in an X pattern across the back of the badge!
Once everything has dried, the badge is ready to serve as a reminder to your children that they can take on any new, potentially scary situation. Just help them pin it on and they're ready to face anything!
10 Tips for Teaching Respect
10 Tips for Teaching Respect
1. Model Respect
As we've mentioned, if you want your children to exercise respect for others, you need to have respect for others too.
2. Expect It
By having high expectations of how your children should behave, they'll rise to meet these standards. Children are not afraid to be challenged, and you should take advantage of this.
3. Teach It
Supply your children with the tools that they can use to show you and others respect.
4. Praise It
In order for respect to really stick in your child's mind, they need to know that it's being acknowledged. Never miss the opportunity to recognize and praise your children for their positive, respectful actions.
5. Discuss It
If there are instances where other children are being disrespectful, use these times as discussion pieces for how those children could behave differently to be more respectful.
6. Correct It
When you see you're children being disrespectful, make sure that you are strong, firm and direct and that you act immediately. Don't let opportunities to teach and correct slip by, and always make sure that when you are correcting the behavior you are still modeling respect yourself.
7. Acknowledge It
Again, don't let things slide when either respectful or disrespectful behavior is exhibited. Make sure you call out bad behavior and praise respectful behavior.
8. Understand It
Children are constantly growing and learning, so decisions that they make related to behavior may be inappropriate because they don't know how to properly express themselves at this time. Remember to be patient.
9. Reinforce It
Remind your children of positive decisions they've made so that they remember how it felt to show respect and how it felt to earn praise for their actions. By remembering the overall experience of being respectful, it will stick out more to them.
10. Reward It
While you want your children to learn respect, you don't want to overindulge them with rewards. Help them learn this behavior through rewards like praise, recognition, privileges and extra responsibility. Teaching your children to be respectful isn't going to happen overnight, so remember to take your time and have patience and never lose the willingness to show respect to others in your own life to stand as an example of how your children should behave.
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