Parents need to inculcate moral values in their students from an early age. This is because what children learn in their formative years have a long-lasting effect on their overall development. A few morals to inculcate in your child include courage, confidence, resilience, responsibility, honesty, compassion and gratitude. In this article, we will discuss six activities to help you integrate character education into your child’s daily life -

1. Learning Courage

When children have to make decisions in a state of fear, courage comes into play. Allowing them to identify these fears and grow out of them will make them more courageous. A perfect activity for this is Tag the Fear. 

Begin with paying attention to situations that create a sense of fear in your child. Help them name a few. It could include a fear of the dark, public speaking or even clowns. Next, set aside free time, break out a pack of crayons and ask them to draw out the fear. For example, if your child is scared of spiders, tell them to draw one on a sheet of paper. Now, turn their drawing into something funny and comical. If you’ve watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, you would have seen Professor Lupin use a similar activity to help the Hogwarts students learn how to conquer their fears. 

2. Building Confidence

If your child is confident, they begin to feel C.A.R.E, which stands for Capable, Accepted, Resilient and Effective. Introduce a Confidence Journal to help your child develop the habit of regularly jotting down positive aspects of their character - sharing, picking up litter, kindness, humor (anything!). A confidence journal will remind your child of their strengths and improve their overall self-esteem.

3. Being Responsible

Being accountable for your actions is a good trait to cultivate early on in your children. After playtime, introduce a round of clean-up where you ask your child to pick up toys and clean their play area. Set a timer to establish a clear expectation of when they need to complete the task. You can label boxes as soft toys, lego pieces, etc. to make it easier for them. Turn it into a game by giving them a treat every time they beat the clock. 

4. Introducing Compassion

Your child could be a curious cat, asking questions every time something catches their eye. Sometimes, there might be awkward questions about someone’s color of skin, weight or the shape of their eyes. They may even struggle to understand how to respond to another child crying or throwing a fit. Therefore, your child needs to learn compassion, the desire to treat others with kindness and respect. 

Introduce the concept of a weekly ‘movie night’, where you and your child watch a movie that has protagonists from different ethnicities, races and cultures. Also point out instances where characters are being compassionate. Give your child the opportunity to pick up the subtle cues people exhibit while feeling different emotions.

5. Becoming Self-Aware

Kids experience complex feelings, too, but they aren’t born with the vocabulary to properly understand or communicate them. Help your child name their feelings with a simple activity - every time your child feels angry, sad or frustrated, ask them to take a moment to frame the sentence, “I am feeling BLANK.” 

6. Being Grateful 

Gratitude journaling is a great way to inculcate positivity in your child, thus helping in character building and learning to not take things for granted. Use a gratitude bowl activity for this. In a medium-sized bowl, ask your child to put little chits that contain one thing they are grateful for that day. It could be anything – the color of the sky, the taste of ice cream or their favorite show. Help them make a habit out of it by praising them every time they do it. 

Character building instills responsible behavior and a set of morals in your children. This trumps children learning it off of outside sources like popular media, filled with content that is age-inappropriate, violent and misleading. Make it a point to focus on character education for your child in a fun and engaging way. This will help them develop into compassionate and kind individuals.