Five Tips for Teaching a Child How to Share
There are a lot of values that you want to teach your child as they grow and develop, and the importance of sharing is definitely one of them.
However, it can be tricky trying to explain to a 3-year old why they should be generous and cooperate with their friends and siblings.
Thankfully, there are a few things you can do at home to instill these crucial values.
Here are five tips for teaching a child how to share.
- Establish Sharing Rules
No one is born with knowledge. Which means the concept of sharing will be completely foreign to your child.
Because of this, the first thing you need to do is establish clear sharing rules and teach them to your child.
Chances are that they’ll need some reminders in the beginning, so it’s important that you have the patience to remind them of why they should share.
If you want to take it one step further, you can even create a poster with these rules and put it up in your house.
- Use Descriptive Praise
Descriptive praise is all about telling your child exactly what they did right. It’s a powerful tool to boost their self-esteem and motivate them to do better.
When you see your child sharing with their siblings or friends, let them know not only that you’re proud of them, but the exact reason why. This will give even more meaning to their good deed.
- Plan Activities That Are Focused on Cooperation
From cooking to playing team sports, making puzzles, building sandcastles, doing partner yoga, and more; there are countless activities where cooperating is crucial.
Planning this type of activities on a regular basis won’t only teach your child about teamwork, but they’ll also turn into some quality family time.
You can even invite a couple of your child’s friends and make it a fun playdate.
- Lead by Example
When it comes to teaching your toddler how to share, the motto should be, “Do as I say and as I do.”
You can teach them a thousand rules, but if they see you doing the complete opposite, those rules lose meaning.
As such, make sure that you share with your kid, and that they see you sharing with your partner and other people.
- Don’t Force It
As little as they might be, your child is his or her own person.
They have possessions they’re particularly attached to and it’s crucial that you respect that. After all, what you see as nothing more than another toy can be very important to your kid.
The secret is in respecting their boundaries so that you don’t add a negative connotation to the act of sharing.
Teaching a Child How to Share Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult
As you now know, teaching a child how to share is all about showing them the importance of generosity, being a good role model, and respecting their possessions at the same time.
The good news is that you don’t have to do it all by yourself.
At Grow With Us, we make sure to do our part as teachers and instill good values in all our little students.
Send us a message today and learn more about our academy.