Morals are key areas that you hold close to you – such as respecting family, educating yourself, equality and democracy. There are of course many strands of different values and ethics that people understand as the most important in their lives, but one key area is your child knowing the difference between good morals and bad morals.
Explore moral values with your child in this guide from this international school in the UK, and show them how to act in the future.
Talk about issues that are happening in the modern world
A lot of historical implications are discussed during their history lessons, so this is an opportunity to look at more recent issues in the world and wonder how they feel about them. This doesn’t require a huge debate between family members or anything serious, but at least give them the knowledge of something serious around them and it could grow into a larger issue in the future.
Present them with different choices
Understandably, many world issues are not going to be entirely relevant to them, but you can make these issues relevant. Start small by presenting them with decisions like missing a birthday party for something they deem more fun, hanging out with a bunch of new friends instead of meeting their best friend, and so on.
Your child will be making crucial decisions in their lives and how it will affect others. It is then up to you to show them how to handle them as they discover which choices go down well and which don’t. It’ll be a slow but eye-opening experience for them.
Praise them for using good morals
Those little comments truly matter! Say things to your child when they do something memorable, like for instance:
“Hey, I liked how supportive you were to your friend this morning.”
“How generous of you to give your chocolate bar to your brother!”
“Well done for saying thank you to your teacher.”
These comments will be remembered for a long time by your child and show them that they’re doing good things.
Try out volunteering
Volunteering is great for testing your child’s empathy and respect levels as well as teaching them about how others’ values differ from theirs. It can give them the chance to learn about different struggles and how their small efforts help a lot more than they might understand. From helping out at a care home for a day to supporting the soup kitchen at Christmas, there’s plenty of ways your child can make a difference.
*This is a collaborative post