Exploring moral values with your child

Children gain their sense of morality from watching their parents interact with the world and other people, and through their own life experiences. If we want our children to grow up to be kind, caring and thoughtful individuals, we need to be mindful of how they see us acting and the lessons we want to teach them about the world. If you’re keen to explore moral values with your child, here’s some tips from a primary school in Hillingdon to help you. 

Kindness

Kindness is one of the most important moral values we can teach our children if we want them to show compassion toward others and expect it in return. Impress upon them the importance of respecting other people’s beliefs and opinions, even if they’re vastly different from their own. The best way to teach kindness is to demonstrate it yourself in front of your child by, for example, offering to help an elderly person with their shopping when you’re at the supermarket. These small acts of kindness your child witnesses will rub off on them and make it more likely they’ll act the same way toward others. 

Responsibility and accountability

Honesty and owning up to mistakes is another important moral value we should aim to teach our children. Emphasize that honesty is always the best policy and that they should own up to any mistakes they make and take responsibility for trying to rectify them. If you have an argument with your child, use it as an opportunity to talk to them about apologizing and working to resolve differences by talking things through. 

Good manners

Teach your child to say please and thank you, and make sure they see you doing the same. Explain that good manners go a long way, and that they should always treat people with courtesy and respect. Encourage them to say please and thank you to people and generally show appreciation when others have done something kind for them.  

Gratitude

Practising gratitude regularly will help your child be thankful for what they have, rather than lamenting what they lack or comparing themselves negatively to others. Encourage them to reflect at the end of each day on what they’re thankful for, even if they’ve had a bad day; this will get them into the habit of reframing negatives into positives, and finding the silver linings in challenging situations - an important thing for them to be able to do as they grow and mature. 

Your child will form their own set of moral values as they grow up, but they’ll learn a lot from watching how you interact with the world.