Teaching Kindness in Your Homeschool

Teaching Kindness in Your Homeschool
One of our greatest efforts as parents and educators is to raise kind children who will grow into good and empathetic adults. We want them to help others, treat everyone with respect, and stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. However, it can sometimes be challenging to always be kind, even for adults!
The good news is that kindness is a behavior that can be taught and practiced. We’re here to share tips on teaching kindness in your homeschool using our free Kindness Journal printable to encourage daily acts of kindness.
How to Teach Kindness: Start with Modeling
Kindness is a learned behavior that children absorb by watching the people around them. This means that one of the most powerful ways to teach kindness is by modeling it yourself! When kids see their parents or teachers acting kindly, their brains form new neural pathways that influence their own behaviors.
So, smile often, share positive words, and act kindly towards others. Your kids will naturally start to imitate these actions and build their own kindness habits.
What about when they get older? How do we continue to learn new behaviors?
I am glad you asked! Thanks to neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt and change, we all have the aptitude to learn new behaviors, including becoming kinder! Children’s brains are particularly moldable, as they’ve had less time to solidify lifelong habits. So if you want to encourage more kindness in your children and the world, which we always need, here are some fun things you can do.

Tips for teaching kindness in your home
- Send Kind Thoughts- Kindness can sometimes be as simple as a wish for the well-being of others. As we learned in our mindfulness series, thoughts are compelling and set up our actions. Start by making it a practice that you imagine someone or a group of people you want to send kind thoughts to and then say out loud, “May they be happy. May they be healthy. May they be safe.” This practice helps kids get into the habit of thinking kind thoughts more often.
- Share Stories of Kindness- Choose books and stories with kindness themes. There are many great stories to choose from! Stories are a powerful and highly influential way for kids to learn without direct teaching. For younger children, read stories out loud that invoke their imaginations. For older children, stock their reading list with plenty of kind role models.
- Smile More Often- In a study conducted in Sweden, when people looked at others who were smiling, their muscles twitched into smiles involuntarily. Play a smiling game with your kids to show them how smiling truly is contagious. The simple act of smiling can spread the warmth of kindness far and wide, as others smile in return and continue to pass the smile on.
- Play The Compliment Game- It feels good to receive a compliment. In fact, researchers at the National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Japan found that the same area in the brain, the striatum, is activated when a person receives a compliment as when they are given money. A great way to do this with multiple children is to toss a ball around, complimenting someone each time they make a throw.
- Practice Random Acts of Kindness- Random acts of kindness can be anything that will make someone’s day a little brighter. They don’t even have to know who did it. Challenge your family to perform random acts of kindness for others.
- Try Empathy Charades- Having empathy for others requires putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and imagining how they feel. Exploring worldviews through literature, sharing stories, movies, and encourage them to do meaningful community service, youth develop higher levels of empathy and compassion. Try drawing images of faces on a board or large piece of paper and have your children guess the emotion that’s being displayed. Also, try acting out different emotions and guess what other people are feeling. Empathy Charades is one of our favorite games.
- Volunteer For Good- Whether you take small or big actions, help other people or help animals, there is always a way to lend a helping hand. Involving kids in volunteer work teaches them that it feels good to be helpful. You might collect garbage from the park, visit a local retirement home, or clean out your closets to donate to those in need. Perhaps your kids will be inspired to fund-raise for a good cause. There is no limit to what your kindness can do.
Books about Kindness for Kids
Choose books and stories that focus on themes of kindness. Reading together allows children to experience empathy and learn about the impact of kind actions. Below are some great book recommendations for kids that focus on kindness.
- “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” by Carol McCloud
- “Be Kind” by Pat Zietlow Miller
- “The Kindness Book” by Todd Parr
- “Last Stop on Market Street” by Matt de la Peña
- “Those Shoes” by Maribeth Boelts
Use the Kindness Journal Printable
Our Kindness Journal is an excellent way for kids to track their daily acts of kindness. Each day, they can write down the kind acts they performed, reflect on how it made them feel, and set goals for future acts of kindness. It’s a simple yet powerful tool to foster empathy and a positive mindset.

Free Download
Kindness Journal
Benefits of Teaching Kindness in Homeschool
Teaching kindness benefits kids in many ways:
- Improves Emotional Intelligence: Understanding and expressing emotions is a critical part of developing empathy.
- Encourages Positive Relationships: Kind kids are more likely to form strong bonds and friendships.
- Boosts Self-Esteem: Acts of kindness create a sense of accomplishment and increase overall happiness.
- Promotes a Positive Learning Environment: A kind and supportive homeschool setting is conducive to better learning.
Extended Activities for Teaching Kindness
- Empathy Charades: Act out different emotions and have your kids guess the feelings being portrayed. This helps them recognize and understand how others feel.
- Volunteer as a Family: Get involved in local community service activities, like helping at a food bank or participating in a neighborhood cleanup.
- Kindness Craft Projects: Create kindness rocks with painted positive messages and leave them in the community for others to find.
Download Your Free Kindness Journal
Ready to make kindness a daily habit in your homeschool? Download our Kindness Journal and encourage your kids to practice kindness every day. This printable is a fantastic tool to help kids reflect on their kind acts and understand their impact on others.
Let’s make kindness the new cool this year! Together, we can create a culture of empathy and compassion in our homeschool community.
