Sharing is the best social skill that the child should have. Do you have a child who won’t share? How to encourage your child to share? This article helps you to teach your child sharing.
For most of the children sharing is entirely a new concept. They like to grab the things from others instead of sharing. Grabbing spoils the conduct of your child in a social environment. If this attitude in children is left untreated, children may grow into aggressive persons in adulthood.
This article discusses the benefits of sharing. It presents the ways to make your toddler share.
Why Is Sharing Important For a Child?
Sharing is a very typical skill for the child to learn and making the child to share is one of the challenges of parenting.
Sharing is one the important life skill that benefits children in many ways:
1. Share makes your child feel good:
Sharing creates positive vibrations around your child and makes them feel good about caring for others and making them feel happy.
2. Sharing makes your child grateful:
The children who share are more likely to build a grateful attitude. This quality develops out of the appreciation that your child receives by helping and sharing the things with others.
3. Sharing means your child is not alone:
Sharing makes your child understand that they are not alone. Sharing is not only associated with the things but also with the emotion. Sharing emotions makes your child feel less stressed.
4. It helps the child to learn morals:
Morals and ethics are an important part of child development. Sharing is one the best quality that makes the child aware of the morals and ethics.
5. It builds trust:
Sharing promotes trust towards others. Sharing makes the child open up and share the emotions. In the long run it may help them to build trust.
Ways To Teach Your Toddler To Share :
Here are a few ways to teach your child to learn sharing:
1. Don’t wait to start:
From the moment your child starts holding the objects you can teach them sharing. You can achieve this by making them pass the object back and forth. Learning to take the turns is the first step in teaching sharing to your child.
2. Make your expectations clear to your child:
This is one of the best ways deal with a child who won’t share. Make your child aware of the activities that you do and train them accordingly. Let your child get some idea about your expectations. It helps your child to move towards their goals.
3. Don’t let your child to become aggressive:
A child may become aggressive if their toy is taken off by their siblings or friends. Don’t allow your child to be involved in aggressive actions like biting, or fighting. Gently explain to your child that they can use the next turn instead of becoming aggressive.
4. Train your child in dealing with the emotions:
This is one of the best ways to help a toddler to share. Emotions are an important part of life that allows them to express their feelings. Teach your child some techniques to suppress the negative feelings. Make your child take deep breaths. Encourage your child to do exercise with you.
5. Be a role model:
Children will get all their potential habits from their parents. So, being a role model is one of the best toddler sharing activities. Practice the activity of sharing with your child and make it more interactive and fun. Keep sharing the food and the other things in front of your child.
6. Arrange playdates at your house:
When your child is playing with another child. Your child may have difficulty in sharing the toys with their friends. Make your child get habituated to use turns. Adopt the joyful environment for the playdate. To keep the playdate more pleasant, train your child before inviting their friends to home.
Keep a pocket timer at the playdate to make your child remember that they have to handover the toy to the other kid.
7. Make your child to learn sharing while playing in the public places:
Make your child share the swings, slides and the toys with the other kids while playing in the parks.
Don’t wait at the activity till your child finishes it.
8. Make your child to work together with their friends:
Your child will be old enough to play with other kids at the age of 3 years. Ask your child to practise making play dough with the other kids. Allow them to learn new things from the ones they play with.
9. Stay Calm and guide them:
Never force your child to share. The art of sharing should be genuine. Induced sharing prevents your child from building good relationships.
Some children can adopt sharing without any help and some others need remainders. The support should be done with love and affection.
10. Get more connected with your child:
Children who receive the love and affection from their parents from the age of 2 seem to become children with good conduct. The essence that a child add during the development entirely depends on the way they are treated by their parents. A good parenting with attachment makes the child develop a secure self image.
11. Avoid the disputes between the siblings:
Minimize the dispute levels between the siblings. Teach your child that fighting over the favorite toy, game, or any other thing is not a good habit. Ask them to use the turns which facilitates both the kids to satisfy their wishes.
12. Make your child to be more generous:
Generosity is developed by considering the feelings of others. It is the responsibility of parents to cultivate generosity by helping them to imagine how others feel. Allow your kid to gift something special to the kids of their age. It makes them feel more connected. Take your kids to the nursing homes and make them offer home made cookies to the residents.
13. Don’t spoil the interests of your child:
Respect the feelings of your child. If your child has attachment with the particular toy, respect their attachment while teaching sharing. Ask your child to pick the toys that he/she wants to share with others before the play begins.
14. Give your child opportunities to share:
In order to encourage the habit of sharing with your child, make the whole cookies that you have made to your child who won’t share. Request your child to share some cookies with their siblings. Teach the values to the younger ones by using the older ones. Never compare your child with the others.
15. Choose appropriate games for your kid:
Choose the cooperative games instead of single winner games. Cooperative games are a great way to make your child learn the habit of sharing.
16. Praise your child for sharing:
Praise your child for the right attitude and sharing with their sibling and friends. Don’t offer any kind of bribes to them. Offer your complements in the more useful way. Take your child to picnic on the weekend and offer some good stories at bed time. Don’t make your child to be manipulative.
17. Know when to step in:
Give your child come time and space to practice the habit of sharing. Stay aside and observe the struggles that your child faces. Intervene only if you feel the situation is going to lose control. Make your child learn things on their own.
Sharing Activities For Toddler:
Sharing activities will help to deal with the selfish kid. These activities will help your kid to make stronger bonds with the other kids. Here are a few sharing activities to build empathy in your child:
1. Donate clothes and Toys:
Make your child pick some clothes and toys to donate to the families in need. This activity will give your child an opportunity to view the lifestyle of without parents and help them.
2. Painting:
Allow your child to paint together. Supply the essential things to your children and ask them to decide on the subject together and paint together by sharing the painting tools.
3. Crafts:
Allow your children to gather the recycling material and do some crafts. For this activity you can take the help of your older children. Allow your older children to help the younger one in shaping the materials, coloring, and placing them in the right position.
4. Sharing song:
Make up a simple sharing of your own to sing with your child. Adapt some words and sentences from their favorite movie. This gives an opportunity for you to have some quality time with your children while stressing the importance of sharing.
5. Cooking:
Cooking is the great way to promote sharing in your child. If you are making a cake, ask your child and their friend/sibling to add the contents to the bowl one by one. This activity allows your children to put in their skills equally in the process of cake making.
In conclusion, sharing is one of the vital skills that kids should learn and implement in their lives. Raise your kids with more generosity while being more patient with them. Model the correct behavior that drives your child towards the great destinations.
