FRIENDSHIP:
Finding someone you enjoy spending time with and trust.
What
are the basic points about friendship we can teach our children that will help them
start and grow meaningful friendships?
Friendships add meaning to life. From the
earliest memories each of us can recall, there are particular individuals who
define times, places or circumstances in our past. We associate enjoyable times
with the people who shared the experience with us. The names of “best” friends
may change, but the closeness of shared experiences always remains. Friends add
meaning to our lives by their gift of friendship.
The friendship choices we make
affect us in many ways. Children sometimes attach a great deal of importance to having
a particular friend or being included in a certain group. They believe
happiness or significance will be achieved through building just the right
relationship. The individuals we wish to call friends may influence us to
change in some way to become “suitable.” Our response to those pressures is
critical. The people we include in our inner circle of influence—our
friends—contribute greatly to our attitudes, behavior and style of building
future relationships.
Building friendships takes work. Some
individuals enter or leave our lives. But the people who endure in our memories
are those with whom we invest our time and energy to build a friendship. Any
relationship of value to us will require effort and determination to consider
another person’s interests. Friends loyally endure tough situations, spend time
together, prove they can be trusted, listen to one another’s problems and learn
to work through disagreements.
CATCH YOUR
CHILD BEING A FRIEND
Core
Essentials believes that a key way to help your child internalize the character
values being taught is to “catch” them demonstrating the value. Here are a few
suggestions on how you can catch your child, and let him or her know you see
them being a friend:
•
She helps a new kid in your neighborhood feel welcome.
•
He plays well with others.
•
She goes out of her way to help others, such as being a friend to someone who
seems to be friendless.
These are just a few
ways you can catch your child showing friendship. The Core Essentials Program believes it
takes an INWARD attitude to influence OUTWARD behavior. The Program is based on
aligning the home and school to teach character.
If you do catch your
child being a good friend, we would love to hear about it. Tell us what your
child did in a note sent into the school, or an e-mail sent directly to his or
her teacher.
© 2009 Core Essentials, Inc. All rights
reserved. www.coreessentials.org.