Activities for Parents
Our Family Talk Guides are designed to help parents and other family members talk with young children in their care about important social and emotional behaviors.
Each of the topics below comes with a simple, printable guide with step-by-step instructions for discussion activities. These are a free resource and you are welcome to share them with others.Teachers using the Leaps system in their classrooms are also encouraged to provide these guides to parents as a supplement to the work they are doing with students during the school day.
Working Together
Our goal is to help our kids get along with their whole class, not just the good friends they really like to talk to a school. We’ll also make sure they understand how to work more than they talk if they sit next to friends and how to use only nice words and actions with everyone in their class.
Working Patiently and Following Directions
Help your kids understand how to get through one task at a time by paying attention to all the instructions and then patiently working through all of them until the job is done.
When Someone Says No
Find your child when they are playing with a favorite toy. Ask if you can have it to play with forever without giving back. Your child will most likely say “No” to you. When they do, wave your hands in the air and fall to your knees pretending to cry, showing your own fake temper-tantrum. Now that you have their attention, talk through how we need to stop the tantrums and handle eharing someone tell us “No” in the right ways.
What Respect Means
Your child has been told to respect their teacher and you tell them that they need to respect you all the time. Does your child know what that means?
The Importance of Manners
The next time your child asks for anything, really pay attention to whether or not they used manners. Did they say “Please”, or “Thank You”? If so, thank them for using manners and acting politely.
Tattling vs. Needing Help
People don’t tattle to the police; they call for help when they’re in great need. You can actually get in big trouble for making a fake or unimportant call to 9-1-1.
Talking to Teacher
Let’s help our kids be respectful to their teachers. Our teachers work hard to help our kids learn. The least we can do as parents is be on their side and guide our kids at home to listen, speak respectfully, and stay appropriate in the classroom.
Friendship and Doing The Right Thing
We’re trying to help our kids understand the ways a friend should treat them. Let’s let our kids know that to be a good friend, sometimes they will have to say “No” to friends to keep from breaking the rules and getting into trouble.
Talking To Kids About Bullies
Just ASK your kids:
-“Do you know what a bully is?”
-“Do you know of any bullies at school?”
-“Do you think that bullies are good friends to others?”
Solving Problems
Ask about the best parts of the day first, then ask if anyone got in trouble during class. Hopefully your child wasn’t the one who got in trouble, but if they were, stay calm and talk it out for now. Talk about how trouble can mean several different things.