Homeschooling activities that teach about friendship?

Question

I was wondering if any of you have ideas to share with us...We homeschool topics by the week. This week we're covering friendship. (DD is 4.) We have read many books about being a friend, watched 2 movies, made "friendship cards", and covered the things that make friends friends...(ex. being honest, helpful, a good listener/supportive, and able to keep secrets/trust) She has also played with other kids and we went over what friendly characteristics she liked about each of them.

Our week is Sunday to Saturday, and we're out of ideas!

Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

One thing you didn't list but many kids have problems with is sharing.  How about writing a play with the kids and have them perform?  Nothing fancy...just some basic role play type things.  

And then, as the year goes buy, reinforce their learning by bringing up the things you discussed whenever there are arguments or disagreements between the kids.  This applies what they have learned.

Answer 2

A creative activity you could do would be to write the words "Friendship is..." at the top of a piece of poster board and have her write words and draw pictures to finish the sentence.

Get a big roll of paper and lay it on the floor and have her trace one of her friends laying on the paper, then color it in and write the things she likes about that friend around the picture. Have her give it to that friend later on.

Talk about conflicts, and what to do when being a friend isn't always easy.Have her put on a puppet show or write a story or role play about two friends who get into a fight and don't want to be friends anymore, and how they make up and resolve the problem.

Learn how to make friendship bracelets out of colored string.

Talk about how two people can still be friends even if they don't like all the same things. Teach her about vandiagrams and create one with her. Have her compare herself to one of her friends, or compare two friends from a movie or story.

Answer 3

Learning to be a friend isn't something taught through books, projects, or a weekly unit study. Learning to be a friend happens when we are a friend. We learn this by example and daily living. Once mastered, you move on. Obviously a 4 year old has not mastered being a friend, but she will not master this in a week-long project either. She will be learning to be a friend for a lifetime.

Answer 4

Does she understand the concept? If so, the great thing about homeschooling is that you can move on when a concept is mastered. It seems kind of counterproductive to stick with something, if you still have half a week.

You might want to focus of service, on how to be a good friend. Help her make cookies for people you know, and deliver them. Help her find an older person who needs help and ask them if they would like help with a chore. Find someone with a new baby and make a casserole. Just model being a good friend, so she can see it.

If you really want to stick with teaching the same concept, then I would work on cultures, how people are different, honoring that and visiting new places to meet new people. Not just kids (because I think it's important to model that you don't have to make friends with just age mates), but adults, elderly, teens, babies etc. I have no idea what your heritage is, but for us it meant visiting several different Asian groceries, an East Indian clothing store and an African store. We ate at every restaurant of a different culture.

Answer 5

The movie Friendship's Field is a good one and you could discuss it.  You could make friendship bread to give to others around you, talk about the difference between being a friend and a neighbor.

Otherwise honestly just life.... not sure this a great one for a seperate subject but more one of those things you teach as you go.

Answer 6

All the ideas above are great.  I would add that if she's going to be getting together with those friends again, challenge her to tell them about those friendly characteristics she liked about them.  For example, if she thought Suzy was nice and shared her crayons well, she she could say "Thanks for sharing your crayons last time, Suzy.  You're a nice person."  She might even get some compliments back, which would probably make her feel like she has achieved some friendly qualities during this week.