Second graders viewed a program called “All About Friends” this month. This topic is important because having friends is critical to a child’s happiness and well-being. Friendships matter to children for the support and sense of belonging they provide, and it is through the give-and-take of relating to others that young children learn valuable social skills that can last a lifetime.
Designed to provide children with lessons about friends and friendships, this program first asks “What makes a good friend?”, then shows through three easy-to-understand stories bracketed by appealing song lyrics that:
• a friend is someone who makes you feel good about yourself, who doesn’t put you down.
• you don’t always have to do what friends tell you to do; you have to know what’s right and wrong, and do the right thing.
• it’s okay to have lots of friends and play with them at different times.
Ask your child to tell you about the stories in the program and the lessons that the characters learned. Ask if he or she knows of or has ever been in a situation like one of those dramatized, and how he or she feels about it. Reading books together about friends and friendship can help you enlarge your child’s understanding of what it takes to have and be a friend. Here are some books, one for you and two for your child, to help you jumpstart discussion:
Elman, Natalie Madorsky, Ph.D., and Eileen Kennedy-Moore, Ph.D. The Unwritten Rules of
Friendship: Simple Strategies to Help Your Child Make Friends. Little, Brown & Co., 2003.
Lobel, Arnold. Frog and Toad Are Friends. HarperCollins Children’s Books, 1979.
Elliott, Laura Malone. Hunter’s Best Friend at School. HarperTrophy, 1985.
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