Welcome to Making Caring Common’s resources for families, parents, and caregivers! We offer activities, tips, resource lists, discussion guides, and more to help you raise caring and ethical children who are concerned about others and the common good.
Struggling to understand your child's emotions? A Feelings Wheel can help! This visual tool can expand your child’s emotional vocabulary with words for both basic and complex feelings. They'll learn the difference between "sad" and "disappointed," or "frustrated" and "angry."
Read MoreBy paying attention to how your body feels in different situations, you can start to recognize the physical signs of certain emotions. This worksheet can help parents and caregivers support children and teens—and themselves—in spotting and naming different emotions in their bodies.
Read MoreRaising children in a digital age makes it essential for parents to help them process and think critically about the messages they encounter online, and to consider the impact that their own words and actions can have on others. This resource is designed to support parents and other adults in helping children identify, process, and think critically about online hate speech to help minimize its harmful effects.
Read MoreThis toolkit provides resources to help you support your teen in developing a reflective and caring mindset during the opening days of the school year. It includes conversation starters and other strategies to foster open, supportive, and reflective dialogue between you and your teen that focuses on community and empathy and works to reinforce the values and principles that help create a caring community.
Read MoreHow we talk about things matters. But in our polarized country, how can we express our opinion while leaving room for someone else’s viewpoint? This resource provides six tips for parents and family members to support teens in building and practicing skills that are fundamental to having productive conversations across different points of view. Review these tips before engaging in a challenging conversation with your teen, especially one in which you hold different or conflicting points of view on issues in the news or current events.
Read MoreWe live and are raising children in a time when our lives are impacted by increasingly complex global crises. This resource invites families to explore complex global issues together and to think through how their actions and the actions of leaders can help to promote the common good in times of crisis.
Read MoreThis activity is designed for parents and caregivers to use themselves to navigate difficult emotions and can also be used with their children to help them navigate difficult emotions together. Using the Circles of Control tool as a family is beneficial for lowering stress, handling tough emotions, and dealing with difficult situations. This approach involves understanding what is within or beyond your control and creating an action plan to navigate through these emotions and situations.
Read MoreEsta actividad está diseñada para que los padres y cuidadores puedan afrontar emociones difíciles y también puedan hacer esto con sus hijos para ayudarles a afrontar emociones difíciles juntos. Usar la herramienta Círculos de Control en familia es beneficioso para reducir el estrés, manejar emociones difíciles y afrontar situaciones difíciles. Este enfoque implica comprender lo que está dentro o fuera de su control y crear un plan de acción para navegar a través de estas emociones y situaciones.
Read MoreNews and information has never been more accessible for adults—and for children. Though safeguards are available to help shield young people from especially troubling content, it’s inevitable that they will come across disturbing or upsetting news and other content that they may need support to process and understand.
In this guide, parents of middle and high school students will find strategies for reflection, discussion, and more to engage with their children and help them process current events.
Read MorePracticing positive self-talk can be a powerful tool to support mental health, both for you and for your child. When negative thoughts or emotions arise, try this simple exercise to shift the focus to positive self-talk. In the brief steps below, you can use the examples for yourself or for guidance in what to share with your child. Children (including teens) need scaffolding or examples to help guide them in their own processing.
Read MorePracticing positive self-talk can be a powerful tool to support mental health, both for you and for your child. When negative thoughts or emotions arise, try this simple exercise to shift the focus to positive self-talk. In the brief steps below, you can use the examples for yourself or for guidance in what to share with your child. Children (including teens) need scaffolding or examples to help guide them in their own processing.
Read MoreFinding things in common with other people can be a powerful way to help kids learn to appreciate and care about people who are different from them. This resource from Harvard’s Making Caring Common can help adults guide kids in identifying things they have in common with others, especially with those who seem different from them.
Read MoreCaring is good for relationships and research suggests that it supports happiness and success! This resource from Harvard’s Making Caring Common helps kids learn the importance of caring by capturing and talking about caring moments.
Read MoreOur Gratitude Scavenger Hunt encourages children to notice people and things to be thankful for. Try making a routine for your family!
Read MoreOur “Gratitude Conversation Cards” encourage family members to talk about what they are thankful for and why. Try to make it a weekly (or daily!) routine for your family.
Read MoreThis fun activity encourages children to recognize people to be grateful for and to show that gratitude the best they can. Expressing thankfulness to other people strengthens relationships and boosts happiness — and it can be an especially powerful way to cope with stress and remind ourselves of the things we take for granted. Pick at least one day in the week and try to make this a routine for your family.
Read MoreTo do well in school and life, kids need to learn how to stick with something, even if it's hard. This resource from Harvard’s Making Caring Common helps adults guide children in persisting to achieve goals even in the face of obstacles.
Read MoreWhen your kid needs a nudge to overcome a challenge, encourage them to pretend to be (or imagine being) someone they admire. This resource from Harvard’s Making Caring common can help.
Read MoreMistakes can be hard! But when family members talk openly about times when they made a mistake and lessons they learned, it can help kids understand that mistakes are a stepping stone for success rather than a source of shame. This resource from Harvard’s Making Caring Common can help adults guide kids in learning from mistakes.
Read MoreSchools and parents have a moral responsibility to make school integration a priority. Integrated schools have important social, emotional, ethical, and academic benefits for all children. Integration is also vital to keeping our country whole, and to a meaningful democracy. Here are some steps you can take to both find a school that is best for your child and to increase the chances that the school you choose will be thoughtfully integrated.
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