Healthy Friendships Checklist

Friendships are an integral part of every child’s life. Friendships help shape children’s identity and help children form opinions about themselves and their environment. Learning how to navigate the ins and outs of friendships is one of the most important skills children will learn. It is important to talk with children of all ages about what is a healthy friendship and what it means to be a good friend online and offline.

Teach kids that friendship is about:

• Respect -- Friends care about each other’s feelings.
• Helpfulness -- Friends help each other.
• Kindness -- Friends are nice to each other.
• Patience -- Friends are patient with one another and understand that everybody makes mistakes.
• Sharing -- Friends share with each other.
• Enjoyment -- Friends like to play together.

Discuss with kids what they think friendship is about. Possible answers might include:

Friends...

• Like play together at recess.
• Share their toys when they play together.

Add your own! Kids can add your answers to the list!