Personal Responsibility Activities For Kids

Personal responsibility involves being fair, ethical and keeping commitments. It is a character trait that can help you find motivation, finish projects and gain respect from others.

Teach kids about the importance of being responsible with these fun and thoughtprovoking activities. From budgeting to avoiding cheating, these activities will get them thinking about how their actions affect those around them.

1. Care for a Pet

Care for a pet is one of the most basic personal responsibility activities that kids can take on. Pets are fantastic models of unconditional love, and children learn the importance of prioritizing needs over wants as they take on daily tasks to ensure their pets' health and well-being.

Children can start with small tasks like feeding the family dog or checking the water in a fish tank. Gradually increase the amount of pet-related responsibilities until they are ready for a larger commitment, such as taking the dog for a walk or cleaning up its bathroom area (parent assisted).

Consider letting your kids adopt an animal from a shelter to teach them about caring for a pet and the importance of giving back. They can also learn the concept of budgeting by helping to pay for food, grooming products and other necessities for their adopted pet.

2. Budget Money

An important responsibility skill for children to learn is budgeting money. An excellent way to teach this is to give each child a small allowance for things like snacks, candy, or going out to lunch with friends. Having children track their spending is also helpful for them to see how little expenses can add up quickly.

Another fun budgeting activity involves having kids pass around a handful of pennies, buttons or other items. They are not allowed to pick up the items that drop, showing them that everyone is responsible for keeping an eye out for what others might need.

4. Play Twisted Scenarios

Creating and role-playing different scenarios is a great way for students to see what it looks like to be responsible in certain situations. For example, this twisted scenario lesson allows students to role-play a hypothetical situation in which one student doesn't do their part of a group project and others suffer the consequences.

This responsibility activity also teaches kids that actions have butterfly effects and can impact those around them. They can practice this by using a stop-light model that demonstrates how their behavior affects those around them.

This lesson also helps kids learn how to apologize. It includes a sample of a fake and a real apology so kids can understand what it means to be responsible when offering apologies. They can also use cooperative board games to practice being responsible while working together.

5. Tell the Truth

Telling the truth is one of the foundations of personal responsibility. This can help a person maintain their integrity and earn the trust of others. It also requires that a person be congruent, meaning that their words and actions are aligned to make them believable.

Using a Simon Says game is another fun way to teach kids about responsibility. This game requires them to listen to a leader and follow commands that begin with "Simon says." Those who don't obey the rules risk being eliminated or looking silly in front of their peers.

This is a great lesson to use with a classroom book, like Pigsty. It helps students understand responsibility by comparing it to the main character's experiences. This can be followed up by a writing assignment or class discussion.