#45 — Talking About Friendship

“Friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You, too?  I thought I was the only one.'” C. S. Lewis

“You can always tell a real friend:  When you’ve made a fool of yourself, he doesn’t feel you’ve done a permanent job.” Laurence J. Peter

“Friendship isn’t a big thing.  It’s a million little things.” author unknown

(Quotes from  The Thought Catalog and Brainy Quotes )

Friendship Is Important To Me.

I was recently thinking about how lucky I am to have a some really good friends who walk with me in life, and whose friendship has grown through “a million little things.”  

That made me think of our book in The Pelican Family Series, Pelly and Melly Best Friends.  Helping children learn how to develop friendships is something we wanted to do.  Our goal was to present ideas about friendship to kids through the silly antics of these two pelicans, and their conversation with each other.  We also wanted to show how even two friends might not always see the same situation in the same way.  As parents and teachers are reading this book with children, they will have ample opportunity for great discussions about friendships, and how to be a friend.  Boxes naming nine characteristics of friendship are interspersed throughout the book.

Nine Characteristics of Friendship

Friends —

Talk to each other                   Recognize each other’s needs            Are kind to each other

Play together                            Get help for friends                             Share their feelings

Help friends.                            Compliment friends.                      Are proud of each other and share this

Pelly and Melly Talk About Friendship

Pelly and Melly have known each other since the day they hatched.  In the book, the two young, boy pelicans are talking about all of the things they have done together.  On the pages below, you can see that Pelly and Melly do recognize each other’s needs, and try to help.  You can also see that they don’t always remember an experience in the same way!

When reading this, an adult could take time to involve the child in a conversation about how different people remember things differently, maybe even given them a chance to think of such incidents in their own lives.  You can see the blue characteristic box circled in yellow.

Here’s another example.  Once again you can see a characteristic circled in yellow.

Friendship is important to me, and I also think it is important for adults to help children learn about friendship. We are trying to do that in Pelly and Melly — Best Friends.