It's February 1st!!! The month of LOVE. Valentine's Day isn't the only holiday we will celebrate this month though. February 17th is the National Random Acts of Kindness Day and I'm going to focus on acts of kindness with my kids all month long! Ever since my kids were little I have always tried to instill in them the importance of being kind. Kind to their peers, kind to their teachers, kind to strangers, just kind.
Just recently a video was circulated around our area of a girl being bullied in a classroom setting and it literally pained me to watch. I just couldn't believe how cruel some children were being and all of the others who were just standing by doing nothing. I certainly hope that if any of my children were ever in a position to stand up and make a difference, that they would choose to be kind.
I put an emphases on them treating others with kindness and respect when it comes to their peers. I always tell them that they do not have to be best friends with someone, but they do have to be kind. A mother of a student at our school recently shared with me that my daughter smiled and waved to her daughter on the playground. Sounds simple, but she told me what a big impact that made on her child. A simple smile and wave hello instead of turning and running off in the other direction to find her "best friends" made a world of difference for this child and that just made my heart soar. I made sure to share this with my daughter so she would realize how a tiny act of kindness can really make a huge impact.
I'm going to be sharing several ideas for Random Acts of Kindness Day over the next few weeks. Some are free, some require a little preparation, some are totally simple and some a little more involved, but they all are guaranteed to bring a smile to another person and make their day.
Up first I wanted to share these Kindness Treat Bags the kids and I created. I ordered some goodies from Oriental Trading and we put together these bags pretty quickly. A positive message, little balls, our favorite cellophane bags and some ribbon is all it took!
I got this idea because when we were in the middle of our basement and yard project we had people at our house all.the.time. There was constant banging, noise, and a lack of privacy. It started to annoy me and I just wanted the projects completed, but then I decided to shift my way of thinking and instead see it as a wonderful opportunity to have my children share some kindness. Each afternoon we would gather Gatorades, waters, snacks, candy and other treats to walk down to all of the guys working on our house. They were putting in long hours and working tirelessly to complete our project and the least we could do was thank them with some treats to fuel their energy and keep them going. It became a daily routine and when they saw us coming they would smile and say "snack time!" It made the kids feel good to know they were making someone's day and it put a smile on the construction workers' faces.
I started to think about other people who do a lot for us and how we could bring a smile to their face, too. We made some treat bags that could be shared with just about anyone. We filled with candy, tied them up and were ready to start distributing.
These can easily be placed on a doorknob for a neighbor, or left there for your package delivery person!
We also plan to stick them other places for recipients such as in our mailbox for our postal worker...
...and also for our trash collection workers!
A few weeks ago when we were at a cheer competition a cheerleader from another gym randomly came up to Little Mama, gave her a little treat bag filled with candy and wished her good luck. She was so taken aback, but it was the sweetest thing. I saw kids from that other gym doing the same thing all afternoon. In a sometimes tense and high-pressure environment, they were spreading the love and positive vibes and it was so neat to watch. That sparked the idea for these kindness treat bags that are geared towards kids. We filled them with these balls and some candy. Now they are ready to be passed out to anyone my kids feel might need a little extra encouragement or brightness to their day.
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