Children are born pure of heart good; they are good, they want to do good and they chose to help others. When you incorporate acts of kindness into your everyday life, the ease of being kind and spreading joy becomes more than simple a good habit, it becomes part of who you are. Acts of kindness making raising compassionate kids who want to do nice things for others, easy. These are 30 wonderfully fun and easy acts of kindness for kids to create and perform and spread joy.
People learn best by doing, this is a fact. You can’t tell your child how to tie their shoes and expect them to master this milestone just from verbal instructions. Instead they practice over and over again until they get the hang of knotting their shoes.
Once the brain has learnt the new trick, it stores it on the top shelf where it’ll collect dust and never be brought down again because it knows how to tie shoes and doesn’t need to learn it again.
The same goes with helping children develop empathy and doing things for others without being asked. Once they create the habit of doing for others simply because it’s nice and makes others feel good, the habit is ingrained and becomes a part of the person.
Random acts of kindness sprinkled into your days reinforce the natural goodness that’s in all children and when they see how their kindness brings a smile to another’s face or makes a random person’s day, acts of kindness become ingrained. Like exercise, doing for others gives you feel good endorphins and they produce such a great sensation, replicating those feelings over and over becomes the goal.
Here are 30 Wonderful Acts of Kindness You Can Do With Your Kids to Brighten Someone’s Day
1. Bake treats for a neighbor and make a nice card just to say “hi”
2. Buy a $5 gift certificate and hand it to the person in line behind you (or buy their meal)
3. Create kindness bags to hand out to people in need
4. Put a stack of pennies or quarters on the ride-on horses (or machines) at the grocery stores for other kids to have a free ride
5. Have the kids buy toys and drop them off in a donation box for the holidays
6. Set up a bin of treats and bottled water for the mail man and delivery persons with a note
7. Have your kids make cards with a candy bar or Starbucks card for their teacher just to say “thank you”
8. Buy and extra bag of pet food and small toys to drop off and donate at your local animal shelter
9. Help pick weeds, rake leaves or shovel snow in the neighbor’s yard
10. Tape a note to a changing station that says “You’re Doing Great, Mom”
11. Pay for someone’s meal at a restaurant and leave a nice note explaining why
12. Make your brother or sister’s bed and clean up their room “just because”
13. Slip a Mom who looks like they’re having a tough day a note that says “You’re a Great Mom”
14. Collect food to donate to a local food bank
15. Give the bus driver a candy bar and tell them “thank you”
16. Hand out coloring books and sets of crayons to kids you see in waiting rooms (the doctor’s office, car service center, car wash, restaurant, in line, etc.)
17. Buy extra school supplies for a teacher’s classroom
18. Set up a lemonade stand and donate the profits to a local charity
19. Paint kindness rocks with encouraging messages and set them around your neighborhood where they’ll be seen
20. Ask for donations instead of birthday gifts
21. Take a basket of treats and snacks to a local fire station
22. Have your child pick fresh flowers or bring a small bouquet from the store to their teacher
23. Buy ice cream from the ice cream truck for other kids
24. Leave pennies on the sidewalk (heads up) for good luck!
25. Do a chore for your brother or sister without them knowing
26. On a hot day, keep a cooler of iced water and drinks on your porch or front of your yard
27. Hand out mittens, socks and hats to people who are in need
28. Leave sticky notes on bathroom mirrors that say “You are Beautiful” or “Your Smile is Beautiful”
29. Send a random card in the mail just to say I Love You
30. Bring cookies or a snack to the staff at a local nursing home, veterinarian clinic, police station, doctor’s office, etc.
BONUS: Download the “30 Acts of Kindness” Printable
These acts of kindness not only bring happiness to others, but create an ingrained sense of pleasure to kids who will want to keep spreading joy and kindness.
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Lovely tips! It is necessary to be kind to everyone. I too follow different tricks to teach my child the act of kindness.