We create more kindness by being kind.
-Katie Hurley
In this podcast, I talk about how I got inspired to record this after reading a post on Katie Hurley’s Facebook wall. I also talk about how kindness is related to friendship and social skills, and I give a few ideas to help get you started in doing some kind acts, wherever you are. Take a listen!
Kindness is key in making good human beings. When I think about how I want my children to be as adults, the one value that I always come back to is that I want them to be kind. I want them to be kind to each other, and to other people. I want them to have compassion for others. I want them to treat others as they would want to be treated. I want them to do this not because they expect something in return or want praise but rather because it’s the right thing to do.
My daughter loves to dance, and for years she kept asking if she could take lessons. Finally, when she was in Kindergarten I signed her up for a local tap, jazz and ballet class. I found a great small business that was right around the corner from us. This place seemed perfect! The teacher, Ms. Amy, is wonderful and she sets a very relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. She even keeps extra tap and ballet shoes we can use. It’s so thoughtful. We’ve been going ever since. The classes are small, and both years the dance teacher’s daughter has been in my daughter’s class. The teacher and I have become friendly over time, chatting about our kids, schools, etc.
I love our neighborhood. We moved here 14 years ago, and we knew immediately that we lucked out with our entire neighborhood. When moved to the suburbs, we were just a couple of city kids; we used black trash bags to bag our leaves; we didn’t know that wasn’t how it’s done in the suburbs ;-) I think every single one of our neighbors gently set us on the right path. That’s how it is here. We look out for each other: we watch each other’s houses when we’re away on vacation, we water each other’s gardens and we even have block parties together.
One of my New Year’s Resolutions for my family was to do some random acts of kindness. I want my kids to understand the importance of being kind and helping others. I also want them to learn to be contributing and thoughtful members of society.
It’s that time of year when people are making New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve been thinking about some of the basics (organize my house, clean up my eating habits, etc) but I’ve also been thinking about what I can do encourage playing and friendships in my own home. Here are some New Year’s Resolutions to make 2015 a great year!!
I originally posted this back in September. I created a free printable to make implementing a kindness wall easier, see below!!
Our kids tend to get along pretty well, and even when there’s an argument, they can get past it pretty quickly. However, at the end of the summer and for the first week of the school year, our kids seemed to be more cranky and less patient with each other than normal. I’m not sure if it was because their bodies hadn’t adjusted to the new schedule or if they were just tired of going all day. All I knew was that I wanted to change how they were acting toward one another. I wanted them to focus on showing kindness to one another. When I was a School Counselor, I helped start a Kindness Wall of Fame at my school. Every time any adult saw a child do something kind, the adult could choose to give that child a star for being a kind member of our school. I decided to implement our own Kindness Wall at home.
October is National Bullying Prevention Month so I thought it would be a great time to talk about kindness. Recently I posted about creating a kindness wall in my home to promote kind acts. Today’s activity helps kids think about how your words and actions impact other people. I did this activity with my own kids to help them understand the long lasting effect their words can have, even after they say sorry.
My kids tend to get along pretty well, and even when there’s an argument, they can get past it pretty quickly. However, at the end of the summer and for the first week of the school year, our kids seemed to be more cranky and less patient with each other than normal. I’m not sure if it was because their bodies hadn’t adjusted to the new schedule or if they were just tired of going all day. All I knew was that I wanted to change how they were acting toward one another. I wanted them to focus on showing kindness to one another. When I was a School Counselor, I helped start a Kindness Wall of Fame at my school. Every time any adult saw a child do something kind, the adult could choose to give that child a star for being a kind member of our school. I decided to implement our own Kindness Wall at home.
