A Summer of Kindness

IT’S SUMMER!

It was actually super adorable yesterday morning when my newly-graduated-from-kindergarten son came downstairs (knowing it was Monday) and said, “So, do I go to first grade today, Mom?”

And when I told him that, no, he actually doesn’t go back to school until August (and then watched him say the names of the months in his head to figure out what I meant), the most GIGANTIC grin spread across his face and he said “WOW! I get to be home for a LONG time! I can’t wait to build a fort.”

So, it’s fort-building season. And pool season. And playgrounds, and playdates, and doing nothing. It will be glorious.

That being said, I do want our summer to have some purpose and goals to it – let’s be honest, we all need at least a little structure and something to aim for; so I decided quite a few weeks ago that this was going to be a summer of learning about/practicing kindness.

How to Keep Track – Our Goal

I found a poster idea that was already done for us that had 100 acts of kindness that we can color, or put stickers on, or something to keep track of our random acts of kindness. This is where I found it, and I simply got it printed at Walmart for like $6, and here’s how it looks:

To give you an idea of the scale of the poster and simply to show that I stuck it at the kid’s eye-level, here’s a picture of what it looks like in my house:

We found some cute stickers to use:

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I also thought I’d include a few links here of places that I found really good lists for random acts of kindness ideas – sometimes, to fill in our heart, it will be one big act. But sometimes it might be a day spent focusing on smiling at as many people as we can, or giving as many compliments as we can, etc.

And some days are going to have to have more than one act of kindness – considering that there’s much less than 100 days of summer. So we may double up, or just continue into the fall, or something. I’ll keep y’all posted!

No matter what, I will do my best to keep a list of all the random acts of kindness that we choose to do, and at the end I will post a list of some of our favorites! So, again, definitely check back in on us!

I truly cannot wait for all the fun times this summer will bring us and I am looking forward to trying to show my kiddos the value of looking out for others and showing genuine care for them.

Enjoy your summer! And join me in RAK’ing your friends and neighbors and community, too!

Random Acts of Kindness for Kids Ideas Links:

• 100 Acts of Kindness (with a printable page to make it easy)
• This same blog had an old printable calendar (more ideas) as well as some RAK cards that you can leave to inspire other to continue and pass the blessing along!
• This is part 1 of 3 blog posts to give a total of 39 ways to serve with your kiddos
• Some more good ideas here – including a printable so that you can cut them out in strips of paper and the kiddos can pick them from a jar at random
• Another list with great ideas here
• Making a kindness kit to pass out