Did you know that February 9-15 is Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) week? Raising healthy children isn’t just about the food they eat or the amount of physical activity they participate in, it’s also about the character that he or she is developing. RAK week is a great way for your family to take some time to focus on teaching how acts of kindness can positively impact others.
Here are 5 ways you can introduce and/or promote the idea of doing for others:
- Write letters – Have kids write letters of gratefulness to their favorite teacher, a parent or caregiver, or even one of their friends. Make sure they say thanks or tell them why they are special to them. In this digital age, a heartfelt written letter is so meaningful!
- Circle of Kindness – Have everyone in the family sit in a circle and toss a stuffed animal (if you have a Hardy Heart beanie, use that!) to one another. Once someone receives the “animal” they must say something positive about another family member. You can even do this with a group of kids together on a playdate.
- Smile Challenge – Challenge the kids to 1) do everything that week with a smile on their face; including household chores and when asked to perform responsibilities at school or home and 2) go out of their way to smile at people they may or may not know throughout their day; a little smile can go a long way!
- Community RAK – Have the kids seek out a situation where they can do something nice for someone in their home or neighborhood. Whether it be mowing a lawn or taking out their neighbor’s trash, a small act of kindness will be greatly appreciated. You can then discuss the experience with them to see how they felt about it.
A week of kindness is great, but wouldn’t it be better if people were more kind all year round? It does seem like there are more notable stories of strangers being kind to strangers on a more regular basis, so maybe we are onto something. Like this one for example, have you seen how a complete stranger heard the story of the factory worker who walked 21 miles to and from work each day? He decided to start raising money for him and the fund is now quite large and still growing. What an amazing story!
How do you plan to celebrate RAK week?
