Fun fact: November 13th is World Kindness Day. Kindness is an incredibly important, yet not altogether often acknowledged character quality that pretty much makes the world go ’round 😉 So in the spirit of spreading kindness, I thought I’d kindly share with you a few favorite thoughts and ideas to inspire kindness in your corner of the world!
– Harvard Psychologist shares five tips for raising kind kids
– Edutopia has a comprehensive list of great reasons to teach kindness including:
- developing altrusim – joyfulness is proven to be contagious and encourage more kind behavior
- better social connections – Kind, happy children enjoy greater peer acceptance because they are well liked.
- greater sense of belonging and self esteem – It’s reported that even small acts of kindness heighten our sense of wellbeing, increase energy, and give a wonderful feeling of optimism and self worth.
- improved health and less stress – Being kind can trigger a release of the hormone oxytocin, which has a number of physical and mental health benefits.
- increased feelings of gratitude – When children are part of projects that help others less fortunate than themselves, it provides them with a real sense of perspective. Helping someone else makes them appreciate the good things in their own lives.
- improved concentration – Having a positive outlook enables greater attention spans and more creative thinking to produce better results at school.
- reduced depression – Dr. Wayne Dyer, an internationally-renowned author and speaker, says that an act of kindness triggers an increase in serotonin, a natural chemical responsible for improving mood. This boost in happiness occurs not only in both the giver and receiver of kindness, but also in anyone who witnesses it.This makes kindness a powerful, natural antidepressant.
– The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation has a huge list of fun ideas for spreading kindness. You can even use filters or a search tool to find the perfect idea by category, relative cost or the time it takes to complete.
– The RAK Foundation also has Ten Simple Ideas to Celebrate World Kindness Day:
– Kindness Elves from The Educator’s Spin On It
– Five Ways to Teach Your Kids to Live Generously from Beauty Through Imperfection
– Kindness Countdown to Christmas from The Good Long Road
– 25 Ideas for Acts of Service for Toddlers from Allternative Learning
– Ideas for teaching kids to be kind, from Kids Activities Blog
What are your favorite ways to teach kids to be kind? How do you shine your light in a dark world?
I love this post! I had no idea today was Kindness day!! 🙂
Haha gotta love it, this was the first year I remember hearing about it 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
World Kindness day is a great idea. It would be nice to put these ideas into practice every day. Thank you for sharing them!
Yes it would, could not agree more!
I love this. As a public school teacher, I have one classroom rule: Be Nice. This rule takes care of EVERYTHING. I appreciate your post!
Thanks for that feedback, Paige! Love knowing that’s your number one rule 🙂
One of my favorite RAOK is to pay for the car behind me in the drive through. 🙂