Teaching children to be kind by doing random acts of kindness as a family can be a lot of fun! Kindness is such an important character trait to develop in your children.
Not only have studies shown that the more kind acts we do, the happier we will be. But, being a kind person will help your child become more empathetic and be a better friend. And goodness knows, we could use as much of that in the world as possible!
Teaching Your Child Kindness
There are many ways to teach kindness to your children. You can check out this article that I wrote about 6 Kindness Activities for Kids by clicking here.
Doing random acts of kindness can be especially helpful in teaching children to be kind. There is something about the slightly sneaky/surprise nature of random acts that appeal to the children in all of us.
Bringing this sense of playfulness and fun into teaching kindness will help your children be more interested. The more fun that they can have being kind, the more willing they will be to continue to practice being kind!
Practicing Kindness as a Family vs. Individually
In order to truly teach our children to be kind, it is important that they learn to be kind on their own. One of the best ways to teach this though is through modeling and practicing the behavior that you want to see.
This is where doing random acts of kindness as a family can really speed up and cement in the process of teaching kindness to kids.
So, without further ado, here are a whole bunch of ideas that you can try out as a family. This list is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should get you started in coming up with some fun random acts that you want to try out together.
25 Random Acts of Kindness to do as a Family
- Sort through toys and donate to a family shelter
- Weed your neighbor’s garden bed while they are away
- Offer to take your elderly neighbor’s dog for a walk as a family
- Make cards together and deliver them to Seniors at a nursing home
- Set a timer for 5 minutes and clean one person’s bedroom for them
- Make Kind Rocks and place them in local parks
- Eat out at a locally owned small restaurant then leave a positive review
- Shop for and donate classroom supplies for your kids’ teachers
- Go for a walk and pick up trash
- Carry a roll of quarters with you and leave a few in any vending machines you see
- Order and send flowers anonymously to someone you all choose together
- Go to a mall and smile at everyone you see
- Write positive sayings on sticky notes and leave them on public bathroom mirrors
- Stock up your car with granola bars and water bottles and pass them out to homeless men and women when you see them at stoplights (and can do so safely)
- Write Kind Notes to your grandparents or other relatives and mail them off (you can download a free kind notes template in the parenting resource library.)
16. Find out your child’s teacher’s favorite coffee/drink and deliver it to school
17. Run/Walk a Charity 5K as a family
18. Create a neighborhood small library in your front yard
19. Take old blankets and towels to a local animal shelter
20. Sort through your clothes and donate to a local charity
21. Pay for the people behind you in the drive-through line
22. Swap chores for the day with your family members
23. Take a friend out on a special playdate
24. Buy some new underwear, socks, and/or pajamas and donate them to a local foster agency
25. Sort through your books or buy some new ones to donate to the local children’s hospital
I hope that this list has inspired you to do a few random acts of kindness with your children!
Sending you love and light,
~Ruth