A few weeks ago, I saw a Random Acts of Kindness Advent Calendar on Facebook, and we immediately stole the idea and ran with it. I absolutely love this- every day you count down to Christmas with the kids by doing something kind for someone else. Every day is a new random act that we do together.
We’ve always done advent with the boys, who up to now have really only grasped one undeniable thing about Advent; Chocolate. We weren’t sure how to infuse some value into that chocolate, until now. How meaningful it is to connect an inspired activity to the spirit of the holiday.
Even though we’ve been doing different acts each day, I actually hesitated to share this as a blog post. I believe that the biggest reward for doing good can be internal, and sometimes there’s power in doing kind things anonymously. I don’t want to teach my kids that we do good things only to tell others about it or turn it into a self-gratifying social media share.
That said, I myself wouldn’t have thought about doing this in our family if someone else hadn’t shared it and given me the idea, and I’m delighted at how much my boys are getting into doing it. So if a gratuitous share helps, here are my kids doing some awesome things lately:
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Each morning they run to their calendars and say “What’s our advent for today?”. They really look forward to doing them, and have fun with each one. A kind compliment to a friend. Taping a dollar to a vending machine when no one’s looking. Sending a letter to a soldier. Feeding the birds. Helping a neighbor. They are now looking forward to the good feelings they get when they do these things. In fact, they’re enjoying it so much that they’re adding their own kindness ideas onto the calendar.
If you haven’t already seen this, here’s a great example to use with your family from Coffee Cups and Crayons:
So grateful we saw this and put it to practice. I’d love to know how you teach your kids to practice kindness throughout the year. Please feel free to share your practices in the comments!
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