This time last year I was all over my Random Acts of Kindness advent calendar. I had good intentions of doing it again this year for the kids, but December 1st snuck up on me and I just wasn’t prepared. But teaching my kids about the season of GIVING rather than receiving is still important to me, so I plan to resurrect my toilet paper roll calendar, just a few days late.
After last year’s attempt, I do know some changes I will need to make. My kids do not like to be put on the spot. So anything that required them to do something in front of people (taping the popcorn to the Redbox machine, for example) didn’t work out as I expected. We definitely like the more incognito Random Acts of Kindness.
One thing that was a huge success and really affected my kids, and they still talk about it to this day, was helping with the holiday toy coalition. We had to fill boxes with wish list items for kids who are less fortunate. I wasn’t sure if my kids would get anything out of it, but it really had an impact on them. I am definitely going to be looking for something similar to do in the next few weeks.
And if you are struggling with ideas yourself, check out some of these resources:
25 Gifts of Kindness Facebook page – started by my friend, Ashley, and more for the Northern VA/Loudoun County area, but many other awesome ideas that have no boundaries.
www.randomactsofkindness.org – This is actually where I first heard of the whole Random Acts of Kindness movement. Kindness is not seasonal, it should be year-round!
Monkee See-Monkee Do – Started by my friend at Momastery, making a big impact on the world.
As we do our Random Acts of Kindness this season, I’ll try to post what we do and how it turned out. And please let us know what you plan on doing to GIVE this season!
