It took me years to become a mother. After many invasive and unsuccessful treatments, I held my son for the first time in July 2015, he came to us through adoption. Upon staring into his little blue and innocent eyes, I froze with fear. How is this world going to treat my child, this scary world we live in? I realized that I might not be able to make sure his path is always paved with kindness, but I can raise him to be a stone of kindness on the paths of those who he comes into contact with, I can raise my child to be a better part of this world. 

I have always known that the best way to teach someone, is by example, especially when it comes to raising and education children, be the example of the outcomes you wish to receive from young minds. This meant that my hubby and I needed to start putting “kindness” into practice (not that we were meanies before), we just needed to make it more part of our lives. I still wanted to take a more proactive stance however and I started researching ways to instill kindness into children. 

Children are born to be givers. But by 4th grade, research shows they are socialized to think more about themselves than others. How do we reverse this trend and create long-lasting habits of kindness? - http://www.rootsofaction.com/art-kindness-teaching-children-care/ 

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Here’s what I found that works with kids at home and in the classroom: 

The aim is to encourage children of all ages to become more aware of carrying out acts of kindness and to notice the motions and feeling of everyone involved, including themselves.  Help enable children to become givers of kindness through these 4 steps: 

1. Help them to understand why kindness is important. 

This requires you to have an understanding yourself! Firstly, ask the kids how they feel when someone is kind to them, they will most likely respond by saying that they “feel good”. Then ask them how they feel when someone is horrible to them, they will say the “feel bad”. Explain that everyone would rather feel “good” than bad, and that we have the power to spread feelings of goodness by being kind. 

2. Start a “Kindness” project or initiative 

This can be as a class or at home as a family, or both! Construct an activity or plan where each family member or student records one act of kindness or goodwill per day. The activities and acts don’t need to be huge or costly, the can be everyday things that we sometimes take for granted. 

Examples: 

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3. Share how being kind made you feel 

Share the love, really! If you are a teacher, allow the students to give a talk on the kind things they did that week, or you could discuss it as a family over dinner. Being kind is nothing to be ashamed of, make it an everyday normal occurrence in your school and household. Let children feed off of one another’s kindness. 

4. Practice kindness until it becomes part of you 

With children especially, repetition is key. Show kindness, be kind, do acts of kindness, talk about kindness, SING about kindness, acknowledge kindness! Breathe kindness like it is part of the air you need to survive.     

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Source: http://www.rootsofaction.com/art-kindness-teaching-children-care/

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A Game To Teach Kids About Kindness: THE BANANA GAME 

Age group: 6-10 years

Number of players needed: 10 minimum

Hand each child a stack of cards with colored bananas and 1 monkey, like these:

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 You can download your cards >>>HERE<<<

* Cut each card out, so that each child is given 4 bananas and a monkey.

The objective of the game

The objective is to have 3 bananas of the same color and no monkey. The first one to reach the objective is the winner and must shout out BA-NA-NA-NA!

How to play

To play the game a child needs to ask another player for a color she is seeking. 

She can ask "May I have a green banana"?

If the other player has the color, she/he MUST give her this color OR a monkey

If the player doesn't have a green banana, she/he can hold on to his monkey (optional), and can tell you to go climb a tree (give someone a high five as the "climb the tree" act).

Then it's that players turn to ask someone else for a colored banana 

* Note: They new player cannot ask for the same color that was just given away.

You can play the game until many kids have reached their goal.

Once the game is over you can discuss the following with the children:

1. Who has no monkey and why did you give them away?
2. How many kids have less than 1 monkey?
3. How did you feel when your friend gave you a monkey? How do you feel when someone is mean to you?
4. How many have more than one monkey and why did they keep them? *This shows a kind heart, empathy perhaps?

Source: http://www.vtaide.com/gleanings/bananaGame.htm

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I hope you enjoy learning how to live a kind life with your little ones, it's all part of a healthy living!

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Much love - @sweetpea

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