This is our first year joining in with the 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge hosted by Toddler Approved and Coffee Cups and Crayons. Over one month, several bloggers are sharing simple ideas to encourage spreading a little kindness, inspired by Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
We have chosen to do a simple act of kindness towards strangers, which I felt is something important for my children to think about. Maybe due to over zealous teaching of “stranger danger” one of my children had picked up the idea that all strangers are bad people and never ever to be trusted.
That’s not how I want my children to have to feel. Strangers are strangers because we don’t know them. If we don’t know them, we don’t know whether they are good or bad – but most people are good. I want my children to know that, and simple activities like this might help them to remember that. After decorating the boxes, they started to get excited to think about who might find them!
So, on to the challenge! We decided to take an idea that we have been doing in our neighbourhood for a few years, and spread it wider to extend it out to strangers.
We bought a few small chocolate boxes, and let the children decide where to leave them for strangers to find as a surprise.
We tend to use these 50g Lindor boxes, which are an ideal size for a small gesture.
We wanted to stick a printable onto the boxes, to make it clear what they were for and let people know that it’s okay to take them and eat them! Being reserved British, most people if they found an unexplained chocolate box would probably leave it so I got Z (6) to design his own labels using PicMonkey. This gave him more ownership over the idea too and made him feel in charge.
His final results looked so cute on the boxes. You could also use famous quotes about kindness to decorate each box if you prefer.
Once they were all decorated, it was time to go spread some chocolatey kindness by leaving them around in public spaces. We decided on leaving on park benches, and in the row of supermarket trolleys after we finished our shopping.
Maybe someone can find it after a stressful shopping trip with their toddler and it brings a smile to their face, or maybe some children can find it in the park and be inspired to spread some kindness to strangers too.
Find out more about the 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge at Toddler Approved.
You can sign up to receive daily ideas throughout the challenge and download some printable charts to help you on your way to completing 100 acts of kindness with your family.
I’ll end with some words of Dr Martin Luther King 🙂
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ ”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Quote background image “city at night bokeh background” Shutterstock (modified)
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
Absolutely wonderful, what a lovely positive thing to do, well done to you and your children.
This is such a fantastic idea, I love it. I’m all for random acts of kindness and try to spread the love when I can, but I’ve never thought of doing something like this.
Such a lovely idea. Random acts of kindness are a lovely way to give hope to others x
That brought a tear to my eye, such a lovely lovely thing to do…I’m going to tell my children about it and see what we can do. Thank you.
Lovely, lovely idea.
Thanks for linking with this week’s parenting pin it party. x x