"You don't need a cape to be a hero. You just need to care." – Kid President
Kindness is more than a virtue; it’s a superpower. Over the past several months of our Kindness Challenge, we’ve learned that extending random acts of kindness can help us create a more harmonious and compassionate community around us, one where people feel seen, valued, and loved.
This month, we’re challenging ourselves to model kindness for the littlest among us: our children. When we teach kids the magic of being kind, we make positive contributions to their overall wellbeing, better equip them for life’s challenges, and infuse their relationships with compassion and respect.
Did you know that 13 million children in the United States – one in four students – will be bullied at school? One in three will be cyberbullied. So, modeling kindness for children is more than warm and fuzzy. Kind kids grow up to be kind adults. When we give children the tools they need to choose kindness, we are taking a huge step toward ending bullying in schools and even in the workplace when they’re grown.
However, kindness isn’t something we’re just born with. It’s a learned behavior – something that must be taught and practiced. As parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, neighbors, and friends, we can lead by example. The series of prompts from this month’s Year of Kindness Challenge provide us with a great opportunity to model kindness for the children in our lives, making them feel special, more confident, seen, and understood. Please join us by following along:
October: Be kind to a child
| October 7 - 13 | Send “snail mail.” Receiving physical mail from someone is so rare these days that anything you send may feel special. Write a letter to a child or send a “just because” card – this is something they won’t forget. |
| October 14 - 20 | Donate toys and other needed items to a local charity, shelter, or children’s hospital. |
| October 21 - 27 | Have a conversation with a child and be fully present to them. Put your phone away. Ask questions, listen intently, and let them know that what they have to say matters. |
| October 28 – Nov. 3 | Give a child a chance to teach you something new. Did you see your neighbor kid do a skateboard trick? Ask them where they learned it. |
Join the Challenge
Ask a child to join you in the challenge this month! Encourage them to do their own random acts of kindness – and let Bearnard help! Whether it’s making sure someone doesn’t feel left out, thanking a teacher, being kind to the earth by planting a tree, or sending a card, it’s easy to print out a coloring sheet for inspiration – and then go be kind!
