A random act of kindness is when you help someone in need, make someone feel appreciated, or help your community in some way without it being preplanned. There are many ways to show kindness to others, and everyone in the family can join in, too. When you get your kids involved in completing acts of kindness for others, you create family bonding moments and teach your children qualities like generosity and selflessness. Here are eight great ways you and your family can complete random acts of kindness no matter where you live.

Donate Gently Used Clothing and Toys

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Throughout the year, consider having a closet-clean-out day where you and your kids go through their clothes and toys to find items they’ve outgrown or don’t wear. Then, you can box up the items and donate them to a local shelter or other organization that takes lightly used items. This act of kindness is also good for the environment since those items will be reused as opposed to just thrown away.

Bake Cookies for the Neighbors

Whether you’ve lived near your neighbors for years or new neighbors just moved in, you can always deliver them a fresh batch of cookies or other sweet treats. Bring your kids into the kitchen to whip up your favorite baked goods and package them for in-person delivery. You can add handwritten notes, too.

This is a great way to welcome new neighbors to the community or meet your neighbors after moving into a new home. It’s also a nice gesture if your neighbors help monitor your home or pets when you’re out of town or if anyone in your neighborhood is having a tough time. And if you want to just spread some joy, you can bring cookies for no reason at all except to let them know you care.

Participate in a Food Drive Program

There are many families and individuals who are in need of food, and you can help at any time by donating food items to a local food bank or sponsored food drive program. The next time you’re shopping for groceries, ask if the store has a food drive program and how to join. Or, reach out to your local food bank to see how their donation process works. Once you know where and how you’ll participate, you can bring the kids on the shopping trip and have them help you get items from the list.

This activity allows you to talk to your children about issues like homelessness, poverty, and food insecurity and guide them through solutions for how they can help. 

Give Cards to Your Children’s Teachers

Teachers, teacher’s aides, and other school staff work hard to educate and safeguard your children. So whether you have infants in daycare, toddlers in preschool, kids in elementary school, or teens in middle and high school, you’ll always have teachers to show appreciation for. You can gather up the kids to make homemade cards or pick out special little gifts for their teachers, and you can do this around the holidays, for Teacher Appreciation Week, toward the end of a school year, or whenever you and your children want to show how much their teachers mean to your family.

Buy Items on a Nonprofit Organization’s Amazon Wish List

Amazon welcomes nonprofit organizations all around the world to create wish lists on the site that anyone can purchase items from and have sent to the organization. The Amazon Smile program is a fantastic (and convenient) way to give back to the community. You get to see exactly what your money is buying for a nonprofit or charity, and you can get as many items for that organization as you want. You can also shop for your family like you usually do on the site, and Amazon will donate an amount that’s 0.5% of eligible purchases to that organization.

In addition, teachers around the world can also set up public wish lists on Amazon for anyone to purchase supplies for their classrooms. You can ask your children’s teachers if they have a list of their own, or find a random teacher’s Amazon wish list and donate that way.

Leave a Nice Note in a Library Book

When you and your children finish a book together, consider writing a little note on a separate piece of paper and leaving it in the book before returning it. Leave a nice message to the next person who reads it, such as one that tells them how special they are or how much they’re going to love the story. It’s a fun way to spread kindness to random strangers.

Join the Kindness Rocks Project

The Kindness Rocks Project is a nationwide kindness-spreading program where people paint rocks with inspirational messages and leave them in their community for others to find. This is another super fun way to spread kindness to random people because it involves getting artistic and can result in someone posting on social media about how they found your rock.

All your family has to do is find some rocks with at least one flat, smooth edge, paint it with nontoxic paint in whatever design you’d like, write your inspirational message and include the #TheKindnessRocksProject hashtag so others know to share when they find it, and apply a top coat around the rock with clear, nontoxic sealant so your art stays intact out in nature. 

Pick up Trash Around the Community

You and your family can help keep your neighborhood and whole town clean by volunteering to clean up trash around the area. Local organizations and businesses may host neighborhood cleanups, and government agencies, like the parks and recreation department, may regularly ask for volunteers to clean up local parks. Sign your family up for one of these trash pickup programs or dedicate your own time to heading out to do it on your own. Consider making this a regular family outing, such as once a month, to instill a sense of duty to the community in your children.

At Crème de la Crème, we aim to nurture and educate your children so they have the knowledge, skills, and personal qualities that will help them live a happy, healthy life. Our whole-child curriculum provides diverse learning experiences that instill a love of learning, teach important developmental skills, and foster a community between every student and teacher. Contact your local Crème de la Crème school to learn how our daycare, afterschool programs, and camps can help your children thrive.