Kindness is contagious!

Isn’t it amazing how just taking time to focus on something seems to manifest even more of that.  That is how I feel about our Kindness Campaign.  It is amazing how often I see children do kind things or hear a teacher talking about a kind action.

I LOVE IT!

Our teachers are sharing the kindness strips that our families send in during their circle time.  The children just BEAM when their kind deed is announced.

 

Again, I LOVE IT!

Our kindness chain is sure growing!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

Perhaps this focus has even helped you become more aware of kind actions all around you.  I sure hope so.

One little guy make cookies and took them to the Police Station to thank them for keeping us safe.

Today I noticed a little guy in the Blue class giving a thumbs up to his friends as they were performing a play of The Three Little Pigs.  I know that made them feel great.  He got to add a link to our chain.

I’d love to see any of the kindness activities your buddies are encouraging the children to do.  Please drop us an email or add it as a comment to this blog post.

As another way to carry the kindness focus into the homes you may want to pick up a couple of books about kindness from the library.  I found this wonderful blog post about books that encourage kindness.   HERE   I hope you enjoy some from it.

 

Kindness Campaign

Therefore, as “children of God,” holy and beloved,

put on mercy, kindness, humility, meekness.

Colossians 3:12

This was the focus of our Devotion Worship this week.  

Kindness will be our focus through February.  Young children are naturally self focused.  This is a developmental thing.  It’s normal.  However, we can help children learn how to notice others, think about others needs and even care for others.  Jesus was a wonderful example of showing kindness to others.  I told the children the story of Jesus finding the lame man at the pool of Bethesda.  The man could not get into the healing waters since he couldn’t walk and people kept going before him.  Jesus asked him about it and then said, “Stand up, pick up your mat and walk.”  Jesus showed kindness.

 

We then read the book A World of Kindness, from the Pajama Press.  This adorable book showed us a various ways that we can be kind to others such as

Helping people young and old,

Comforting someone who is sad,

Being a friend to someone new, 

We are sending home a kindness buddy with each preschool family.  (If you are reading this but aren’t a part of our preschool I would encourage you to use a stuffed animal as a kindness reminder.)  Children can show kindness to their buddy by making it a bed, a house, etc.  But mostly the buddy can help children think about a special way to be kind each day.

We also sent home strips of paper.  We hope our families will write on it the kind actions they see their kids doing.  You can send these in and we will celebrate with the child as we connect them to our Kindness Chain.  I started the chain with a link for each of our staff.  It was so easy to come up with a kind action for each person.  They exhibit kindness everyday!

We also added kind actions witnessed after our Worship yesterday.  

Our Kindness Chain is already growing!

New Year’s Resolution – taking a cue from our toddlers

My niece posted on Facebook about her New Year’s resolution.  She was taking a cue from her toddler.  I loved the idea.  There are so many things we can learn from our little ones.  Here are her ideas.

This year, perhaps we should all strive to . . .

LIVE IN THE MOMENT

SAY Hi AND BYE TO EVERYONE

READ FICTION EVERYDAY

 

PLAY, PLAY, PLAY

BE CURIOUS

BE ASSERTIVE

(I love how honest and up-front children are with what they need or want. Couldn’t we all learn something from that. For this post, though, I am going to interpret this as a child being intent on what he is doing. I love watching a child “struggle” to figure something out.)

TAKE A NAP WHEN YOU NEED ONE

 

LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY

THROW A GOOD FIT EVERY NOW AND THEN

(While we see the need for this it’s not a part of our day we take pictures of.  Somehow I am sure you can visualize this without a photo.) 

HAVE FUN and BE SILLY

(I added this one.  We do this a lot around here.)