It wasn’t Christmas or Thanksgiving it was just another month in the year when I watched my dad unload baskets of fruit, vegetables and bread out of the back of our car. He laid the baskets on the side entrance of a low-income apartment complex and we then we drove away. He didn’t wait to get a thank you or anything–he walked away and said, “I”m praying these get into the hands of those who need it.” And that was it. He did this over and over again through my life and me and my siblings witnessed it. I didn’t get a talk on how it’s important to be kind. I didn’t get a lecture on how blessed we are.
And guess what, it stuck. Kindness, giving and serving others, stuck. It stuck with all of my siblings, as well.
Now I find myself wanting to do the same for my kids–an example of random acts of kindness done for others. But I do give talks with the examples, ha. I get that from my mom, a woman full of wisdom ready to be bless someone with her gentle voice and wise words. I still need to work on the gentle and wise part.
I Spy Random Acts of Kindness Jar!
You can do this “I Spy Random Acts of Kindness” anytime of the year but since Valentine’s Day is around the corner we went with this theme and used red, purple and pink dyed rice. The activities on the list are things you can enjoy doing as a family so feel free to share it with your kids and spouse. Today, my husband pulled out a heart that encouraged him to do something that would be helpful around the house. I like that!
Kindness can be random but it does involve some intentionality, as all things in life.
How We Use This Activity in Our House
Though we aspire to practice kindness and love year round this is the month we spend time being intentional and reflecting on these lovely things. My son’s RAK heart encouraged him to give a treat to a community service person. Since we don’t have a mailman, he thought who can I give it to. It was really cute as he went through each person who he could give it to and then settled on just giving the gardeners, guards and gas people something.
At dinner time we pass around the jar. By now you may have realized that we have lots of jar activities. We actually have lots of jars on our dinner table: Pigging out jar to help teach table manners, Family Discussion Questions for dinner time, Prayer Jar and our Gratitude Jar… Well, not all of these sit at our table at once. You’ll need to print out the free printables I provided for my lovely readers. The link is below.
Each person shakes it up and pulls out a heart. On the back of the heart theirs a RAK activity for them to accomplish the following day.
You can change it up and while one person is holding the jar and shaking it the person to the right of them will say, “I spy with my little eye, a green heart.” or whatever color they choose. That’s the color heart the person holding the jar needs to pick and they pass the jar over and then they have a turn to say “I spy…”
Free printables! Just click here:I Spy Random Acts of Kindness Revised to get the free jar or container label and the different random acts of kindness slips to add to your hearts.
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