Activities to practice kindness

Why kindness?

Till this day, I call recall one incident with full clarity.

When I was in class 9, I discovered that I was terrible in math. I was very good with all other subjects, but my math grades were highly concerning. For the first time in my school days, my teacher assigned a math leader to me. It was huge deal and big blow to my ego as I was so used to being the leader. I was always at loggerheads with that girl. Her name was Swapna a very sweet, well-spoken and a calm girl. Nobody ever knew she existed in the class until she was made the leader. She was very nice to me otherwise, but when it came to Math, she was unbelievably strict, asked me to submit my assignments on time, checked my homework regularly and my dumb pride could not handle it. As a teenager these things are very hard to handle.

I used to be so disturbed and never saw eye to eye with her. The day was 5th July Thursday 2001, I went to school after the most tragic day of my life. I was dealing with a very personal loss, hard for a 15-year-old girl to process. I was the most traumatic time of my life. I went inside the gates of my school, every teacher who knew me greeted me with a smile. The reverse should actually happen but that day it was different.

Students from different grades, different sections saw me and gave a wide smile and asked me how I was. I was walking with my best friend. She was holding my hands tightly. I entered the class, there was Swapna, she gave me a wide smile and hugged me tightly. I could not believe what was happening. She told me not to worry about Math, she will do everything that she can to help me and won't argue with me. My best friend did not leave my hand till I reached home!

Tears rolled down my eyes. Nobody spoke about anything; they were just being KIND. I do not remember which chapters in Math I was facing difficulty nor the fact that I did well later in math or not. But one thing that I can remember with profound vision is that everyone was KIND to me. Even after 21 years this incident is clearly etched in my mind, not the Math.

There is a saying in English right "Nobody ever remembers what you offered them to eat or drink, but everyone remembers how you treated them, so do you too" and I couldn't agree more.

It is said that in children by the age of 6, 80% of their brain is developed. Whatever they learn in their toddler phase, will shape them to be the adults that they would go on to become. Teaching them to be kind at a younger age is the need of the hour.

If we keep lecturing them about kindness obviously, they are bound to turn a deaf ear to us. How can we have fun, enjoy while learning something meaningful? Here is a list of activities you can do to help your children practice kindness in their day-to-day life.

1. Stories: Do not tell them about the topic you intend to teach them. Just narrate the below stories and start asking questions. One of my personal favourite stories on kindness is Punyakoti. It is also a folklore that would connect children with our culture. There are beautiful songs on YouTube for this story

Like how I shared a personal story above, you can also share a personal story of your life, it will instantly connect your child with you and make a greater impact on them.

2. Toothpaste activity

Materials required: tooth paste or ketch up bottle and paper plate.

Sit down with your child. Tell them we shall do some kind of magic. Ask them to pour the paste on the paper. Make it look like a fun activity. Do not help them, no matter how ever hard they find it to squeeze it, allow them to do it independently.

Once it is squeezed, tell them to make shapes, faces, drawings etc. let them have fun. Once they are done ask them to put it back in the tube. You are going to see surprised expression on their face. Yes, ask them to put it back. Let them try.

When they are unable to do so, tell them that means words are exactly like the toothpaste coming out of the tube. Once it comes out of our mouth, it is hard to take them back. It hurts the other person tremendously. Hence whenever we speak to anyone, we should always use KIND words and be KIND.

3. Kindness Box

Every time your child outgrows anything, be it clothes, toys, books or anything for that matter, tell them to put it in a box. Call it as the "kindness box". Tell them that there are many people in this world who are not as privileged and lucky as they are, hence, these items would be donated to them. Handover the kindness box to your children and donate it through their hands. Make them feel responsible.

4. Family game night

Once in a while, all the members of the family sit together to play a game. Could be anything, passing the ball, antakshari, musical chairs. Now who ever get out in the game has to say one good thing about every member in the group. ONLY GOOD THINGS. I know that the family dynamics is usually about finding each other mistakes and constantly pointing out on each other, but once in a while it is nice to appreciate each other. Do it in front of your children. Use kind words. Let children also do this too.

5. Model kindness in your behaviour

Children learn everything from what they see. When you are a parent, you have no choice but to be on alert mode 24/7. Hence if you get a chance to show any random act of kindness do it. You will never ever regret it. Children will take after us only when they see us doing it, not only just talking about it.

Always remember as Jackie Chan said " Sometimes it takes only a small act of kindness to change a person's life"

Be kind whenever and wherever you can