The times are shifting back to “normal” and we now have the opportunity to have our kids learn and show kindness to their local community.
Demonstrating how to be kind and thoughtful with random acts of kindness for toddlers is a lovely way to begin 2023 and make it a year of connection & community.
If you are new to the concept, a “Random Act of Kindness” is a gesture of kindness out of the blue with now reciprocation expected. A good example is when friends or neighbors drop off a cooked meal to new parents of a newborn.
This idea is something I love to bring to the toddler level, to begin demonstrating how to think of others and be a part of a community.
As they say, “Lead by example”. Showing our kids how to be involved in our communities is so important. We can “tell them” all day long, but if we show them and make it hands on, that is the kind of life lesson that sticks and make a core memory.
When participating in a random act of kindness a toddler can learn compassion, empathy, and goodwill.
If this is something you are interested in bringing to your family as well here is a list of things you can look through and find what ideas suit your toddlers abilities.
To really make the concept clear to your toddler it might be fun to do one every day for a week, 2 weeks, or even a month if you’re up to it.
These little moments make for great family memories and connection time, as well as making your child feel like a part of their community.
30 Random Acts of Kindness for Toddlers
- Bake cookies for grandparent/s
- Donate a toy to charity
- Call relative
- Pick up litter while on a walk
- Give stickers & paper to a friend
- Plant flower in empty milk jug for friend
- High five everyone in family
- Leave kindness stones along sidewalk
- Color a picture for fire department
- Give coloring to elderly neighbors
- Write kindness note for neighbors
- Wave to the garbage man
- Plant native flowers in empty lot
- Set table for dinner
- Pick weeds for neighbor
- Give kids books to waiting room
- Smile to as many people
- Hold door open for someone
- Give bubbles to friends
- Ask elder to tell story of their childhood
- Return a shopping cart
- Lemonade in jars for neighbors
- Send a postcard to family
- Donate outgrown clothes
- Take food to local food bank
- Kind post-it notes for store clerks
- Give soup can to sick friend
- Give teacher a flower
- Draw chalk pictures on sidewalk
- Fill a jar with candy & give to police station
These are some ideas for you to grab from, don’t feel after reading this list you need to so ALL this list.
Many of these require adult supervision, so it is a team effort.
Get inspiration and make your own Kindness challenge list.
Put it on the fridge and make it a goal to get through the list in a set time frame.
Would you like a fun visual checklist for your toddler?
Grab ours for your fridge!
It can be loads of fun to do together over 2 weeks.
Do them it whatever order suits you.
Let your toddler cross them off after they have done them, watch the smile spread across their face.
Ask them how it made them feel and encourage a bit of discussion to really instill the beauty of random acts of kindness and how they make a community feel connected.
Some of our toddlers’ favorite ones to do is color pictures for the neighbors and leave them in their letterbox.
We have a handful of elderly neighbors on our street and they get so much joy from this random act of kindness from our toddlers. They like to do it without me even asking anymore, they just tell me they’d like to walk and mail their pictures (heart melt moment as a parent).
Are there anymore you have done that you would add to this list?
Let me know below and I can add them!
