This is the painting that we completed at our World-Changing Kids Kindness Club at Billingswood Manor Senior Residence on March 4. It has hand prints from the kids and the residents. We took down the artwork they had over their reception desk and hung this up instead. All the residents agreed they liked this painting more.
Completing this painting on our last day of the winter session of Kindness Club was my 6 year old’s idea! And what an awesome idea it was.
Our friend Elmer, when asked by my daughter what paint colour he wanted, replied “all of them!”. So she painted each finger, the thumb and the palm of Elmer’s hand different colours. It was wonderful. Then Elmer joked about putting hand prints on the kids and made them all laugh.
The kids learn some beautiful kindness, empathy and compassion at Kindness Club. Going with other families in our community shows the kids that the adults in their lives value kindness. As a result, these kids will make kindness a regular occurrence – they will start to look for ways to help their neighbours. I have seen it happen! And let me also tell you that the parents love going to Kindness Club as much as the kids. You always leave feeling filled up with love. What a great way to spend a few hours on a Saturday afternoon.
Through Kindness Club, the kids also learn that there is an expectation that they will take care of their elders. They are learning about issues faced by seniors – loneliness, isolation, lack of new experiences – in a fun and safe way. They see the joy that they can bring to the seniors by visiting and engaging with them. It makes me so excited to think about the good these World-Changing Kids will do when they are the future leaders and decision makers.
For 75 more Acts of Kindness that children can do to build a friendly community, while also growing their empathy and compassion muscles, check out our book “Plant a Garden of Kindness, A Child’s Guide to Filling a Year with Weekly Acts of Kindness”. You can buy it from the above “Our Book” tab on our our website.