I have mentioned before that I am super behind in reporting on our Kindness Club visits at Billingswood Manor Seniors Residence. I am trying hard to catch up! These photos are from our visit on Saturday, January 28.
On this day, one of the awesome families who bought a membership for the whole session, brought in their youngest child. He is normally napping during Kindness Club, and doesn’t attend – but this day he did … and was it ever magical to see the joy that he brought to the residents. These two friends were especially happy to see him.
We also had one of our neigbhourhood dog friends, Bridget, come in for a visit. It was almost too much love and happiness to handle!
We brought a big floor puzzle and blocks and all the kids came together on the carpet.
Maria wanted to hold the little one. He did such a good job with her – he didn’t cry or fuss at all. Look at the joy on her face.
My daughter Hazel came up with a beautiful craft idea to do with her friend Big Hazel. We traced both Hazel’s hand prints and wrote their names in them. And then my daughter added a little heart with the word “and”. So cute!
Then our youngest friend took some time to play on the floor. Look at the ladies watching him!
And then this beautiful moment happened. Take a look at our young friend sitting cross-legged in the pink pants and the woman sitting across from her in the chair – whose name is Evelyn. They are rolling a block back and forth to each other. This is a big deal because this is the first time that Evelyn interacted with us. She had sat in her chair and watched us for all the other weeks that we had done Kindness Club. If the kids had given her a picture they drew in past weeks, she would say thank you and give it back to them. I didn’t think that she really liked us coming to visit. But on this day, in a totally spontaneous moment, she started playing. And since this day, she has joined in with us for other fun games!
One of our good friends, Barbara, did not feel up to coming to visit us during Kindness Club. So my daughter made her a picture. Barbara is the one who leads the children in a “Good Morning” song during our Kindness Clubs – she used to be a music teacher. So that is what my daughter drew – Barbara singing her song. What I love about it is that she wrote the letters in the same direction as the speech bubble – and then wrapping back around inside the speech bubble. Can you read it? It does say “Good Morning to you”. The letters are backwards until they wrap around, and then they are the correct way again. I LOVE it.
And lastly, there was this beautiful interaction. As you know from past posts, my son loves baseball and he loves to play catch. I am forever telling him not to throw things at the retirement home … but these two gentlemen started a game of catch with my son with one of the small stuffed animals we bring. Again, it was a totally spontaneous moment. Can you see that the man in the back is throwing the stuffed animal? He would throw it over Rod’s head to my son who was standing where I was.
Then my son would throw it to Rod, who would throw it back to him, then my son would throw it back to our friend sitting at the back … and it went on like this.
Then my kids started tackling each other while trying to catch it. It was all a bit out of control. And I wouldn’t have thought that it would have been allowed … but seeing as how these men live here and they started the game, I wasn’t going to be the one to put a stop to it. Besides, maybe a bit of chaos and rule breaking is just what they needed!
We will be starting our spring session of Kindness Club next week. We would love for you to join us. Here are the details:
Dates: April 1 to May 27
(7 Saturdays – skipping April 15 for Easter and May 6 for our school’s Spring Fair)
Price: We are offering a family membership for the 7 week session for $70 and a drop in family rate of $15 to attend individual days (if space is available).
To register, you can email me at worldchangingkids@gmail.com
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about this!