Our Kindness Chart
*This post has been sponsored by Hershey Co. All thoughts and opinions are my own. *
Not long after Sunny was born and my life felt crazy for a variety of reasons, I was looking for ways to simplify my life even more. I just needed to make fewer "in the moment" decisions every day because my brain and heart were at full capacity! One of the ways I did that was by ordering my groceries online. Enter: Peapod. It's powered by Giant grocery stores, and it's amazing. You just place fill your cart online, choose your delivery date and boom! Groceries arrive right to your door. One of the things I usually order when placing an order with Giant Peapod is HERSHEYS's Kisses and HERSEY's Assorted Minis. These are some of June's favorite treats to have around and let’s be real, I love having them around too. I usually take out all the dark chocolate bars and hide them in a drawer. 😂 #treatyourself
We have this giant print in our living room that says "Throw kindness around like confetti". T.J. gave it to me for my birthday years ago. There was already a nail in place on our plaster wall near the staircase so we just decided to hang it there because it seemed strong enough to hold the giant frame! And little did we know that it would remain both a focal point and conversation starter in our daily lives over the next seven years. And let me tell what I love about it. I love that it doesn't just say "Be Kind." What it says is "throw kindness around like confetti", which implies that there is enough to go around -- that there are handfuls and handfuls, and we should be tossing it freely, joyfully, and in celebration.
I think kindness is something that we as adults, at least I hope, understand. But for kids, it's something they need to be taught. As a Mom to two little girls, I want to show them what it looks like to be kind to ourselves, the people we know and love, and even those we don't know.
One of my favorite thing we recently starting doing, specifically for June who just turned four, is that instead of a chore chart we have a kindness chart. It works just like a chore chart, except it has little acts of kindness that we can do as a family or that she can do by herself! After she completes one of them we treat ourselves with our favorite chocolates and we celebrate together, talking about why we do kind things for people.
I'm excited to share our Kindness Chart with you! You can download it right HERE and print it out for you and your kids! Hang it up on your fridge, or leave it on your counter so you've got that little reminder to do something kind whenever you can.
One of our favorite things on the list is to feed the birds. We make those old school little bird feeders where you slather a pinecone in peanut butter, roll it in birdseed, and then hang it from a branch or hook with some string. Both June and I love birds thanks to my Mom. It's so cute to hear June naming all the birds when they fly around out back. This summer, I hope to get a few more bird feeders set up close to our house and a little bird bath so that we can watch them from our windows and feed the birds all the time as a family.
Another one of our favorite acts of kindness from the chart is to paint pictures for people. June's super into painting right now (which you may have seen on our Instagram Story last week, #sointense), and I love that it's something we do together. I put little dots of paint all over the paper and then she uses her brush to swirl it all together and connect the dots. I ask her while she's painting who she's making the picture for and what she thinks their favorite colors are. It's really sweet how often she's in tune with what people's favorite colors might be.
Personally, one of my favorite things on our kindness chart is to pick flowers and give them to a neighbor or someone that could use a little pick-me-up. It's early spring here in Pennsylvania, and we've got daffodils popping up everywhere! Which, I don't know about you, but I feel like very few things smell more like spring than daffodils! They're such a sweet reminder that spring is coming and that seasons are good—in nature and in life.
Just the other day, June and I sat on the back porch in the sunshine and enjoyed our HERSHEY'S KISSES Milk Chocolates and HERSHEY'S Miniatures Assortment and talked about what it really means to be kind. And how sometimes, just mayyyyybe, that looks like sharing the last piece of dark chocolate with your 4-year-old even if you don't want to.
I hope you'll take the time to download the Kindness Chart and use it in your home! It's so fun for us. I know you and your kids will love it!
And remember, practice kindness. Be generous with it. Grab handfuls of it and share with friends. Throw it around like confetti. And of course, don't forget to treat yourself with your favorite HERSHEY'S chocolates after you do.
P.S. Leave a bag of chocolates on the porch for your mailman! :)
