78 Random Acts of Kindness Cards for Kids

You'll get a whole library of kindness ideas inside this printable pack!

In these 13 gorgeous, full-color, printable 8.5 x 11 inch pages, you will find 78 cards, each containing a random act of kindness that's doable for kids.

About half of the ideas are explained in this blog post, but the other half are brand new, never published before. They cover everything from acts of kindness for siblings and parents, grandparents, neighbors, the elderly, hospital patients, first responders, and random strangers.

Your kids will be looking for opportunities to be kind to just about everyone they meet!

HOW I USED KINDNESS CARDS IN MY OWN FAMILY

I printed ​the cards and asked my daughters to help me choose 14 to focus on as a family. They were happy to help and suggested the cards that they wanted to do (not surprisingly, they picked the easiest and least sacrificing, but we’re taking baby steps here). Here’s what they picked:

1. Return someone else’s shopping cart.
2. Bring the neighbor’s trash cans up their driveway.
3. Smile at a stranger.
4. Give a hug to someone you love.
5. Read a book to a sibling.
6. Offer to carry a bag of groceries.
7. Leave a treat in the mailbox for the mail carrier.
8. Put a sticky note on a public mirror that says “You are beautiful!”
9. Drop a quarter into an expired parking meter.
10. Hold the door.
11. Let someone go ahead of you.
12. Hold the elevator.
13. Leave change in a vending machine.
14. Pick up trash.

After we chose our 14 cards, we discussed that we would be doing a 14 day kindness challenge. We had 14 days to complete all 14 cards, and once we did, we would get a reward. (Our reward was going out for ice cream because – no more toys or physical rewards!) I know that the reward should be a good feeling and there should be internal motivation to do more good deeds, but when you’re first getting started, an external reward gets momentum going in the right direction.

I’m pleased to tell you that my kids completed their 14 day challenge in 12 days and got their ice cream treat, but what’s more important is that their acts of kindness continued long after the 12 days passed. They started looking for nice things to do for other people. Being extra kind had become a habit, and it was a habit that gathered steam the more they practiced.

I wish I could tell you that this 14 day kindness challenge forever changed my kids’s attitudes and ended their entitled behavior. It did, but it didn’t. The one who was greedy is still greedy, and she still looks for her treat whenever we go to a store. But she also looks out for others and is quick to find an opportunity to help people out. So while it didn’t totally end the entitlement, it made her more open and willing to see the needs of other people, and that was my goal.

HOW TO DO A 14 DAY KINDNESS CHALLENGE WITH YOUR KIDS

1. Download and print the kindness cards​ from the link in your email. (Use cardstock and/or laminate to make them more durable.)
2. Work with your kids to select cards to focus on for the next 2 weeks.
3. Challenge your kids to complete each card in the allotted time frame. Offer them a small reward if they can do it.
4. Sit back and wait, encouraging them to remember their cards and work to complete each one. They will need reminders and encouragement, so be prepared.
5. When the challenge is over, talk about how they did and what they accomplished and how being kind made them feel.
6. Optional and more difficult – help them to choose another 7 or 14 cards to extend the challenge and again offer some kind of reward for completion. But the key this time is that the first 14 cards are off limits! (Not that you want them to quit doing those behaviors, but just that the new challenge requires new behaviors.)

Listen, sweet friend. You can make this challenge last as long as you want. It can be a 30 day challenge or 60 days if you're up for that. I suggested 14 because it's long enough to get a habit going but not so long as to be overwhelming. If you can only manage 7 days, then do 7.

Anything you do to encourage kindness in your kids will be a bonus, moving them in the direction of loving kindness and away from entitled greed.

Now, having said that, you will experience maximum benefit from these cards if you use them consistently, at least a few times a week.

 

Do you want kind kids? Download the cards today!