Kindness program ?

[crafty]

Hi there ladies !

So my kids are getting a bit older now and I would like to incorporate some sort of kindness programs or activities such as visiting retirement centers or donating to food banks or whatever.

I need your help for ideas or if any of you have such activities in your program and how do you go about it.

Thanks so much as always for your help !

[Wonderwiper]

Great idea!

I don't do this in my program but with my own daughters (5,3). Whenever they do a job for me they "earn money for the foodbank". They each have a jar to collect it. We will go together to buy food with it (supplemented by me of course) to donate. They get really excited about putting money in their jar and say it is "for friends that don't have as much food as we do"!

My daycare crew helps me bake Christmas treats that we bring to the fire station.

You could call the activity director at a seniors Centre to see if they would be interested.

You could also have the kids make a whole bunch of Christmas cards that you could take to seniors Centre to hand out.

[Lee-Bee]

So I don't have experience bringing daycare children to nursing homes but I used to bring my sparks group (5-6yr old girls) to sing Christmas carols and I found it kind of stressful for the children. They only went once a year so did not have time to acclimatize to the seniors and we always ended up really old seniors who were all in wheel chairs, the vast majority of which could not speak and made a lot of 'scary' noises and just had no clue what was going on.

I am in NO way saying these seniors didn't deserve visitors but i think they needed visitors that were prepared for them and came more often so it wasn't just an hour of great discomfort for the kids.

So my point is, do you have a seniors building but not a nursing home nearby? With retired seniors who are active and well versus those who are needed a great deal of medical and specialized care? If you can find a seniors home you will likely find a bunch of seniors that are on the floor with the kids playing freely and it would be a huge joy to the kids and the seniors.

If you do have this nearby then arrange for frequent visits and bring a bunch of toys. Balls, a tunnel, some puzzles and colouring. Just let the kids and senior play and interact. No need to be trying to practice songs or anything like that...odds are the kids would just freeze up and you'd be singing on your own lol.

I used to take my daughter to music class in a seniors building. In the spare room they rented out. The seniors would sneak in and sit and watch, and peek in all the doors to see. They wanted nothing more than to see the babies. They were there every week like it was an important appointment. It really brings joy to their day to just get to see some kids :-)

[5 Little Monkeys]

I have two 2.5 year olds and two 4 year olds and am starting the same this year! Here are some things we are going to do or have done....

* hang up scarves, mitts and toques in our downtown area for those who need but can't afford them

* colour Xmas cards and than visit a care home to hand them out and visit with the seniors

* put change in an envelope with a note that says "enjoy a treat on us" and tape to drink machines

* holding the door open for others (the 4 year olds love doing this!)

* collecting food for the food bank

* visiting the firehall and taking some cookies to say thank you

Looking forward to getting more ideas from all of you :)

[Van]

What a lovely idea and so giving , the seniors will love the visits and I do agree it is good to go often to help the children adjust to the seniors- my children are in/tod so too young but I love the idea - good for all of you who do this wonderful deed :)

[crafty]

Thanks ladies for your input. I don't intend on putting on shows my kids are friendly but not that outgoing extroverts. haha I'll likely be taking them to retirement homes not nursing homes. I'll be calling the centers in our area and local firehouse and see what the "need" is. My kids would love to give out crafts and cards they make as well as little baked treats. I like the idea of going out and doing one good deed a week as well. I'll call animal shelters too. We have a farm so my kids are use to being around animals. Maybe we could take them out for walks or bring them a bag of treats or food.

Anyone else with ideas would be great.

[5 Little Monkeys]

We are also going to pick a name or 2 from the tree at Walmart and buy gifts for hopefully a boy and a girl around the same ages as my dck's. I also thought about buying a couple boxes of individually packaged hot chocolate and letting the kids hand out to people in the mall.

My crew can sometimes be shy so I wonder how some of these will go lol

[Lee-Bee]

I wouldn't recommend it with a group but for those looking for an idea with your own children...The Salvation Army Christmas kettle is a great opportunity. We did it last year with our 20month old. She wore her Santa hat and rang her jingle bells and waved at people. Most of the people would give my daughter their change so she could stand on the chair and put it in the kettle. It kept her busy. Having a cute little kid draws in extra people and money :-)

We did a 2hr shift. Just make sure you choose one of the indoor locations (some are outside in parking lots etc)!

I don't think I would do this with more than 2 kids with 2 adults, so one can take the kids for a walk if they are acting up. We had grandma on standby to come take her home if it was a colossal fail. It went so well we plan to do it annually now.