Post #29 Celebrate kindness

Celebrate Kindness

This week’s spotlight on kindness is so apt for the situation we are all in. News broadcasts have shown countless examples of kindness, small and large scale, which inspire and make us feel good. From young children colouring rainbows to give to a neighbour to large scale charitable acts such as those by ‘uncle Tom’. Let’s end this week’s blog by celebrating kindness in your family and make a promise to continue to model and encourage kindness daily.

Encouraging Kindness - Art & Crafts Ideas

Arts & crafts can be fun for autistic children, although we need to be mindful of any hypersensitivity, including to touch and smell. For these activities you want to draw attention to ‘kindness’ and ‘being kind’, so reducing/eliminating any unpleasant sensations is important as these would shift the focus to the unpleasant sensation and away from the kindness concept. You want these activities to be engaging and fun so choose resources which appeal to your son or daughter and avoid those which may be unpleasant for them, such as strong smells, sticky materials.

Make items which your child/ren can give to others, for example by giving to each other, posting to relatives or friends or putting through letterbox of neighbour(s).  Model kindness by making some yourself and giving to your children.

Kindness Flower  - Draw a large flower shape (minus petals). Draw and cut out petals. Write kind words on each petal and attach to flower. Similarly you can make a kindness tree, writing kind actions/words on each leaf.






Kindness cookies – Bake some cookies – from scratch or packet mix – and decorate by icing with kind words. The each person gives  a cake to another family member.

Kindness  Bookmark – cut out card rectangle, write things you like/love about the person you are sending the bookmark to, decorate.

Kindness Rocks – some children have been painting rainbows on rocks, large pebbles or stones. Try painting a kind word or phrase and decorate, place them in your garden or on a window sill as a reminder of kindnesses. Or, leave them outside neighbours’ doors as a surprise.

Kindness Jar/box – Decorate and write kind words/actions on small slips of coloured paper, roll or fold and put in a jar or box. The person who receives the gift opens one kind word/action each day. You could make one for each person at home, celebrating who they are, what they do and so on.







Kindness Compliments game – Make some compliments cards as reminders of kind compliments. Place compliments cards in a bag, take turns to close eyes and pick out a compliment, decide who to give the compliment to. For example, the compliment card might say “I think you are really skilled at mine craft”.  The person who picks this compliment from the bag chooses who to pay the compliment to – encourage your child to go to the selected person and say the compliment (reading from the card if needed). This is a game where you can model how to give a compliment and to watch to see how it makes the person receiving the compliment feel.

Kindness Rules – Make a kindness rules poster to display at home. Clear boundaries and rules at home are important. Consider language used when making rules, frequently we rely on ‘do not’ (e.g. do not hit, do not push) but ‘not’ is a tricky word to understand as it is too abstract. Also, if we have a rule that tells our children what ‘not’ to do, then they are left with not knowing what they should ‘do’ instead and there is a risk they may replace the action or words you are discouraging with other actions and words that may be even more of a problem! Try to phrase rules by stating what your children should do – such as ‘remember, use gentle hands’. This focuses on the positive actions and words you want to encourage. So, you make a poster about kindness rules, discuss and agree the kindness rules with everyone at home.

End this week with a certificate for kindness! Make your own and personalise for your child, or download free from Twinkl: Kindness certificate

Have a good half term and remember, model and encourage kindness.