3 Little Fireflies: Good Deeds

Over the past two weeks, I have taught at our church summer program in the second grade class. Yes, I teach material from their books, and follow the curriculum, but I also try my best to show the kids how to make connections in their lives to the basic messages of kindness and love.

I really wish our kids in their "regular school year" classrooms had courses in how to be kind, how to pay it forward, and why that is so important. I think it's easy for us {as grown-ups} to forget that even though we understand its the right thing to be kind, it's just as important to teach kids the WHY.

I don't just tell my own kids to brush their teeth, I tell them why it's important and what will happen if they don't {OK, maybe this was a bad example....I still have to poke and prod them....but you get the point}.

Each morning in my class, I asked the students to do two things: write a good deed they have done on a leaf cut-out, and write a prayer intention on a flower. Then the kids took turns reading the kind act they had done, and asked their friends to think of their special person or animal they were praying for that day.

On the first day there were 10 leaves of good deeds, 8 days later there were 80. Kind acts add up quickly when you are aware of them.

And that might be the point...we do nice things all the time for others, and we assume kids just 'get that' and why it's important. But making them aware of their behavior is really what makes it different. Awareness is what make kids think twice before laughing along with the group if someone is being made fun of on the playground. It might just be what makes them speak up for that kid and say, 'Hey, let's go over here and play basketball'. That might be the kindest thing they could do all week. Imagine how it could change the course of a bullied-kid's life if he had a friend who stood up for him? Sounds small, but might turn out to be really huge to that kid.

That was the biggest message I hope the kids understood. These small, kind acts add up to create huge ripple effects in the lives of others. If you are kind to someone, that might change their whole day and it gets passed on again, and again....

So in the comment section here, feel free to leave a note about a good deed your kids have done. I asked my students to check in with me here and add something kind they have done over the summer......I told them they might be the ones who inspire others to do the same. If this can be read all over the world, we're bound to get some good deed comments, right? Maybe?

Below are some of the good deeds and the prayers of my students. Let's see how big this "tree" can grow.

Have a great day!

{Jenn}