Kindness
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” – Ephesians 4:32
I am really enjoying focusing on one character development trait each week with the boys. This week we are focusing on kindness.
At the beginning of each week, we make our character development card to add to the refrigerator. I allow the boys to choose the colored note card and sticker letters to use.
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| JP did a great job sounding out kindness. I was happily impressed! |
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| All 7 character traits so far. I love seeing them all each time I enter the kitchen. It really keeps me accountable too! |
As I wrote the scripture on the card for the boys I then remembered other places this verse is in our home. A few years ago I was inspired by Deuteronomy 6:5-9 which says "5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." At that time I typed scriptures that were important to my husband and I and placed them above the light switches in our home. I did this in our first home over ten years ago. When we moved into this current home, I didn't hang them again, no real reason why. Recently, my husband asked me if I still had those cards and if I could hang them up again. Thankfully, I knew right where they were and happily placed them above the light switches again. He and I have both enjoyed seeing the verses again. As I wrote Ephesians 4:32 I remembered that it is hanging right here in our living room:
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| Not the greatest pic with all the white, some day we hope to add some color to our home and paint. :) |
Each of these books have challenged us to be kind.
Kindness with Toothpaste:
I found this visual demonstration of kindness with words at Meaningful Mama.
We talked about the importance of words. We talked about how you can say something, but once it’s heard the bad effects have already started to take place. We talked about what nice words look like and how they make us feel. We also talked about how mean words might make us feel. Next, I told the boys to start squeezing the toothpaste out of the tube. Then, I had them try to put it back in. I gave them toothpicks to help. Of course, this was a blast but unsuccessful. After that exercise, we talked about our words being similar. Once our words come out of our mouths, we cannot stop what has been heard, and it can have really hurtful effects on the people around us. You can ask for forgiveness, but those words can still can still hurt others.
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| JP is quite perplexed that the toothpaste won't go back in!! |
We decided to leave our faithful mailman a bag of cookies as a random act of kindness. We have left treats for him before, so thankfully he will accept baked goodies from us. :) The boys were so cute as we were returning home they ran to the mailbox to make sure he had gotten the cookies!
I loved browsing ideas for random acts of kindness at http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/. There are so many ideas there! We will have to continue to work on this skill.
I also found another great resource at When You Rise to help with scripture memorization for young children. She has a printable with this exact verse! I am so excited and can't wait to print it and show it to the boys!
I have also been diligent this week in noticing kind things that they boys are doing for each other or for me and I have heard them say to each other, "That was kind, Bubba!" So heartwarming!
Linked up at these parties this week!
This is awesome. It's nice to see how other mommas handle character development.
ReplyDeleteHi Jenny!! Thanks! I am following Meaningful Mama's lead and then adding my own spin on it. We are having a ton of fun with it! Thanks for following and commenting!
DeleteVery nice. Looks like you are raising some very respectful and well-rounded children and I absolutely love the vocabulary words they are learning! Thanks for sharing on Thinky Linky Thursday.
ReplyDeleteLori @ Cachey Mama’s Classroom
Thank you, Lori, for hosting! :)
DeleteI love all these ideas! It's sweet that your husband asked you to hang the cards again and I love the picture of your son trying to figure out that toothpaste! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for linking up to Kid's Co-op!
Thank you Lorie for hosting Kids Co-Op! Thanks for your sweet comments too!
DeleteThis is such a wonderful idea! I remember one junior high that I taught at had a program like this where we taught one character trait a week, and I remember thinking, "This just needs to be begun years earlier for these kids to really appreciate it!" This is also a good reminder for me that I wanted to start helping my kids memorize scriptures! Thanks so much for sharing at Teach Me Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a sweet post. We focused on kindness in February and it was not only good for my child but also for me as well. I love that the Scripture memorization part. I often feel that my daughter is too young for it but she's not. It's always good to start early :) Thanks for sharing at Sharing Saturday.
ReplyDelete