Sunday 13 November is World Kindness Day with the goal of drawing attention to the power of kindness. In fact, many choose to celebrate Kindness Week from November 7 through to 13 — because you simply can’t have too much kindness!

A study by Oxford University in 2019 indicated that when you are kind to others, you become happier. So, being kind doesn’t just benefit those on the receiving end but those who are sending out the kindness too! The study even found that observing acts of kindness increased happiness. 

As well as making people happier across the board, kindness can alleviate stress, reduce anxiety and depression, lower blood pressure and more. So how can we incorporate more kindness into every day?

Thankfully, being kind is incredibly simple. We invite you to celebrate kindness in your centre this week with a range of kindness endeavours of your own. 

If you need some inspiration, these are some ideas to get you started on your kindness journey with children (We also believe that acts of kindness should extend to ourselves too, so we’ve included some self-kindness acts too):

• Compliment each other: encourage children and educators to give as many people as possible a genuine compliment. This can be as simple as telling a friend something you love about them.
• Sing aloud: combine the joy and power of music with kindness by singing an uplifting tune aloud. Better yet, make a video to share far and wide or perform the song in your local community!
• Tell yourself something nice: We can often be our harshest critics, but take the time to tell yourself something nice or congratulate yourself on a job well done.
• Plant a tree, vegetable or flowers: Kindness to the environment makes us feel good while also sending out positive energy into the world.
• Help someone get something done: Consider a way you can help a friend or relative. It might be by planning to help parents with cleaning up after dinner, or helping each other tidy up the toys or books.

Have fun with your kindness activities and let’s not leave it just for one week or one day — we challenge everyone to incorporate kindness ongoing in your early learning service!

At Bonkers Beat, to help everyone enhance kindness and respect into daily routines, we have created a calendar that can be used by anyone from 1 to 101 years of age.

‘Calendar of Positive Thoughts’ contains all the days of the week, each month of the year, positive thoughts as well as actions to inspire children and adults. 

This calendar is the perfect addition to celebrate World Kindness Day, check it out and spread more kindness with everyone.