Kids kindness quotes and kindness activities for kids are a fun and effective way to learn about the power of empathy.
Kids Kindness Quotes and Kindness Activities For Kids
Real kindness is innate and felt all the way through; it’s natural and effortless.
We all want our children to grow up to be compassionate. I think I’d consider our parenting a success if we raise kind and content girls – far more so than if they were to become rich and powerful.
We may earn affiliate income from the links in this post, at no extra cost to you.What is Kindness?
When it comes to adults, true kindness isn’t taught. It isn’t something that needs to be remembered; it doesn’t need to be prompted. Its merit is in its intent: it’s the consideration and the empathy behind the action which holds most value.
Real kindness is innate and felt all the way through; it’s natural and effortless.
That said, it’s normal and natural for children to be born with an inclination towards self-interest. It’s literally what their little maturing brains are designed to do, with the hallmarks of kindness only developing later.
Characteristics of Kindness
Key attributes of kindness include:
- Empathy
- Consideration
- Helpfulness
- Patience
- Compassion
- Generosity
- Warmth
- Good listening skills
- Caring and nurturing
Teaching Kids Empathy
Children’s capacity for kindness is often humbling and inspiring – some of the most poignant acts of kindness you’ll ever see come from very young children, once they’ve developed empathy – but before they become jaded by the world.
But how can we foster and promote those positive traits in children who are still learning about empathy?
One of Of My Favourite Books About Empathy For Kids
Today I’m sharing some lovely kindness quotes and activities as a relaxed but compelling approach to introduce the concept of empathy to children. All of these exercises can be found in one of my favourite kindness books: Create Your Own Kindness, by Becky Goddard-Hill.
Becky is a blogger who I’m yet to have the pleasure to meet in person, but we’re very much on the same wavelength. As well as being a blogger, Becky is also a child therapist, which means that she really knows her stuff when it comes to helping children to be their very best and most contented selves.
Becky now has four lovely books to her name:
- Create Your Own Happy
- Be Happy, Be You
- Create Your Own Calm
- Create Your Own Kindness
I’m passionate about each of these areas, and wholeheartedly believe that they’re of equal value and importance when it comes being fulfilled in life.
I was fortunate enough to be sent a copy of Create Your Own Calm to include in my wellbeing gift guide, and I love it so much that I asked Becky if she’d like to collaborate again for her latest book.
One of My Favourite Kindness Books For Kids
Create Your Own Kindness is packed full of 50 activities and exercises to cultivate and inspire children to be inclined towards kindness. The colourful paperback is split into three important sections:
- Being kind to yourself
- Being kind to others
- Being kind to the world
I knew as soon as I saw this that I would love the book:
I’m passionate about each of these areas, and wholeheartedly believe that they’re of equal value and importance when it comes being fulfilled in life.
An absence or lack of kindness in any of these areas can prevent us from feeling that our lives are meaningful. It’s why personal growth, mindful parenting, and sustainability take centre stage on this blog. In the end, purpose, humanity, and compassion are what make life precious.
Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.
Henry James
Of course, the best way to foster and promote kindness in our children is through modelling those desirable behaviours. But including them in specific practical activities doesn’t hurt to encourage them too.
Guiding them through the motions will enable them to be actively involved in the process of an act of kindness, and then positively influenced by the feelings evoked by the gesture.
As well as the concept of the book aligning perfectly with my values, the joyful illustrations are gorgeous and vibrant.
It’s also very interactive, with plenty of space to write, journal, sketch, and colour. If you have a little artist (as I do!), then this is wonderful for encouraging them to practice mindfulness, with a focus on kindness.
The activities in Create Your Own Kindness are designed to encourage children to develop empathy, by practicing kindness towards themselves, others, and the planet.
I don’t want to give too much, away, but to give you an idea of what you can expect from the book, here’s some of what’s included…
Kindness Activities For Kids
These exercises are based around self-care and include the activity I most champion for children (and their grown-ups!):
Journaling!
I have a whole category on the blog devoted to journaling, such is my belief in its power. There are also bits covering the topics of catastrophising, the importance of exercise and getting enough sleep, forgiveness, and fear.
Examples of the activities offered in this section include:
- Kid-friendly equivalent of affirmations,
- Self-kindness writing prompts,
- Writing a letter of forgiveness,
- Making a playlist of happy songs,
- Planting seeds,
- Having a home spa,
- Positive self-talk,
- Creating a comfort box.
Empathy Activities For Kids
In the sections dedicated to kindness to others and the planet, some of the topics covered are developing empathy, bullying, kindness to strangers, and how to cope with unkindness. Activities include:
- Meditation,
- Practising conscious kindness towards siblings,
- Interviewing grandparents to strengthen bond,
- Making an empathy bookmark,
- Creating a kindness diary,
- Baking as a gift,
- Sweeping a neighbour’s drive,
- Making a lava lamp to represent living harmoniously side by side.
Kindness Acts For Kids
More acts of kindness for kids include:
- Creating a reverse advent calendar,
- Gift giving,
- Planting bee-friendly plants, herbs, and flowers,
- Litter-picking,
- Making a butterfly feeder,
- Helping neighbours.
These are just a few of the kindness exercises and activities you can expect from this lovely book. For full instructions on each one you’ll have to treat your child to the book, and I promise you (and they!) won’t be disappointed! I’m really looking forward to sharing the ideas with my daughters and getting stuck into the ones we’ve not yet tried.
I’m going to finish up with some inspiring kids kindness quotes, many of which are peppered throughout Create Your Own Kindness!
Kids Kindness Quotes
1. Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
Theodore Rubin (Psychiatrist and author)
2. We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.
John F Kennedy (Former US president)
3. Empathy may be the single most important quality that must be nurtured to give peace a fighting chance.
Arundhati Ray
4. If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.
Dolly Parton
5. Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes the ice melt, kindness causes misunderstandings, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
Albert Schweitzer
6. One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.
Antoine De Saint-Exupery
7. Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.
Booker T Washington (Educator, author, and political advisor)
8. If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own.
Henry Ford
9. To the world, you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.
Dr. Seuss
10. Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference.
Barbara De Angelis
11. Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
Mother Teresa
12. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.
Amelia Earhart (Aviator)
13. Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
14. What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
John Lubbock (Scientist and politician)
15. Be kind, for everyone you meet may be facing a harder battle.
Plato
16. We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.
Winston S. Churchill (Former Prime Minister)
17. The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
18. Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.
Dalai Lama
19. You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
Jane Goodall (Primatologist)
20. It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive.
Maya Angelou (Author and activist)
21. When words are both true and kind, they can change the world.
Buddha (Spiritual teacher and religious leader)
22. Learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, that’s how peace begins.
Barack Obama
23. In order to have good neighbours, we must also be good neighbours.
Harry S Truman (Politician)
24. To be kind to others you must first be kind to yourself.
Unknown
25. Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.
Maya Angelou (Author and activist)
26. What this world needs is a new kind of army – the army of the kind.
Cleveland Amory
27. Always be a little kinder than necessary.
JM Barrie (Author of Peter Pan)
28. You can always give something, even if it’s only kindness.
Anne Frank
29. Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.
Margaret Mead
30. We rise by lifting others.
Maya Angelou (Author and activist)
31. To belittle, you have to be little.
Kahlil Gibran
32. Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.
Jesse Jackson
33. You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
34. Always stop to think whether your fun may be the cause of another’s unhappiness.
Aesop
35. Never be so busy as not to think of others.
Mother Teresa
36. When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
37. Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
Desmond Tutu
38. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
39. Be kind to unkind people. They need it the most.
Ashleigh Brilliant
40. Life is mostly froth and bubble. Two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own.
Adam Lindsay Gordon
41. Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.
A.A. Milne
42. There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.
John Holmes
43. Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.
Henry James
44. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Leo Buscaglia
45. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
Dalai Lama
46. That best portion of a man’s life, his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.
William Wordsworth
47. Kind words don’t cost much. Yet they accomplish much.
Blaise Pascal
48. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
Dr. Seuss
49. Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
Henry David Thoreau
50. Everywhere you go, leave a glitter trail of kindness behind you. Someone who needs it make just pick it up.
Bhubani D Das