CMA Kids February Project: Paper Chain of Kindness

Recognizing and celebrating our family's random acts of kindness with this fun paper chain project.

We've joined the CMA Civic Kids Movement which aims to bring communities together through creativity- Make Art, Make a Difference. There will be a year-long series of exhibitions, community events, and digital art calls hosted by Children's Museum of the Arts in New York City. Each month there is a different theme and a different project posted on the website. February's theme is Kindness and Caring in the Community and The Paper Chain of Kindness project is so much fun!

As a parent there's nothing quite like seeing your kids perform a random act of kindness. It fills my heart with pride when I see them carefully considering others in their actions. That's why I was really excited to join in with this month's Civic Kids kindness and caring project.

What you need:

- colored paper or card

- black marker

- stapler or tape

- kids with big hearts!

This is an on-going project which we decided to start in February, working up towards National Random Acts of Kindness Day on February 17. I cut the colored paper into strips and left them on the kitchen counter with a black marker. Whenever someone in the family performed a random act of kindness, we wrote it out on a strip of paper and added it to the paper chain.

I loved seeing the pride on my kids' faces as I wrote out their kind act. Their acts ranged from simple gestures like big bro holding the door open for his friends after karate, to him sharing his Valentine's treat bag from school with baby sis without being asked to do so.

For baby sis we focused on her kind gestures of cuddles when she could tell someone was hurt or not happy, or when she offered to share without being prompted to do so.

Mom and Dad joined in as well! I'm a strong believer in modeling the behavior we expect to see from our kids so this was a great opportunity to show them kindness. I absolutely adored it when big bro excitedly ran to give me a paper link to write on when I set him up with his favorite dinner after he'd had a long and tiring day at school. He said 'thanks Mom, that was really kind to make me my most favorite dinner!'. There may have been a tear or two in my eyes!

This is such a symbolic activity, with the more added paper links showing a bigger paper chain of kindness connecting our family together. Big bro loved the fact that he could contribute so many links to the chain. And I think baby sis was just pretty smitten with getting to hold the chain!

Give it a try with your kids over the next few days, I promise you they'll find it really rewarding to see their actions helping the family chain to grow.