With any luck, we will all learn something from the kindness challenge this summer. One thing that you have hopefully learned is that kindness can be very simple, and yet meaningful. The acts of kindness on the kindness challenge are all simple things that could make someone’s day, and they’re fun to do as well.

While working on the kindness challenge, I have started to notice more kind things that people around me are doing. I guess that focusing on kindness has made me more aware of it in the world around me.

It has been a lot of fun to do kind things for people, and also look around and see all the good in the world. Once, my mom was teaching our family about looking for the good in life. She had us go into a specific room and look for all the yellow things in that room. We found tons of items that were yellow, and we were proud of how many we saw, but when we came back out, my mom asked us to tell her all the blue things we saw. It was very hard to remember anything blue, and all our minds came to a blank.

My mom taught us that if we were looking for the good in life, we would find it easily, and wouldn’t think about the bad as much, but it’s the same if we’re looking for the bad in life.

Just like looking for yellow, I have tried to pay more attention to kindness in the world around me, specifically in my family, and I made a list to share with you guys. These are some of the kind things that I saw my family members do for each other that were simple, but helped our home to be a happier place:

My little sister made a “welcome home” sign for my brother when we picked him up from the airport.

My younger brother loaded the dishes, even though he hates that job.

While my mom made dinner, my sister entertained the baby.

My little brothers surprised my sister by making her bed for her.

When I wasn’t feeling well, my younger brother was extra nice to me.

My baby brother gave hugs to everyone which was so sweet.

My mom listened to me ramble about the book I’m reading, even though I don’t think she knew what I was talking about.

My older brother brought us each thoughtful gifts when he came back from his trip.

My little brother wanted to draw so my sister let him share her colored pencils.

My dad was very kind and bought my mom a new grill, which she has been wanting, and now we can finally have hamburgers again!

My mom let us have a day off of school, and was then extra nice by taking us shopping for things we wanted.

My siblings and I helped my mom with some yard work this morning, and in return, my Mom made us a smoothie for breakfast.

I would encourage you to write down acts of kindness that you observe. I remember things better when I write them down, and it’s fun to see such a long list at the end of the day. It’s like having a kindness collection!

I would love to hear, in the comments, about all the kind things you see people do for you or for others.