How Kindness Rocks Can Help Build Empathy
My daughter, my friend Ali and I have been making kindness rocks together as long as I can remember! We love to head to the beach and collect stones and then find a shady spot and paint pictures and words on them. It is so relaxing and memorable.
We love the time together and it has become a wonderful way to promote empathy in my daughter. We chat and laugh and paint and then once we feel we are done, we walk along the board walk and leave them for people to find. At first, it was really hard for my daughter to part with the rocks and we’d agree that she could keep just one. Now she has learned how good it feels to share and we don’t even need to discuss it.
One year, we had to change the plan for her birthday party at the last minute. Right away, she said we should share our kindness rock tradition with her friends. I was a little worried that it wouldn’t be exciting to kids who are used to elaborate celebrations, but you know what? They loved it and many have now adopted the tradition.
Sometimes the simplest things are the most memorable. It doesn’t hurt that we usually end the experience with a soft serve cone!