#WeeklyKindnessProject – mindful littles

Everyone is Special in Their Own Way

June 9, 2017tanukargordon

This week’s kindness project was inspired by my daughter’s softball coach. At the end of the season, during their pizza party, her coach gave each softball player a certificate for hard work and sportsmanship. She called each girl up to present the certificate and as she did, she commented on the special attributes that player brought to the team. Whether they were the “life of the party” or “worked hard,” each player was celebrated for their unique contributions to the team. After being honored, each girl sat back down with a big smile on their face. What I really loved about this celebration was that it was less about the team’s achievement and all about how special and valuable each child was to the team. Read more →

“Yes. That was me with The. flowers…”

April 26, 2017tanukargordon

This week’s kindness project was a bit organic as is typical of many of our projects. The girls and I were baking some banana bread at home and decided to make an extra loaf to share with our neighbors. Specifically, there are a couple of neighbors who have had a harder time recently so we decided to share some treats with them to hopefully cheer them up a bit. Read more →

Some Earth Day Fun

April 23, 2017April 23, 2017tanukargordon

Mindful Littles was very excited to join Orinda Action Day on Earth Day, where we hosted a station that was all about “Arts/Crafts from Recyclables.” Kids could create any art, craft or invention using recyclable materials such as empty boxes, containers, paper bags, bottles and more. Read more →

Friends like Nini

April 12, 2017April 12, 2017tanukargordon

Almost 10 years ago I met an incredible woman named Nini, who has cerebral palsy. I had signed up to volunteer with a program called Best Buddies, where you get paired up to be a buddy to an individual with special needs. While I had joined Best Buddies as a way to give back, I learned so much more from Nini during the course of our friendship than I had ever anticipated. I learned that Nini was incredibly talented and skilled at activities like cross-stitching, swimming and even acting. I learned that while she was often reliant on a wheelchair or a walker, that she was extremely independent and knew how to cruise around San Francisco completely on her own. I learned that sometimes everyday tasks could be exhausting for Nini because of her physical and emotional limitations. I learned that Nini had a love for roller-coasters, for traveling and for adventures like skydiving. I learned that she could be as goofy as the best of them, and while she had difficult days that she had a smile that could light up a room. Read more →

Personalized Kindness Cootie Catcher for a Special Friend

March 30, 2017tanukargordon

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to play with Cootie Catchers- or Paper Fortune Tellers. The element of surprise with each turn, not knowing what will be unveiled as your fortune, was always so fun and intriguing. I’ve introduced this popular activity with my girls and they love it just as much as I did. Recently I found this blog post that added a little twist to this activity by making the catcher about kindness. With the Kindness Cootie Catcher, each fortune results in a simple act of kindness like ‘give a hug’ or ‘smile.’

Hope and Courage for more Dannys

March 27, 2017March 27, 2017tanukargordon

So often many of us, myself included, go through each day taking for granted some of the most simple pleasures in life. I almost never stop to think about the fact that I get to have toothpaste, a toothbrush, shampoo, soap and so much more; and that truly we are so lucky to get to have these luxuries. In fact, World Bank projects that as of 2015, based on the poverty line of $1.90 per day, “global poverty may have reached 700 million, or 9.6 percent of the global population.” This statistic alone sets things into perspective. I spend double the global poverty line in a single Starbucks visit. What’s even more jarring is to realize that there are kids that live right by us, in neighboring towns, who have been severely abused and neglected. These kids are worried about their safety, whether they have a home or a family to rely on- let alone the simple pleasures of life that we so often take for granted. Read more →

Noticing the small stuff

March 18, 2017tanukargordon

Kindness is something that happens more often than we realize or notice. It’s just that most of the time when it happens, they are small acts- simple and spontaneous gestures. While these gestures may make our lives a bit better in the moment or even make us smile, most of us don’t deliberately spend energy thinking about them beyond that brief moment. Recently though I tried to be mindful of the simple acts of kindness I experience in my life and was pleasantly surprised to find that my list was a lot longer that I had expected. Here’s just a few examples from my list…and interestingly most of the kind acts are from complete strangers: Read more →

Empowering our littles to be kind to themselves

March 9, 2017tanukargordon

This week I had the privilege of seeing Orly Wahba speak at a Kindness Assembly at a local elementary school, and then again during her evening “Kindness Boomerang” book signing event for community members. Wahba is a passionate “kindness activist” who founded a nonprofit called Life Vest Inside that is focused on empowering and inspiring kindness around the world. Her key message is that we all can and should feel empowered to make a positive difference in the world. She says that our small acts of kindness, especially the random organic ones can have a powerful ripple effect on the world because kindness is contagious. With each act of kindness we do, we can energize and inspire others to do the same thing. While Wahba is a kindness activist, she says her organization is about empowerment. It starts with kindness to ourselves. We must all realize that we have a life vest inside of us to help ourselves and believe we can do good and reach our highest potential. Once we do, then we can touch others with kindness to find their own life vests. And if each of us believe we have a role in this world to do good things- no matter how small- then only good things will come and positivity will spread. Read more →

Family Donation Box

March 4, 2017tanukargordon

This may have been one of those Kindness Projects that my family will remember and use for quite some time. I recently attended the parent-ed conference hosted by the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, and saw one of my favorite authors, Michelle Borba, speak. Her book Unselfie, which I have cited in past blog posts, provides nine strategies that provide kids with what she calls an “empathy advantage.” Borba’s talk was incredibly inspirational and she shared anecdotes and stories of kindness from around the world- from kids shaving their heads to show support for their friend with cancer to a young girl standing up with moral courage to help a victim of bullying. Borba also shared practical tips of how we can engage in compassion activities at home, which is also plentiful in her book. During her talk, she provided several ideas on this topic and one of them was the idea of a Family Donation Box. Read more →

Nothing like a stomach bug to teach you about kindness

February 23, 2017February 23, 2017tanukargordon

Last week our family got hit with the stomach bug, and we all went down like dominoes- first me, then my husband, then our older daughter and even my poor mother who was in town visiting. Somehow my younger daughter and father were spared our misery, but it was not a fun week for the rest of us…or for our washer and dryer for that matter. I especially had impeccable timing with my illness as I got sick on my husband’s birthday. I had originally planned an entire itinerary to celebrate his special day. The girls and I were going to make him breakfast. We booked him a massage, and afterwards we were going to go on a family hike and picnic. And to top it all off, he and I were going to go on a dinner date together. It all sounded like an awesome plan, until I got really sick and couldn’t get out of bed and we had to cancel everything. Read more →