Doing Good Together™ Virtual Festival of Giving Schedule of Activities
Loving-Kindness Yoga with Peace Out Podcast
CELEBRATE YOURSELF with some loving movement for your mind and body! Participate in 40 minutes of family and loving-kindness mediation with Chanel Tsang of the Peace Out Podcast. Following the session, download or bookmark other Peace Out Podcast episodes you’d like to listen to as a family on your favorite podcast platform.
Reflect together. Before you start: Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and notice how your body feels. Share your observations. Afterward: Close your eyes, take a deep breath and notice how your body feels again. Share any changes you observed.
Take it further:
This week (10 minutes): Find the Worry Monster, Peaceful Pet and Hope Garden coloring pages, book recommendations and prompts in your Activity Guide. Get creative and tune into your emotions by drawing your Worry Monster, Peaceful Pet or Hope Garden (adults and children!). Explain what you drew with the others in your family.
This week (30 minutes): Create an “I Feel Peaceful” Mandala with your family, reflecting on when, where, and with whom you feel peaceful.
This month (15 minutes): Choose a picture book or chapter book from DGT’s book lists to embrace mindfulness. Then create a quiet moment to read together.
Bucket-Filling for Your Family with Carol McCloud
Today (30 minutes): Celebrate YOUR FAMILY with inspiration from a read aloud from acclaimed author Carol McCloud: "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?" Be inspired to immediately fill buckets for family and friends using the Kindness BINGO game included in your Activity Guide.
Reflect together: Talk about a time you felt your bucket was full. What filled your bucket? Talk about a time your bucket felt empty and why. What can we do to fill our own buckets when they run low?
Take it further:
This week (10 minutes): Print the Home Helper Map in the Activity Guide. Work with your child to write or draw one or more chores for each space on the map and then post a copy in your home as a reminder of everyone’s commitment to help out.
This month (as little or much as you like!): Check out the print or digital DGT Kindness Kits, packed with other printables and ideas for small acts of daily kindness from home.
Dance Your Way Outside with the Okee Dokee Brothers
Today (1 hour or as long as you like!): Dance along to the Okee Dokee Brothers as they invite you to be the change you want to see in the world; then celebrate the outdoors! Head into your backyard or a nearby park to appreciate the diversity of the natural world. Make a nature wreath or bird feeder to bring joy to a neighbor using the Celebrate Nature! printable found in the Activity Guide.
Take it further:
This week (3 minutes): Watch the Okee Dokee Brothers music video Hope Machine. Share it with someone you love who may need a dose of optimism.
This week (15 minutes): Choose a picture book or chapter book from DGT’s book lists for animal lovers. Brainstorm a way you can help the animal you’ve read about! Or download our Nature Scavenger Hunt for another fun way to explore the outdoors.
This month (30 minutes): Choose something else to do from the Celebrate Nature! printable in the Activity Guide.
Celebrate Diversity in Your Neighborhood
Celebrate Diversity with the Little Free Library’s Read In Color Initiative
Today (15 minutes): Watch this video about the Little Free Library’s Read in Color initiative. Join in the Read in Color effort by decorating the Celebrate Diverse Books! Bookmark pages in the Activity Guide and sharing them in a nearby Little Free Library.
Want more outdoor fun? Watch Kao Kalia Yang read aloud her beautiful picture book A Map Into the World. Then spend time chalking your walk to show kindness like the girl in the story. Check out the Chalk the Walk ideas in the Activity Guide for ideas.
Take it further:
This week (15 minutes): Sign the Little Free Library Read In Color pledge. Initiate a donation drive with your friends and family to purchase books featuring characters of color written by authors of color to donate to local Little Free Libraries.
This week (15 minutes): Watch the Today Show interview with Sarah Kamya, initator of the Little Free Diverse Library effort. Discuss how she is an everyday hero who had a vision. What is something you care passionately about? What might you do around that issue?
This month (30 minutes): Choose a picture book or chapter book from DGT’s book lists that celebrates diversity. Use it to brainstorm actions you can take to make your neighborhood and schools more just and equitable.
This month (30 minutes): Add your thoughts, and create a drawing on the Support Anti-Racist Community Changes Advocacy Template in the Activity Guide. Mail it to a local elected official.
Love for Elders in your City and Beyond (Inspired by Love For Our Elders)
Today (15 minutes): Celebrate elders in your city or town! Color a card using whatever supplies you have laying around your house or our Love for Elders Coloring Page and Letter Template in the Activity Guide. Then either mail your coloring page and letter to Love for the Elderly, send it to an elder you know who is isolated, put it on a neighbor’s doorstep, or research an address for your local nursing home to bring uplifting messages to seniors during this time of social distancing.
Reflect together: What words bring you comfort? Is there a quote or joke that you love and could share? Who else might you share it with?
Take it further:
This week (15 minutes): Pick a picture book or chapter book from DGT’s book lists that celebrate seniors and aging. Use it to spark motivation to make more cards!
This month (20 minutes): Set up a free remote storytime via StoriiTime between your child and a senior (or pass this opportunity along to a senior who loves to read aloud!)
Show Care for Those at Your Country’s Border
Read through author and illustrator Elise Gravel’s “What’s a Refugee?” cartoon as a family (also available as a coloring page). Draw or write your family’s thoughts on the refugee experience using the Reflection Page in your Activity Guide. Then, watch this video as the staff of Alight share their effort to improve the quality of life for individuals living at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Reflect together: Many times, refugees leave their homes quickly and without much warning. What would you pack if you had just a little time? What would you miss most? How would you feel? What would you say to someone experiencing these things? What words of encouragement would you have?
Take it further:
This week (15 minutes): Choose a book from DGT’s picture book list that will open your heart to the refugee experience.
This month (5 minutes per day): Use the prompts on the Refugee Giving Calendar in your Activity Guide and add money daily to a prominent giving jar in your home. At the end of the month, donate the money to Alight as they work to improve conditions for individuals living at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Reduce Plastics to Heal the Planet
CELEBRATE THE EARTH with a kinder footprint! Challenge yourself to an at-home plastic reduction challenge using the challenge template provided in your Activity Guide.
Reflect together: What might be the hardest part of this challenge for your family?
Take it further:
This week (5 minutes): Read a picture book or chapter book from DGT’s Heal the Earth reading lists and discuss other changes you could make at home to help the planet!
This week (15 minutes): Add your thoughts and create a drawing on the Speak Up for Sustainability Advocacy Template in the Activity Guide. Mail it to a local elected official.
This month (1 hour): Inspire your friends and family to challenge themselves with a plastic-free month alongside you. Send them these 10 tips to reduce your plastic use from National Geographic Kids. Make them a plastic-free prize for participating in the month.
Rock The Block Dance Party with The Alphabet Rockers
Celebrate and grow your motivation to make change with the 2-time Grammy nominated Alphabet Rockers.
Download and use this We Got Work to Do Alphabet Rockers Anti-Racism Welcome Pack as an intentional tool to challenge oppressive language and biases!
Check them out on YouTube and learn the choreography to one of their fun (and important!) songs.
Want to take part in the Alphabet Rockers Rock the Block: Anti Racist Dance Party for Kids + Families on October 30th (6pm - 7pm central time)? Sign up here.
Reflect together: How can you use your voice to stand up for what you believe?
Take it further:
Bonus for Doing Good Together’s Festival of Giving attendees:
Doing Good Together Festival of Giving attendees (yes, if you’re reading this, that’s YOU!) are invited to take advantage of 50% off the WE GOT WORK TO DO! Anti-Racism Mini Course from Alphabet Rockers. Just click here and the coupon code will automatically be added.
Being anti-racist is lifelong learning. This learning is important but can also be joyful, even in complicated circumstances - both when we are alone and when we are in community learning from each other. There is no tough topic we can’t embrace with love.
Alphabet Rockers meet you where you are while fostering brave conversation with kids designed to interrupt racism and stand up for one another.
The We Got Work To Do Anti-Racism Mini-Course will:
Empower young people to be proud of their identities and feel powerful enough to change their world
Model advocacy and intersectionality
Challenge oppressive language and bias
Give adults starting points for meaningful conversations about challenging relevant topics with children
What’s next?
Doing Good Together hopes to continue to support your family by offering simple tools and activities that make practicing kindness – and reflecting on important values – a routine part of your daily life. To help us support you, take these two actions:
Today (5 minutes): If you’re located in one of the 10 cities in which we curate monthly family volunteer listings, sign up to receive our volunteer listings emails. Next month, open up the email and find one activity your family can do to support your community.
Today (5 minutes): Join the DGT Big-Hearted Families Membership Circle. Get immediate access to exclusive, members-only content. Through your Big-Hearted Families™ membership, you’ll support DGT and receive exclusive tools designed to help your family live generously. If you’d like to be part of a virtual workshop to discuss