Fill Your Summer with Kindness
Ideas for Meaningful Family Activities
As a parent, I am trying to squeeze every last ounce of sweet sunlight out of summer. It’s a chance for us all to take a deep breath, while at the same time the schedule can feel packed with fun, camps, and vacation. As you are mapping out your summer bucket list, Doing Good Together is here to help with ideas for meaningful kindness.
Volunteer Together
There are so many fun ways to volunteer together outside this summer.
Check out opportunities to be trained by a local nonprofit in pollinator monitoring. This citizen science will not only help you grow your learning about pollinators but also allow you to spend time outside together. If you don’t know of a local nonprofit doing this work, check out the Global Pollinator Watch on iNaturalist.
Does your local food shelf or another food support organization in your community have a garden you can volunteer with? If you plant a row for hunger or have surplus from your own garden, ask your local food shelf if they accept fresh produce! Most organizations are thrilled to receive it!
Enjoy Books and Movies Together
Fill your library holds with picture and chapter books that feature community involvement and kindness! Find time to read together in the hammock or on the picnic blanket. Older kids might enjoy organizing book club parties with friends involving themed food and activities for books on these lists.
Rainy days and exhausted evenings after the beach are a great time to cuddle up with a family movie. This downloadable big-hearted movie challenge - complete with movie suggestions - can inspire reflection and conversation following the movie.
Up Your Environmental Game
Summer can be a time to work alongside your kids to clean up your home. Perhaps you start a new composting habit? Or maybe you use this home plastic hunt to participate in Plastic Free July together.
Raise Money for a Cause
Lemonade stands and yard sales are a summer classic. Can you challenge your family to host a lemonade stand for a cause you care about? Or a yard sale or bake sale? One easy option is to host a stand in June as part of the Alex’s Lemonade Stand effort to raise money for childhood cancer.
If you liked these ideas, consider printing out DGT’s Summer of Kindness bucket lists for even more ideas for making this a summer of both fun and a focus on sharing your family’s values of community engagement and kindness!
Share these suggestions and their accompanying kindness project ideas with parents or educators you know. Looking for more ways to weave kindness into the summer? Find ideas and inspiration.
Tag @doinggoodtogether on Facebook or Instagram when sharing summer Kindness adventures!
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The recommendations we offer are based solely on our mission to empower parents to raise children who care and contribute.