Everyday Kindness
Everyday moments can shape how young people treat animals and others. Use our kindness tracker and tokens to recognise when they show care, take responsibility or make thoughtful choices.
Teach kindness
Notice and talk about the animals around you.
inspire action
Take small actions together, like feeding birds.
create change
Encourage your child to think about how their actions help.
Why Everyday Kindness Matters
While schools play an important role, it’s often everyday moments at home and in the community that leave the biggest mark. Young people tend to learn lasting lessons about responsibility and kindness from the environments and relationships closest to them.
Our daughter is particularly good at finding beetles! We make sure to spend time to learn about their homes and how to interact with them safely.
Ideas from other families
Dog safety in our community
We walked past a dog on a yellow lead and talked about signs of anxiety and the importance of approaching all dogs with care.
Voicing our views on food
Our child loves animals and has started to realise that meat comes from animals. I thought it would be a tricky conversation, but allowing them to openly share their thoughts has really shown their maturity.
Playing vets
Our younger daughter loves using her toys to play vets. We create scenarios where the animals get injured and use boxes as an X-ray machine. My sister is also a veterinary nurse, which is helpful, as she’s even taught our older daughter how to do basic health checks on dogs.
Duck-friendly interactions
Our local pond has some young ducklings. Our daughter was desperate to handle them, but we took the time to explain how feeding them (and their mum) is better for everyone.
Keeping cats safe in our park
We have a very fluffy cat who enjoys napping in our local playpark. We set up a pretend barrier so she could rest peacefully in the sun, and it got the kids thinking about how they’d feel if they were suddenly woken up by four strangers!
Saving drowning insects
We noticed lots of insects in our paddling pool before getting in. We carefully scooped them all out and have since added a few little platforms to help them climb out and escape when the pool’s not in use.
How it works
- 1 Download our free activity and see above for everyday learning ideas.
- 2 Cut and stick kindness tokens to your chart for each day you find an opportunity to learn about animals.
- 3 Reflect on learning by writing a short sentence at the end of each day.
- 4 Share with others that might also be interested in this everyday kindness activity.