This post was written in partnership with Google for Education and Forward Influence Network. All opinions are my own.
Teaching Kindness To Kids – It’s Cool To Be Kind
It is no surprise that we need to teach kindness to our kids. More and more our society seems to gravitate towards negative talk and negative feelings. Even at a young age I can see days that both Jude and Teagan struggle with this in their peer circles. Which is why it is so important to teach kids about kindness long before they are jumping online.
Once kids are online it seems like some of them forget about kindness. Finding ways to incorporate kindness into your child’s life both online and in person is a great way to try to steer them away from the online struggles that many kids are facing. As a blogger, I spend a lot of time online and I truly see many benefits to this online world we have created but there are a lot of aspects that scare me as a mom as well. That is why I love the Be Internet Awesome campaign and want others to learn more about how they can spread the word about these initiatives.
National Bullying Prevention Month
October is National Bullying Prevention Month, so this time of the year is the perfect time to spread kindness and share how to Be Internet Awesome. This is a month-long initiative to spread kindness online, and share how we can all help conquer cyberbullying by encouraging our community to put forth kindness into random acts both online and off.
Did you know that Cyberbulling is the #1 online safety concern in the classroom among teachers? A shocking 28% of students have experienced bullying personally? And since only 20-30% of students notify adults about bullying, it is a struggle to monitor and help those students. Plus more than 50% of parents are concerned about their child being bullied on a day to day basis. There is a problem.
Let’s Be Internet Awesome!
Be Internet Awesome is Google’s free program that is designed to teach kids the fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety. We have enjoyed this free program this year as both of the kids have been using their devices more for school work and free time. The program is available in English and Spanish and consists of an ISTE standards aligned curriculum, ready-made Pear Decks for each lesson, Interland – an adventure-packed online game about digital safety and citizenship – and plenty of resources for educators and parents.
- SMART: Communicate responsibly online
- ALERT: Identify phishing, scams, and non-credible sources online
- STRONG: Protect your personal information
- KIND: Be kind and positive online
- BRAVE: When in doubt about anything online, talk it out with an adult
Learn more about how to be kind online with Google’s Be Internet Awesome Family Guide at g.co/BeInternetAwesome. Take some time to play Interland with your kids and put your kindness skills to the test at g.co/KindKingdom too!
Random Acts Of Kindness – Cozy Up This Winter
Since Teagan and Jude aren’t on social media accounts yet, yes I know the time will come soon, we decided to do a few Random Acts of Kindness in person this week as a giant snow storm hit our neighborhood. When the winter weather hits I always look forward to cooking ad baking. There is something so cozy and comforting about doing those things when it is snowy and cold out. Not to mention, it usually makes your house smell amazing!
Teagan jumped into the kitchen with me on the eve of a snow day (YAY!) and we made some gooey chocolate brownies for our neighbors. Sure, cooking and baking is great during snow days but so is eating the yummy creations so we figured that our neighbors would like this little treat as they cozy up for the snow storm.
Once we made plates of our freshly baked brownies we taped little notes to the plates encouraging our friends and neighbors to cozy up and enjoy! While this seems so simple, it was clear that this random act of kindness brightened up their snow day a bit more. It was so fun to see Teagan enjoy doing these acts of kindness and I hope she learned how important it is to take some time out of our busy schedule and lives to do things like this for people.
Tag You’re It!
Now it is your turn. Take a few moments out of your day to do a random act of kindness in person and online. Think about the lives your could change with one simple random act of kindness. For an in person act you could write an encouraging note to someone, make a meal, buy someone’s coffee or bake a treat. For an online act you could send a positive message to a friend, report an online bully or urge others to do a random act of kindness.
Amazing post. It’s really important to teach kindness.