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Kind things to do with kids
Concrete enough for a child to understand what happened and why it mattered, which is most of what makes it stick. Nothing here needs a craft supply run or a Pinterest board.
Showing 31–60 of 67 ideas
Do the bins for the house where it is getting hard
Wheeling a heavy bin down an icy path is one of the small tasks that quietly becomes dangerous with age.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Buy the last of it at the end of market day
Unsold fresh produce at four o'clock is a loss the trader eats. Buying it is a favor disguised as a bargain.
Half an hourUnder $10A stranger
Take back two trolleys instead of one
Collecting trolleys in the rain is somebody's whole shift. Two at a time halves a specific, miserable job.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Take the other child out
When one child is seriously ill or disabled, their brothers and sisters become invisible to every adult around them.
An afternoonUnder $10A caregiver
Write an actual letter
A letter can be reread, shown to visitors and kept on the mantelpiece. A text cannot do any of those things.
Half an hourUnder $10A neighbor
Pick up what fell out of someone's bag
Gloves, cards, a child's toy. The owner will not discover the loss until it is far too late to retrace.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Put back the bins that blew over
After a windy collection day the street is strewn with other people's bins and rubbish. It takes one person ten minutes.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Put your number through a door
Most neighbors have no way to reach each other. One card through a letterbox fixes that for years.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Step aside early on a narrow pavement
Whoever moves first is usually whoever is least able to. Deciding to be the one who moves is free.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Bring tools out when someone is moving in
Moving day is the one day a household owns everything and can find nothing. A screwdriver at the right hour is remembered for years.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Warn the parent who has not seen it
A toddler heading for a road or a pond. The parent is two seconds behind and has not looked up.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Hand back what the machine gave you by mistake
Money left in a cash machine or an overpaid change is someone's actual money, and they will notice.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Walk a lost person to the corner
Directions are forgotten by the second turn. Walking someone to the point where they can see it is what works.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Learn the dog's name first, then the owner's
The dog is the easiest introduction on any street, and the one conversation nobody finds intrusive.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Ask an older person to teach you something
Being useful is the thing most often lost in older age. Being taught is a better gift than being helped.
An afternoonUnder $10A neighbor
Ask an older person what they used to do
Retired people are asked about their health and their grandchildren. Almost nobody asks what they were good at.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Say something specific about their garden
Someone is doing that for nobody's benefit but the street's, and almost certainly has never been told it was noticed.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Wave through the person with three things
You have a full trolley and eleven minutes of unpacking ahead. They have a sandwich and a train to catch.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Bring food in a container they never have to return
A borrowed dish is a small ongoing debt. Food in something disposable is a gift with no strings at all.
Half an hourUnder $10A caregiver
Offer to take the photo for the group
Someone is always missing from the picture, and it is usually the person who organized the trip.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Offer to water while they are away
Offering before a holiday is worth far more than offering after. It also quietly tells a burglar the house is occupied.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Take a child to meet an older neighbor
Both groups are more isolated than they were a generation ago, and the barrier is that neither can initiate.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Keep a child's routine running
When adults are consumed by an emergency, children lose the ordinary things that tell them the world still works.
OngoingFreeA friend
Slow down without announcing it
Matching someone's pace is easy. Doing it without commenting on it is what preserves their dignity.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Tell a parent something good about their child
Parents hear from school when there is a problem. Positive observations from another adult are rare and enormously reassuring.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Clear the path next door before your own
Snow and ice are a broken hip for an older neighbor and an inconvenience for you. The order you clear in matters.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Stack it the way they would
Clearing your table is common. Stacking it the way the person collecting it actually needs is rarer and more useful.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Set up a standing childcare swap
Two families alternating one evening a month gives both of them something neither could otherwise afford.
OngoingFreeA friend
Leave something out for the refuse crew at Christmas
The crew that has taken your rubbish every week for a year passes your house in the dark in December.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Record them telling one story
Families consistently say the thing they wish they had is a recording of the voice, not more photographs.
Half an hourFreeA friend