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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 61–76 of 76 ideas
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
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
Set up a standing childcare swap
Two families alternating one evening a month gives both of them something neither could otherwise afford.
OngoingFreeA friend
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
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
Not rated yet
Put the courgette glut on the wall
Anyone who grows vegetables ends up with more than they can eat. Most of it is composted rather than offered.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Organize two hours of clearing up
A litter pick is mostly an excuse. Forty neighbors meeting each other is the actual output.
An afternoonFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Teach the phone thing properly, not quickly
Doing it for them solves today. Teaching it slowly, written down, solves the next two years.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Put a cold box out in a heatwave
Delivery drivers, refuse crews and postal workers do forty-degree days on foot with no realistic way to stop.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Leave a note for your mail carrier
The person who walks to your door most days almost never hears from the people who live behind it.
5 minutesFreeA stranger2 people did this
Not rated yet
Make a hard-day box for a caregiver
The person looking after someone else is usually the last one anybody looks after.
An afternoonMore than $10A caregiver
Not rated yet
Bring the trash cans back up
Sixty seconds of your afternoon, and someone comes home to one less thing.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor2 people did this
Not rated yet