Teaching Kids Kindness {A Henry is Kind Book Review}

**Book received for consideration. Post contains affiliate links. All thoughts are 100% my own.


Do you ever look around at everything going on today in the world, and find yourself thinking this world in which we're living is anything BUT kind. These days, it's hard not to.

Still, as a mom, that really inspires me to want to make sure that I am teaching my kids to be better than that. It's not important to me that they make a ton of money or how many likes they have on social media. No amount of worldly success matters if they are not also kind.

So, how can we encourage kids to show kindness? Here are a few simple ideas:

• Lead by Example. If our children see US showing kindness, even to those we don't agree with, they will naturally start to model that behavior too. The first step in raising kinder kids has to be being kind ourselves.
• Start Young. It's never too early to start teaching kindness and good manners to our children. Teach them sharing and kind words even as toddlers! 
• Show Them How To Give Back. With the holiday season upon us, give your children the chance to give back. Take them shopping to pick out a toy to donate to a toy drive, or food for a food pantry. You can even have them go through your own pantry or their closets for items to donate if finances are tighter.
• Read About Kindness. Find books that promote kindness in a way that is easier for children to understand.

Today, I am sharing once such book that can help to do just that, 'Henry is Kind':

A classroom-tested resource for social and emotional learning  
Henry’s discovery of the many ways he can be kind will inspire young readers to use the simple mindfulness practices taught in this book to develop their own capacities for kindness.
Ms. Snowden and her class practice sending kind thoughts to the people they love, and they launch a class Kindness Project. There is only one problem: Henry can’t think of one kind thing he has done. Declaring that kindness is stupid, he stomps to the classroom door on the verge of tears, but his classmates save the day by reminding him of the kind things he has done for each of them.  

This is such a fantastic reminder to all children about the importance of being kind. It doesn't just give a smile to those whom we are showing kindness too, but it makes us feel better too. When we feel better, we show more acts of kindness. The people we show kindness to feel good and want to spread it too. Kindness is spreading, and it only takes one simple action to get the ball rolling. 

I love that this book offers many great examples of what kindness can look like. It can be helping someone with something... like getting a book off a shelf they cannot reach. It can be going out of your way to save someone time and energy- like delivering your neighbor's paper to their door. It can be sharing a favorite toy. It can even just be making someone feel welcome with a simple hello. It truly doesn't take much at all. 

I will say this book is a little bit longer than many of the children's books my daughter tends to go for, but still a great read along length anyway. As we were reading through at home, I could definitely see how ideal this would be for the classroom setting as well... and a great way to open up the conversation on ways we can each show kindness in our own ways. Sometimes when we as parents tell our children they need to do something--- even if just showing kindness--- it has a tendency to go in one ear and right out the other. By putting it in a relate-able story form, it actually starts to sink in. As I was reading to my kids, I couldn't help but think it read very much like a social story... truly perfect for teaching ALL kids those oh-so-important lessons.

'Henry is Kind' is available to purchase now.