Scatter Seeds of Sunshine

A few weeks ago, we pulled into the parking lot at a local park because Carson was in desperate need of a bathroom after tennis lessons. While we waited in the car for him to finish, I saw something hanging from a tree branch right in front of our car. Wondering what it was, I asked Elise if she wanted to get out and investigate. Always curious, she was happy to oblige. She got out of the car, and came back a few seconds later with an excited smile and this in her hands:

She was so excited about it that we came home, immediately hung it on our chandelier, and looked up the website at bensbells.org to find out what it was all about. We discovered that this organization has volunteers hand make these beautiful bells to hang around the city for people to find and take home as a reminder to spread kindness. Elise was determined to be a part of this. She wanted to bring smiles to the faces of others, just like this bell had brought a smile to her face. Unfortunately, we discovered that Ben’s Bells is located a few hours from our house, and currently has nothing that we can do from our area to help them.

So, we got to thinking…

There had to be something similar that we could do from here. To a non crafter like me, this was a bit overwhelming. I desperately wanted to find something that she (and the other kids) could do to spread kindness in her own way, especially because she was so excited about it. After a little investigation (and Pinterest), I found an idea that I thought might work on this website, so we decided to give it a try.

We bought some glass gems and clear glue, found some old sour cream and yogurt lids, and got to work.

These three kids were SO excited about this! It takes a few days for these beauties to dry, and each day they would ask if they could go hang their sun-catchers for somebody to find. When they were FINALLY dry, we threaded them with some string and went out in search of some great places to hang them for unsuspecting people to discover.

Searching for the perfect places to hang them was like going on a treasure hunt. They all LOVED the whole process, and were SO excited to scatter their homemade sunshine around the city. Now when they have free time, they excitedly pull out the materials and make another sun catcher to hang around town. (These are SO easy to make – even 5-year-old Carson can do it all by himself.) They are having so much fun scattering sunshine, and it makes ME happy to know that they are thinking of making others smile in their own small way.

Anybody want to join my kids in scattering seeds of sunshine? The instructions for the sun-catchers can be found by visiting Kids Activities Blog. Help your kids make some (or make some yourself), print out this tag: Seeds of Sunshine, attach it to the string, and hang them up for others to find. Together we can make the world a brighter place.

Hopefully your kids will enjoy participating in this small act of kindness as much as mine did.

Have a sunshiny day!