One of the most important things that these chaotic pandemic years have taught us is that everyone needs compassion.
According to a study conducted by the Center for Healthy Minds, compassion is just like any muscle. The more you practice compassion, the more it grows. And this is even truer with children.
Realizing the lack of education on empathy and kindness in our society, Doing Good Together™ was founded as a one-stop-shop for educators and parents to enjoy easy access to resources and tools on educating children on practicing kindness.
Volunteering Opportunities
Doing Good Together believes the keys to empathy education are family volunteerism and daily kindness.
When parents and educators engage with their children in community service, children will naturally take in empathy and kindness as societal norms, increasing the likelihood of them growing up as compassionate and socially conscious adults.
From a list of volunteering opportunities provided by Doing Good Together, parents and educators can search by topics and causes, ranging from fighting poverty to animal care.
Credit: Doing Good Together™
Group Lessons on Kindness
For educators and parents, Doing Good Together also offers several fun group lesson guides on a wide array of themes, ranging from hunger, loneliness and inclusion.
For example, Beyond Our Neighbors: A Curriculum for Expanding Empathy and Compassion to “Others,” which was developed by Doing Good Together together with Making Caring Common, a project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, aims “to inspire and empower children to be ambassadors for good beyond their immediate social groups.”
Educators and parents can also join DGT Classroom to teach and share kindness. Membership is available in both family and classroom levels.
Membership in DGT Classroom comes with several benefits, including monthly digital lessons with resources and tools featuring a list of big-hearted ideas, such as service-minded projects, discussion topics, book recommendations and featured videos.
With these resources and tools, educators and parents may build a culture of compassion and connection in children, encourage them to look at the world from different perspectives and be more attuned to exclusionary thinking, and develop leadership skills as they guide their families in “kindness homework” activities.
And while they are designed for six- to 10-year-old children, these resources and tools can be adapted to suit both older and younger audiences, according to Doing Good Together.
Option to Pick and Choose Resources
For those who prefer not to avail themselves of the organization’s group lessons, Doing Good Together offers the option to pick and choose activity and group lesson kits that they would like to share from its online store.
Doing Good Together also believes in the significance of practicing daily kindness. But on our own, daily kindness may feel too broad to put into specific actions. With anything in life, intentional effort is necessary.
And Doing Good Together helps just that. Everyone with access to Doing Good Together’s website can try out its free digital resources for immediate acts of kindness.
Also, Doing Good Together’s lists of books on different themes, such as kindness and emotional awareness, help educators and parents to bring their children to deeper discussions on important topics.
Follow Doing Good Together on TUN
Students and educators can also follow Doing Good Together on TUN to get news and learn about new resources and tools!
