Happy New Year! Are you a resolution maker? Why not make some resolutions with your kids to do some valuable things in 2016? Here are some suggestions:
- Buddy up with an elderly person. Do arts and crafts with them, cook them treats and otherwise make them feel special throughout the year.
- On a hot day, buy a box of popsicles and give them to gas station attendants, street sweepers and other people who work outside.
- Donate unneeded toys to the Red Crescent or the pediatric ward of your local children’s hospital.
- Foster or adopt a rescue animal.
- Plant vegetables and flowers, even if you only have a tiny space.
- Participate in a walkathon or other similar event for charity.
- Organize a bake sale for charity.
- Read a story to a younger child.
- Create electronic-free family time each week. Stick to it.
- Drink more water.
- Cook and eat more meals together as a family.
- Take up a new family sport.
- Learn a new language together.
- Start a kid-friendly book club.
- Start a family journal. Write in it together once a week.
- Bake cookies for the teacher’s helpers at school.
- Have a savings contest to see who can save more money on family purchases. Keep track and make a plan together of how to spend the money.
- Befriend a new family who has moved here. Help them get settled in.
- Say yes more often.
Check in with your list quarterly to see how you are doing. Take loads of photos or put a quick summary of the event into a jar. Next New Year’s Eve you can open the jar and read the summaries so they remember the fun they had in 2016.
By Dr. Heather Long Vandevoorde
