*We’re partnering with Abercrombie Kids to help share their Be Kind & Cozy campaign and I can think of nothing better than those two things.

My son has a sign in his second grade class that they read together every day. It says,

“You can’t control how others act, but you can control what you choose to do. Be the nice kid.”

Of all the things my kids can be in this world, my biggest wish is that they be kind. But how do we teach kindness? It’s a question I think about often, and while there are plenty of ways, here are three that I love.

Be Cozy and Kind

It only takes one mean kid to ruin a day or put a fissure in a child’s confidence. I’ve been there. I’ve had to listen to my sweet Kindergartner tell me that one of the girls in her class told the rest of the kids to run away from her at recess. “We don’t want to play with you” they said.

Those stories are hard.

But where one act of meanness can dent a child, one simple act of kindness can completely transform them. A few days later, my same Kindergartner told me about how she fell and scraped her knee at school. One little girl came and put her arm around Piper and wiped her tears with a tissue in her pocket while another girl ran to get a bandaid.

Kids who are kind make all the difference.

Be the nice kid.

See It

One great way to encourage kindness is by visual reminders, like the sign in my son’s classroom, or a graphic shirt with a kind reminder.

Kids can also learn to be kind by seeing you being kind. Parents, teachers, neighbors, friends…we all owe it to children to show them what it means to be kind. Our example is more powerful than we know.

A few nights ago, I was playing basketball with my 8-year-old son at our local YMCA. A girl in his class came up and asked him if he wanted to play with her. My heart melted as he shyly nodded yes. She looked at me and said, “Nixon is the nicest boy in the whole class.” I nearly cried.

Be the nice kid.

Share It

Another way to stay cozy and kind is to share our light. This may mean making a yummy treat and dropping it off to a neighbor. Kids excel at this!

Giving kids the opportunity to serve will help them develop inherent kindness that will truly make the world a better place.

Here are some ideas that can help kids share their light:

Visit the residents of an assisted living facility.
Collect food for a local food bank.
Write letters to soldiers serving our country.
Try these 21 ways to be more giving. (I love the one about leaving groceries on someone’s doorstep.)

Live It

Finally, the very best way to encourage kindness is to live it every single day. Whether it’s the way we interact with our own family members or the people we encounter in our daily lives, we should always strive for kindness.

A HowDoesShe reader once shared a story with me that I’ve never forgotten. Her son came home from school near starved and as she made him a sandwich she asked him why he didn’t eat his lunch. Getting quiet, he said that another kid in his class frequently didn’t have a lunch, so he gave him his. “Mom,” he said, “can you pack me two lunches tomorrow. One for me and one for Kevin?”

Be the nice kid.

Help your kids Be Cozy and Kind this season with these Abercrombie Kids favorites:

Sweaters and Sweatshirts (on sale for a limited time!)

Look here for boys sweaters and sweatshirts and my personal favorite…the Everybody Collection! (For both genders!)

And here for girls warm favorites (including the most ADORABLE flip sweatshirts I have ever seen! My girls adore these and they’re ON SALE! What a great gift.)