Toddler Approved is hosting a wonderful project called the 100 Acts of Kindness Project. I love the idea of JDaniel and I doing things for others between Jan. 15th and Valentine’s Day. Each week she puts up a challenge for you to complete as some of your 100 Acts of Kindness.

This week’s challenge was to give kindness to siblings. JDaniel doesn’t have siblings. There are times when he has said he would love to have a younger brother or sister to play with. There are times when I wish we had given him a sibling but, that wasn’t meant to be.

JDaniel asked me about why many of his friends and relatives have siblings and he doesn’t last fall. I  tried to explain why we only have him. He seems to understand why.

JDaniel decided after that conversation that he has been given something just as special. He informed me that he was given friends and cousins to love just like brothers and sisters. Friends are welcomed with hugs. Cousins are talked about often. JDaniel truly cares deeply for these surrogate siblings. They are a very special part of his life.

When it came to this challenge, JDaniel came up with what he wanted to do all by himself. He wanted to make Valentine’s Day cards for his friends using the salad spinner just the way we made the cards we gave to his teachers in the first Acts of Kindness Challenge. He loves pushing down on the salad spinner to make the watered-down tempera paint fly.

While I cut the paper into card-size pieces and watered down the paint, he gathered the salad spinner and a golf ball. Once everything was ready he wanted to do all the creating himself. He put the card stock into the salad spinner and place the golf ball in. The paint had to be dumped in without any help and of course, the spinner had to be spun by him alone.

When the cards were done, we laid them out to dry before adding felt sticker hearts to them. He was thrilled with the results and couldn’t wait to share his gifts of brotherly love with his friends.

If you too have an only child, I hope you will find surrogate siblings for them. It is not just like having a sibling, but it does teach them to learn to get along with and care for others. It would be an act of kindness for them.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s AlphaThursday.