Travis was introduced to “Goofus and Gallant” in his welcome issue of Highlights magazine, a feature my husband remembers from his own childhood! For those who don’t know, Goofus is always messing up or erring on the side of rudeness, while Gallant always does the right thing. Each issue will feature a Gallant Challenge, and Travis was up for the first one – to do a secret and kind deed for a neighbor!

We talked about some nice things you can do (such as leaving cookies at someone’s door, or helping an elderly neighbor carry mail or groceries) and decided that today our task would be to make people smile – with cheerful chalk messages!

At various entrances around our apartment complex, Travis helped me think of kind messages to write, and I chalked them in (bigger kids can, of course, do this step themselves). Travis added scribbles and drawings around my messages, and loved signing his name at each stop, too!

Soon we had left behind happy missives like “Happy Spring!”

“You are wonderful!”

and “Life is Good!”

Near this last one, Travis decided to make X’s, which he said meant he was crossing out any bad days that people were having. I loved how into the project he was!

Some other suggestions included:

• Bringing in trash cans
• Leaving the newspaper at a neighbor’s door
• Cleaning up trash

Whatever action your kids choose, the key is to do it in secret. Then hide and see if you can watch a person’s surprised and pleased reaction! How do your kids spread kindness? I’d love to hear in the comments.