One of the items on our list of 10 ways to explore nature in February was to practice a nature-inspired random act of kindness.
The idea we chose this month wasn’t actually my own (thanks to Pinterest for leading me to this wonderful post on Color Me Katie), but I knew we had to try it the minute I saw it.
The concept is simple: Paint hearts on a handful of rocks, return them outside in places where they almost blend in so that discovering them will bring a smile to someone’s face.
When I explained all of this to The Big Explorer, he was excited. I made sure to let him know that we weren’t leaving the rocks on people’s porches or waiting to see someone actually discover our creations. The joy was in the giving – leaving a little piece of nature to make someone else’s day a little brighter.
We’ve painted plenty of rocks before (a set of alphabet rocks for The Little Explorer at Christmas and more recently for our nature-inspired Valentine), so the fun this time came in figuring out where to place them.
The Little Explorer didn’t quite understand the backstory, but he and dad were more than happy to join us on our adventure. They even pointed out spots they thought we should place the rocks.
We decided we wanted to place our rocks close to home, so we brought them along on one of our many neighborhood walks.
It felt a little funny at first – maybe because we didn’t quite know where to put the rocks. But after placing the first few, we really got into it, trying to find fun spots to place our treasures.
We placed them in cracks in the pavement, at the base of a tree, in a flower pot and alongside weeds growing in a driveway.
We hope they are met with a smile.
Happy exploring!
Note: This post is part of the Outdoor Valentine Link Up over on ActiveKidsClub.com. Head on over for more ideas for outdoor fun with a Valentine’s twist.
