Plant A Kiss Project: Our Plant a Kiss Project

This project stemmed after reading the book, "Plant a Kiss" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. The message was so powerful to me, and it is a lesson I try to instill in my kids everyday. It starts out with this little girl planting a kiss to see what happens. Much to her surprise, it blossoms into something magical and she has this brilliant idea of sharing it around the world. When what she has assumed is the last of this kiss has been given away, she is a bit disheartened. She returns to the original place of planting, only to find this kiss has exponentially grown into something that can be shared by all.

I want to teach my kids that this world needs more love. Our world needs the thoughtfulness, kindness and loveliness that comes from thinking of others. I want my children to nurture love, to help it grow and continue to succeed in the world. My goal is for my boys to grow up getting immense joy out of doing acts for others, and in turn, helping everyone elses' hearts to reach out to loved ones but more importantly strangers. My goal for this project is to help people around our community, city, (maybe one day the world) to connect with each other. To feel compassion for strangers...to spend just a few moments each day stepping outside of our busy lives to bring a little bit of joy to someone else.

To quote a friend of mine, "there is not enough cheesiness in our world". Let's teach our children to be kind, to nurture love and in turn help the world be a better place.

How We Got Started

We are a crafty family, so I thought the best way to bring about this project is to create something my son can actually "plant a kiss" in. I just bought a cheap terra cotta flower pot from Dollarama and we drizzled acrylic paint over it until the whole thing was covered. Then I filled it with plastic filler beads to act as our "soil".

Before bed on the night preceding our random act of kindness, I get Bug to plant his kiss. Then by morning, a flower is sitting in the pot, with a note wrapped around it's stem. Bug was really thrilled to see this flower sitting there...even if it wasn't real. The note will give us our task we will fulfill.