I received the book Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed in the mail a few weeks ago and I’ve read it aloud to BK more times than I can count. It’s one of her new favorite bedtime books and I love it too, because the message is perfect for my almost four year old.
You see, I’m a huge believer that kindness is key. Key to everything we do in life. It is the deciding factor in relationships, it has the power to change lives, it is one of the ultimate tests of someone character. At the same time, I don’t think that kindness is something I can necessarily teach my child. It’s something that I have to show and do, it has to be a part of who I am to become a part of who she is, and that’s an overwhelming task at times.
Which is one reason I love this book so much. In the book, ordinary Mary, an ordinary child, with an ordinary life decides to pick blueberries (ordinary, of course) for her neighbor. Her neighbor bakes muffins with the blueberries and sets off a chain reaction. The book shows that one act of kindness by any of us (big or small) can make a difference to everyone in the world when it is paid forward. I love that the book shows how a simple act of kindness can change the world. How it can spread from person to person, making everyone’s day a little brighter. Everyone in the book used the resources they had to help other people, to show kindness to other people.
And that kindness? Well, it made all the difference. As BK’s fascination with this book grew, I knew it was the perfect time to let her kindness shine through an ordinary act, just like Mary. We thought long and hard about what we might do, about who we might help, and she kept going back to baking cookies for her daddy. After a little thought, we decided that we would bake cookies for everyone at Allen’s business. She was so excited as she talked about everyone who works for Allen and she wanted to be sure everyone would get cookies. We packaged them up with a sweet note, and sent them with him to work. She’s been talking about it for days now, so we decided to brainstorm and come up with a few other things we could do to spread kindness, like Mary did in the book.
She’s obsessed with gum ball machines, and decided that she should leave a quarter in the machines for other kids. So simple, yet so perfect. I love that she thought of it all on her own, that’s what it’s really all about, watching her learn and grow, watching the lessons that we instill come back is such a full circle moment as a parent. It just took a little encouragement and example, and a perfect lesson from this sweet book.
I encourage you to check out the posts below and see how others a spreading kindness after reading Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed.
This is so perfect.
If I stop and think about it, raising children to be kind and considerate and respectful – the list goes on and on – can be a daunting task. What a sweet book. I will probably be going to Amazon to order it right now. 🙂
Since you’re a teacher, I like to hear what books you are reading your daughter. My sister is a 2nd grade teacher and is always introducing us to new books that are popular with kids or that she finds and loves. Right now two of my three kids are pretty obsessed with Pete the Cat and his shoes, buttons, and school clothes.
It’s a great book!
We love Pete The Cat, too! But we really love Dr. Seuss book for beginning skills like rhyming and hunting sight words. I pick out a sight word (For example, Green Eggs and Ham has the word “I” over and over) and let her read that particular word each time we come to it.
There are also Easy Readers from Disney that have pictures, she know the characters and reads the words with pictures above them, I find that it instills confidence in reading.
How sweet!! Love this. I need to get this book for my little guy. You never know what people are going through in life and that random act of kindness could be what lifts them up.
That’s so true!! It’s a great book!
Love this! I think my kiddos need this book.
They do!!