National Child Day is celebrated in Canada on November 20th of each year. It honors the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child which provides a road map of what is needed to raise healthy and happy children and youth.
Our Foundation lives by this mission 365 days of the year. However, we encourage parents to consider the day an opportunity to teach their kids about how they will lead the charge for positive change in the world. This is a concept that we should all celebrate! Here’s how.
How Your Family Can Celebrate National Child Day While Teaching Your Kids About Their Value to the Community
Go BLUE to Spread Awareness
Blue is the official color of National Child Day, which gives your family the perfect opportunity to spread awareness about the cause throughout the community.
It doesn’t take much to ignite the spark – in fact, you can begin with what’s in your closet. Get dressed from head to toe in your favorite blues this November 20th, and head out as a family to a local farmers, seasonal artisan market, or other place where others will take notice. When they ask, let them know that it’s National Child Day and give them a quick breakdown on what this special day is all about. They can mark their calendars from here on in and pretty soon November 20th with be a delightfully blue day around the entire country.
Don’t have a blue outfit for everyone in the family? Perfect! This let’s your kids get crafty, making the event even more fun. They can use eco-friendly blue fabric paint to dye old white (or light grey) shirts and hoodies. Even better, the kids can look to your garden or organic foods retailer to dye clothes they way their ancestors did. That’s right, vegetables can be used to dye clothing, with black beans giving fabric a chalky blue tint. How cool is that!?
In addition, your kids can make posters using blue construction paper, stickers, and whatever else their hearts’ desire. Stick the posters up on public facing windows of your home, and staple them on to the telephone poles in your neighborhood to get the word out.
Be sure to take to social media throughout the day, sharing the stories of your family activities, arts, and crafts using the designated hashtags of #NationalChildDay and #NCD2020 (or whatever year you find yourselves in).
Every good deed begins with an awareness of a good deed that needs to be done. By going BLUE this November 20th your household can play a key role in spreading that awareness.
Help Children in Need
What better way for your household to celebrate National Child Day than to identify children in-need and provide them with support? Of course, as a household you don’t have the time and resources to look for them, which is why you need the help of a foundation such as ours.
The Plant a Seed & See What Grows Foundation has a number of funded programs that support children’s causes throughout the country. These include outdoor learning experiences, the Plant a Seed – Read! program, school garden projects, and more. Learn more about our funded programs.
But how are you to get the kids involved as well when it comes to making a donation? Hold a family-driven neighborhood fundraiser. We have already provided some ideas of how you and your children can start a community charity drive and/or pledge challenge, which we have detailed in this article about how to celebrate International Day of Charity – another day of the year you will want to mark on your calendars.
Gather around with the family this November 20th and discuss how you can all get involved on (and around) this very important day of the year.
Happy National Child Day Canada!
