Sometimes kids (and grownups) wake up on the “wrong side of the bed”. In other words, they wake up and for one reason or another, they aren’t in a very good mood. And sometimes that bad mood comes later in the day from things that have happened during the day. But sometimes all it takes is a little bit of kindness or a little bit of fun to turn that frown upside down. 🙂 Those little things I like to call smile starters. Maybe its a hug that lasts more than a few seconds. Or maybe its seeing a funny smiley face that was made just for them. Here are a few smile starter ideas for you to try.

Draw a smiley face on an orange. Who can resist that sweet face?

Draw several smiley faces on a bunch of bananas. Maybe they are even looking at each other.

Carve a face into an apple and add a couple of chocolate chips for the eyes.

Use ketchup and mustard to make a funny face on a hamburger.

Draw a smiley face on the top of the lid on a bottle of juice.

I’m guessing you would get a smile out of someone who looks into their bowl at breakfast time and sees this looking back at them!

None of these things take very long to do, but I’m betting they will work great to get some smiles started at your house! Or sneak one of these into a lunchbox for a fun surprise. I’m sure you will be able to think of other simple things like this that you can do to encourage someone to be happy. After all, smiling is contagious so start passing some around today! 🙂