Teach Children to Give with the Giving Game

Any age child can play the giving game and it teaches them to put others ahead of themselves. This is an important lesson to teach and is just as important as any educational subjects.

To play the Giving Game you have to go to Giving Game. You can follow the steps below to successfully play the game:

1. If you are under the age of 13 you are going to need a parent by your side to register. Your parents should have no problem giving consent to this game.
2. If you have never played before you need to click "Play the Giving Game". Then click "Sign up to play".
3. Fill in your information and have your parents there to consent and add their email address. This is totally safe and no personal information is asked for. You will get to make a screen name (don't use your real name) that people will see. You are only asked for your first name and not your last name for your own account purposes. No one will see your first name.
4. Click on "Print your own free cards". You have the option of buying cards, but it really isn't necessary. All you need to have is some cardstock and a printer. Choose how many cards you need. They come in blocks of 10 to a page. You are not obligated to use all 10. You could also hand them out without doing a kind deed. This is a great idea if you gather 9 friends together plus yourself and each make a pact to do 1 kind deed for someone else. Then you could each take a card. Or you can do 10 good deeds by yourself. It is up to you.
5. Cut your cards out. These cards have directions on them, but my daughter and I felt it helpful to create our own directions and wrap the directions around the card.
6. Keep track of what the good deed you did was and which card it belonged to. You should go in to the site and find the card ID number and give it a name to help you remember it. We gave our cards the first name of the person we did the deed for and handed the card to. That is where it all got started. You can then click edit and add your story. The card began when you printed it out and then type in the story of what date you did a good deed and where the deed was done, etc. You can then view the story as it continues. It will continue as it is passed from person to person. Each person has a chance to record what they did with the card. You can potentially watch your card travel to another country.
7. Log back in and check on the progress of the card at any time.

Tips:

If you don't have any cardstock use regular computer paper. Then cut and paste the card on to a matching size piece of cardboard. This could be a simple cut out from a cereal box if that is all you have. What would be even better would be if you could laminate the card.

No good deed is too small. Don't think you have to do something extraordinary for someone. A simple little note of encouragement with a candy bar may be all it takes to brighten a person's day. Get creative and look for ways that people need help. Do you see a struggling single mom that needs her lawn mowed? How about an older lady that needs help crossing the street?

Groups can get involved in this. Groups can do so much more than one person by themselves. They could hold a car wash to raise money for a child with medical bills or clean out an elderly person's garage. Think of some acts of kindness that can be done when people join forces and take on those projects. Don't forget to hand out a card each time. Your group can get together once per month and pick a new good deed to do. Then you would have completed 12 good deeds throughout the year.