Teaching Children to Be Appreciative

There are many opportunities throughout the year to offer children valuable lessons on being appreciative of what they have, are offered, and what they can do to help others. With Thanksgiving past and the holiday season in full throttle, now is an opportune time to share a few moments of thanks and to give to those in need.

In the November/December issue of Scholastic Instructor magazine, there was an excellent article of a first grade teacher that had her students prepare pies for a Thanksgiving feast for homeless people. This made me smile to know that we're growing a generation of children that have big hearts to help others.

Most children don't know the financial situations in their homes, but can have a generous heart and offer something that is more valuable than anything money can buy, time. There are many area shelters that have volunteer opportunities for families with youngsters.

There are many instances where I've heard my son exclaim after seeing a commercial, that he absolutely must have an item that he's seen. I offer my empathy, tell him we can always add this item to his wish list and see how much the item costs. Once we do this, he has to earn the amount of money the toys costs, performing his chores. He's starting to realize what work is required to be able to purchase certain items and is learning which toys are worth his hard work.

He's also reaching a point of understanding during discussion of poverty that we can help provide for others in small ways. Because he is taking time to offer generously to others, his younger brother is always willing to help as well.

As a homeschooling family, we had added community service to the list of items we wanted to spend more time on this year. So far, we've done a good job of keeping projects going and hope that we can provide some other families some ideas on how to help others too.

Some ideas we'd like to participate in: bring cookies or a holiday meal to service men, (firefighters, police officers), attend a shelter and provide company and outgrown clothing, pick out toys for children that can't afford gifts for Christmas.

Projects that we've worked on: Peanut Butter Drive (collecting peanut butter for the Second Harvest Food Bank), donated old toys and clothes to a local church that will give them to the poor, put together shoebox of toys/goods for Operation Christmas (this is a service that ships gifts to children in the Middle East, who are in need of a smile), purchase pre-packaged bags of food at our local grocery store for needy families. Operation Ziploc, putting together items for the troops in the Middle East that are in need of goods and some love from home.

Many opportunities that arise provide great discussions with children about current events, the ability to help others, and the ability to appreciate the items we have. Outside of offering family and friends thank you notes for items received, I believe it is important to go one step beyond and help our children love the ability to appreciate what they have and to offer support to anyone they can that is in need, whether it is a hug, a friendly conversation, or more.