It's never too early to show kids the power of giving to other people.
August is traditionally the start of the Back-to-School season, which for many families means a trip to the local office supply school to arm themselves with all of the gear and necessities for the upcoming school year. I love purchasing school supplies. I love the fresh new notebooks, the shiny, pristine scissors and rulers, unsharpened pencils and crayons, and the promise of learning.
A service agency in my town is holding a school-supplies drive for needy children in the area. My church is collecting the donations over the next few Sundays. I grabbed a list of wanted items and headed out. I decided to buy two sets of each item; in my mind, one was for a little boy, and one for a little girl, like my own two children. I neatly packaged together the supplies, and this Sunday I will have my twins, age two, help carry the bags into church and place them on the donation table.
I know my kids are a little young to fully grasp the concept, but we’re already starting to work on it. We’ve had them choose toddler meals from our pantry to take for the food bank, “For the babies,” and I also plan to get some pet food and have us bring it to the local SPCA "for the doggies and kittycats.” It’s never too early to start giving.
In this week’s article, Developing Empathy in Kids, I talk about some ways we can encourage kids to care about others. It’s such an important thing, yet often it gets lost in our materialistic, what’s-in-it-for-me culture. But I know I want my kids to focus not only on themselves, but the world around them, and to recognize their responsibility for it. Shiny new pencils are a start.
