My heart is heavy and I feel like now more than ever teaching our children about kindness and giving needs to be a priority. Many of our children are too young to comprehend or for us to explain what happened in Newton, Connecticut but that doesn’t mean it can’t solidify our resolve to teach them to spread love and goodness and show them how by example. Here is the announcement of the campaign for more info.
#blog4cause isn’t a campaign with any ulterior motive it’s our way of reminding busy families like our own to make time for intentional lessons about charity , giving and kindness. Teaching our kids by example about giving in a season of getting.
This week my son’s school focused on the same charity we have made our cause and he went shopping in our pantry taking what he could carry in his backpack. The other thing we did was sit down and choose toys to give to Toys for Tots. This is something we do every year but now that my son is 6 he has a better understanding of what having no gifts at Christmas would feel like. While we talked about what toys to give we also talked about how children in need might feel. How parents who can’t afford to buy gifts for their kids might feel and how giving makes us feel. I don’t want my kids to simply give because mom and dad told them to, I want them to feel empathy and give because they want to help another person . Together we chose to give 3 toys per child the same amount of toys they both get from Santa every year. Today we will drop them off at the mall and talk more about feelings and giving and hope something sticks.
Have you and your children worked to spread joy and love this week? Do you have a #blog4cause post you can share and help inspire other parents? Add it to our link up below!
Also please don’t forget to add to our tally. This is a simple form to fill out that tallies up all the good our little ones have helped spread. Our goal is to show at the end of the campaign how small hands can make a big difference. So if your family has donated, worked in a soup kitchen, added pennies to a penny drive… add it in. I hope to wow my kids and yours with how much differences kids can make and how it’s just as important as what adults can do.
Marla says
I love your website and am constantly referring to past posts for inspiration.
Blog4cause is a wonderful idea.
And I like the concept of your children donating the same number of gifts that they receive from Santa. Have either of your children asked why the other children wouldn’t be getting gifts from Santa? And if so, what do you tell them?
admin says
Great question! Yes my son has asked and I have said that when families don’t have enough money to buy gifts that these get given to them. At our house you get gifts from Santa as well as from other family members ( mom, dad, sister) Also when you don’t have a home sometimes even Santa has a hard time finding them and these gifts go to them as well. Santa is magic but he is not god and is not omniscient. That is what has worked for us. I hope it gives you some help.