How are we teaching our children gratitude and giving this Christmas?
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Therein is one of life’s toughest lessons. How do we teach our children gratitude?
We know that social modeling is a powerful teacher. If we lecture our children on giving, yet portray a life of miserliness, there is little chance that our children will learn that it is “more blessed to give than to receive.” If our children will be able to learn to outgrow their selfishness, they must see our giving. Yet, not all giving is created equal.
Here is what we are planning to do. We will walk the kids through the reality of society. We are taking them to a homeless shelter. Over the next few weekends before Christmas we will bake a lot of cookies to give away. We also have gently used clothes and toys, that we will take and we will give them away.
Some great articles on how to teach kids to give back:
http://fun.familyeducation.com/holidays/christmas/29608.html
http://christmas.organizedhome.com/celebrate/teaching-children-give
http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/812802/6-ways-to-teach-kids-to-give-at-christmas
Happy holidays everyone, enjoy!