Teaching Children To Give
I briefly mentioned at the bottom of my glove post about making glove, hat, and scarf sets to give during this time of year. The more I thought about it the more I realized it was a great idea that deserved it’s own post. Even young children can work with fleece as it generally does not need to be hemmed for most things. And the sewing required to make a hat or scarf is very minimal. Making gloves might be the only tricky part, but you can also make mittens instead. Or knit matching gloves if you know how.
And as you are working together making the clothes you can take the time to discuss giving and charity, talk about people in need, explain poverty, or what ever else you feel is age appropriate. Trust me, those kinds of conversations can last for hours so that by time you are done talking about it you will have several sets done. You can donate the sets to a local church or shelter to help people who need to keep warm this winter. Even if you live in a warm area you can make some up and send them to other places where they will be needed. There is a great charity directory here that you can go through to choose from.
If you want to turn it into a full lesson plan I’d suggest making a stop at Learning To Give. This site is full of lesson plans, activities, and resources on helping children understand the power of giving to others. You should also stop by Random Acts of Kindness and see the lesson plans and tips they have to share. Of course the best lesson of all comes from watching you give to others, and not just once a year. Being your child’s biggest role model means you have to walk the walk rather than just talk the talk. It can be tough, but the rewards are so great.
giving, charity, hats, scarves, gloves, crafts, homeschooling, works for me wednesday
December 18th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Crafty AND generous! What a woman!
December 19th, 2007 at 2:34 am
That’s an excellent lesson for children to learn anytime of the year. Great links!
December 19th, 2007 at 7:52 am
this is a great post. i love that learning to give site, i use it for sunday school lesson plans! thanks for the other link, i’ll have to check that one out. we hosted a blanket-making party for chanukah for our youth group and the kids loved it. we just used those fleece tie-knot blankets and we even found cute kits on clearance — donate them to project linus.
December 19th, 2007 at 8:09 am
That’s awesome! I’m all for teaching kids to give and think of others. =)
December 19th, 2007 at 9:01 am
How wonderful.
We don’t even have the money to buy fleece,
but we make patchwork from clothes that are not good enough to give to charity.
I do it so the children learn there is alsways something to give, even if we have just normal food at christmas, no new clothes or anything else.
Feel welcome to visit my blog
Laane on the World
to see what works for me.
Merry Christmas
and a
Happy New Year!
December 19th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
What a kind and generous idea.
December 20th, 2007 at 12:58 am
This is great–
December 20th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Thanks for those links. I love having more ideas for things to do with the kids.
Some of the things we do cost $0. When we are in stores, we watch for people who seem to be having trouble- getting something off a shelf, lifting something heavy- so we can help them. Ditto for when we leave and walk through the parking lot.
We also go to nursing homes to read and sing to the folks there- some nursing homes aren’t just for ‘old people’ but for folks who are recovering from surgery. Sometimes we make and bring things like lap quilts and pillows. We want to train our dog to be a therapy dog so we can take him too- but our Yorkie is an idiot.