Teaching the Joy of Giving to Our Children . . . A Work in Progress

Now having gotten past Christmas, I can look back to examine how we did as far as our ongoing task of teaching our children the joy of giving goes.  Since our oldest, who is about to turn 10, was 6 years old, he has put aside 50 cents of his allowance every week to do something charitable with at the end of the year.  Every single year he has chosen to buy toys to donate to Toys for Tots.  Since this has become a tradition, we did the same thing with the twins when they started earning allowances this year.

Our 6 year old son did just fine with it.  He saved his 50 cents each week all year long, picked out a toy he loved, and donated it, making a point to tell me that he would return when he had enough money to buy one for himself.  His twin sister, however, had an awful time with it.  She picked a toy that she loved, but then changed her mind about the toy multiple times.  She seemed very conflicted.  I think she did not want to donate a toy she wanted for herself and would rather choose a toy she liked less to donate.  Ultimately, she chose a giant stuffed purple unicorn to donate and cried for the next two hours because she spent her money on a toy she loved and had to donate it.  I was just beside myself and could not figure out another way to explain to her how happy a little girl just like her would be to receive the unicorn as a gift this Christmas and that it may be her only gift this year.

Another way we've tried to show our children the joys of giving is to have them gift presents to each other for Christmas and for birthdays.  These are small, but thoughtful gifts that usually cost around $5 to $10 each.  All 3 children do very well with this.  They all put a lot of thought into what each sibling would really love.  I can tell by the looks on their faces that they are overcome with joy when their gift to their brother or sister has successfully put a smile on that sibling's face.  I also like doing this because it teaches our children that a gift does not need to have a high price ticket to be a great gift.

What kinds of things do you do to teach your children the joy of giving?  Any ideas would be appreciated, as our work in progress continues in the new year.

What Do You Do When Your Basement and Attic are Full?

My family of five has spent the last several months trying to declutter our home.  We schedule donation pick-ups with a local charitable organization almost every week.  Amazingly, after about 4 months of doing this, it still does not seem like we have made much more than a small dent in our clutter.  We have both an attic and a basement, which are being used completely for storage.  No, we do not have a garage or a shed.  If we did, though, I have no doubt they would both be filled as well.  What we really need is to find inexpensive self storage.  There are so many furniture pieces, among other things, that I would love to use in our future (much larger) home and it would break my heart to part with them.

Over the next month or so, my husband and I will be making it a priority to clear out the basement.  It had once been a finished family room, but it flooded, so we turned it into storage space.  We very much need the extra living space again, since our three children are growing bigger and the five of us are tripping over each other in this tiny townhouse.  We are hoping to turn the basement into a finished play space for the children.  We could put mats down, buy a kick bag for them to practice their taekwondo, and maybe add an air hockey or a ping pong table.

Now we just need to keep that goal in mind and keep chipping away at all the boxes and boxes of stored items we have collected over the past 18 years.  Do you have any tips on how to make this process less painful?

Help Classrooms Take the "Save the Sleeve" Pledge with Boogie Wipes

Our household just began round #3 of colds this fall. We are only one third of the way through October! This does not bode well for the upcoming winter. We are not the only family who is experiencing this. I have heard parents complaining locally and online about cold symptoms making their way through each member of their families, as well. I even had a parent ask me back in August about whether my children have had their flu shots yet. It is clear that germ prevention is on every parent's mind.

Mindee Doney and Julie Pickens, the founders of Boogie Wipes, a company that offers a saline wipe as a solution for crusty stuffy noses, have begun the Save the Sleeve movement. This well thought out program, encourages children to take the Save the Sleeve Pledge and to become an official "Boogie Kid." All your child needs to do to become a Boogie Kid is to enter the secret code under the tab of any 30ct pack of Boogie Wipes at SaveTheSleeve.com . Your child will even receive an official Boogie Kid badge in the mail

For the holidays, instead of buying your child's teacher yet another tree ornament, why not gift Boogie Wipes and other classroom essentials instead? You can buy Boogie Wipes online or find them at your local retailer of health and beauty products. You can even order a Boogie Wipes Classroom Kit and have it sent to your child's classroom with a personal note card included. Boogie Wipes was nice enough to send 50 Boogie Wipes singles for both our twins' preschool classroom and our 1st grader's classroom to help our children's classmates start to "Save the Sleeve". The teachers were so happy to receive these products and would like to extend a big thank you to Boogie Wipes for being so generous.

Although I did not receive any compensation for sharing this information with my readers, Boogie Wipes did donate product to my children's classrooms.

Bing's Teacher Appreciation Website Teams Up With DonorsChoose.org

We have always tried to teach our 6yr old son to appreciate his teachers and school in general. "Santa" even left a Donors Choose card in his stocking last Christmas so that he can learn about how many teachers are not fortunate enough to have much-needed equipment for their classrooms or even have the basics, like pencils and binders.

Last month was Teacher Appreciation Month. In honor of teachers everywhere, Bing's Teacher Appreciation Website has made it their goal to spread the word about the wonderful organization that is DonorsChoose.org . When you share a brief story about one of your or your children's favorite teachers, you will receive a $5 DonorsChoose.org giving code to use towards helping a classroom in need in the United States. You can share up to 5 stories about five individual teachers. That means you could have $25 to use on Donors Choose to help one or more classrooms.

Sharing a story could not be any easier. You need only provide the teacher's last name and the school in which he or she teaches. Then you have a chance to tell in what way this teacher positively impacted you or your child's life. The most difficult part was trying to say what I wanted to relay in only a few sentences. For my first teacher to recognize, I chose my son's kindergarten teacher. She is an amazing teacher, who made sure my son's first year of elementary school was an extremely positive one.

I invited my son to decide where our donation should go on Donors Choose. There were several ways to filter the causes, so that you can narrow down your choices more easily. We looked for teachers making requests in our own state. Then we chose a category. My son selected the category of special needs. Last time we made a donation, he chose the category of literacy. As I was reading all the requests to my son, he saw this picture on the computer screen below where I was reading.

This picture accompanied a request for jiggler massagers for a special needs classroom containing students with Autism spectrum disorder. My son was sure this was the teacher we should help because these students really must have these jigglers and I wholeheartedly agreed. I know my son chose this cause because of how fun and colorful the jigglers looked, but he will understand better later on how much good we did when we get to read letters of thanks and photos from this classroom we have helped.

If you are a teacher or know of one whose classroom is underfunded and cannot afford much-needed supplies, you should encourage them to make a product request on DonorsChoose.org . Every teacher deserves to have their jobs made less difficult by having adequately equipped classrooms.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Bing and received a $100 DonorsChoose.org giving code to facilitate my review. Mom Central also sent me a thank-you gift certificate.

Giving Through Oxfam America Unwrapped

This is the time of year when many people from all walks of life begin to think about which charities they would like to gift to this holiday season. If you are fortunate to have enough to give to more than one charity, I think it is a great idea to choose at least one cause that is local and one cause that is international.

Personally, having an idea of where my money is going makes it easier for me to give. For example, if I had $15 to give, but I see that it would cost $18 to give honeybees to a small farmer in a poverty-stricken country, then I would certainly be able to find the extra few dollars to make that happen.

The gifts available on the Oxfam America Unwrapped website is organized into simple categories . . . Animal Gifts, Green Gifts, Women & Children, Education, Making a Living, and Emergency Essentials. These gifts come in all price ranges. A donation of $18 could provide children with either books or some basic toys. A donation of $30 plants 50 trees. A donation of $100 could provide a farmer with either a donkey or a donkey cart.

There are so many options, so I encourage you to take a look through Oxfam America Unwrapped. Instead of buying someone that bottle of wine this year, why not give a charitable gift on their behalf instead? You will receive a card with an explanation and an image of the gift, which you can present to your friend or family member. What a perfect gift for someone who already has everything!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Oxfam America Unwrapped and received a credit for a gift on the Oxfam site.

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