This issue was published on December 12th, 2021 at NuggetsNewsletter.substack.com
Children are natural born helpers.
As soon as babies learn to eat on their own, they begin to offer food to parents and caregivers. Toddlers follow their grownups around the house offering to spread the peanut butter on their sandwich, clean up a spill on the floor, or help do the dishes. Older children also like to help out, they just prefer to do something more exciting than the dishes.
Although children are eager to help, they need help channeling that energy into ways they can help within the community.
Starting the conversation about charitable giving and acts of kindness in your neighborhood can be intimidating. You don’t want to scare your kids but you want them to grow up to be helpful and philanthropic.
According to a study from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the University of Indiana, “parents who talk to their children about charitable giving significantly increase the likelihood that those children will give to charity. That finding holds true regardless of the child’s sex, age, race, and family income. Children whose parents talk to them about giving are 20 percent more likely to give to charity than children whose parents do not discuss giving with them.”
The holiday season is a great opportunity to help kids learn about helping those in need. This article by Greater Good Magazine shares five science-based strategies to “help kids learn to love giving.” From being a good role model and explaining why you enjoy giving back to tangible ways to help them understand why there are people in need of help, this piece is a great resource. Click here to read it.
How can kids give back during the holidays?
Give Gifts to Pets at a Shelter:
I didn’t know this was possible until I spotted a wish-list on a local shelter’s website (I can’t help peeking at pets that are available for adoption.. The names they give cats are too good!).
You can donate old blankets or sheets to shelters so animals have a cozier place to sleep. A fun idea: you could make an activity out of this by picking up some fleece from a craft store and making those fleece tie blankets.
If you don’t have any spare linens, you can also donate treats. You can either pick up a box of treats or bones, or you could get the kids involved and make homemade dog treats!
Bake cookies for Neighbors
My family and I used to do this when I was younger. We’d usually make what we called “Reese’s Cookies.” I always thought they were our family’s made-up recipe until I made some around Thanksgiving this year then I noticed the recipe on the back of the Reese’s bag…
Here’s the recipe for Reese’s Cookies
What you’ll need:
- Chocolate chip cookie dough (store bought or homemade)
- Mini cupcake pan + liners
- Reese’s
How to make the cookies:
- Put the liners in the tray
- Add a nice-sized dollop of cookie dough to each liner
- Bake according to cookie dough recipe
- While cookies are baking, unwrap dozens of Reese’s
- When cookies come out of the oven, squish one Reese’s in each cookie
*Important!
Sugar cookies also make a great gift. Slathering snowmen and tree shaped cookies in colored frosting and decorating them with little candies and sprinkles is fun for everyone. If you’re feeling crafty… you could also try making “stained glass sugar cookies.” Here’s a recipe. They’re so pretty!
Homey-Made Meals
A friend of mine recently donated a handful of meals to a local Los Angeles organization called “Homey-Made Meals.” They provide a grassroots approach to feeding those in need that is safe and accessible for all during the pandemic. They have partners who help supply to-go containers, utensils, waters, and snacks who deliver everything to volunteers homes. They also supply ingredients to those who can’t afford to buy them but still want to be involved.
Then, volunteers cook and package the meals they signed up for (it can be as few as 5–10). Finally, the Operations Team will schedule a time for someone to come and pick up the meals right from the volunteer’s home. The driver will then head to the distribution event that Homey-Made Meals has scheduled for that day where a team of volunteers works to hand out the meals to those in need.
This is something I would like to do with a group of friends this winter and I think kids would also really enjoy being involved in cooking a few meals for those in need.
Here’s a link to their website if you’d like to learn more.
Click here for a video of “the journey of a meal” by Home-y Made Meals.
Donate Toys
When I first moved to LA I joined a local back-up care agency so I could have a more flexible schedule as I finished school. I worked with a lot of infants and toddlers. One little guy I worked with, we’ll call him Henry, was an only child. When I met him and his family they had just moved into a new house. I remember the parents telling me that they wanted to keep all of his toys upstairs in his room because they didn’t want their house to be taken over by all of his stuff.
Fast forward a few years… I stayed in touch with them and babysat Henry quite often. They had a second child and after a handful of months they asked me to watch her a few days a week during the day. The first time I came over, I noticed the IKEA cube shelving unit with bins full of toys in each cube.
This is by no means a judgement, it’s sweet that they let their kids have toys downstairs too, but I think it goes to show how children’s toys will inevitably leave their designated spots in their rooms or play-areas and end up everywhere else… and all over the house.
Parents have asked me for input and help organizing toys, but I’ve noticed that one of the most effective ways of cleaning up toys is to let some go.
I recently came across an article on The Every Mom where Jaclyn Voran suggested sending toys back to Santa around Christmas. She purchased a canvas bag from Etsythat can be customized with each child’s name.
As cute as the canvas bag is, you could also use a cardboard box to put old toys in. You can pull out any art supplies you have so you and your nugget(s) can decorate the box for Santa.
I imagine convincing little ones to let go of old or unused toys for the first time would be… tricky. Because I haven’t done this with kids before, I don’t have any success stories to share; however! I’ve found that it’s helpful to introduce new concepts or ideas to kids with the help of a book, TV show, song, or movie and then talking about it after.
To start the conversation about donating old toys, I suggest watching episode 38 of the TV series Bluey called Mr. Monkeyjocks. The girl’s dad thinks the kids have too many toys and suggests a “chuck out.” To save their beloved Mr. Monkeyjocks from getting the chop, Bluey and Bingo must prove he’s special. It’s available on Disney+.
If you haven’t seen Bluey yet, oh boy are you in for a treat. The girls I babysit for introduced the show to me a few years ago and it is so good. There are few shows that are as enjoyable for adults to watch as children, and this is definitely one of them.
I arrived at their house early one morning last week. (They being the family I nanny for). As I took off my shoes and set my things down in the front room, I overheard the 6 year old complaining to her mom about not wanting to go to school.
There have been a few mornings over the past year or so when the little one has expressed to me that she didn’t want to go to school that day.
As a nanny, I’m in a somewhat easier position than parents because I can say “sorry squirt, it’s not up to me to let ya stay home but can I give you a hug?” I’ve also said things like I hear her and I understand not wanting to go to school because I’ve had days like that too. I would usually say that on days when I didn’t want to go to school, when I do show up I end up having a really good day and I think she will too.
One of my favorite parenting/childcare instagram accounts I follow is Curious Parenting. On their page they describe themselves as wanting to “empower a generation of resilient and liberated kids.”
They recently posted this:
A post shared by Curious Parenting (@curious.parenting)
I love all of that and am going to do my best to keep those suggestions in mind next time the little one tells me she doesn’t want to go to school.
If you’re not already familiar with Curious Parenting, I highly recommend browsing their page! Their posts are really interesting and thought-provoking.
