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Toward a Better World Family Activities and Projects
Family activities and projects that promote caring, compassion, and social awareness
provide a rich base for raising a socially conscious child. There are many excellent
nonprofit organizations that provide family-friendly opportunities to introduce
children to caring, compassion, and social awareness. A few suggestions and accompanying
activities are suggested below:
Connecting and Caring Around the World
Children’s worlds expand when they begin to appreciate others different from themselves.
Understanding of and connection to others around the world helps broaden children’s
awareness and respect for differences. Developing awareness and respect is an important
goal in and of itself. Sometimes these connections lead to efforts to support those
in different parts of the world.
Heifer International (http://www.heifer.org/)
was built with the goal of helping communities reach long-term sustainability. While
many organizations focus on one-time giving, Heifer International has asked the
question of how they can help individuals and communities benefit most fully from
gifts. Their mission is to end world hunger and poverty and develop caring for the
earth through global initiatives. One of the ways they do this is through holistic
programs that help communities produce their own food so they will become economically
sustainable. One of the key projects is donating money to buy livestock (goats,
bees, chicks, etc.) so that families in a financially struggling community can achieve
self-reliance. As these animals have offspring, there is a program to “pass on the
gift” to other communities so that other communities can also be transformed.
Heifer’s mission provides lots of opportunities for families to get involved. For
example;
- Talk about how some children don’t have enough to eat and one way to help hungry
children is to send animals to their village who will give milk, lay eggs, produce
honey, etc. Read Beatrice’s Goat together.
- As a family, explore Heifer’s online or hard copy gift catalog and decide which
animal you would like to donate. Discuss why. Research more about that animal in
books or online, exploring questions like “how do bees make honey?” “What can you
make with goat’s milk?” etc.
- Think together of ways to raise money to send an animal(s) to a village. Include
your child(ren) in the brainstorming. Ideas might be doing extra chores or having
a bake sale where your child helps bake. Listen to your child’s ideas and think
about how you might be able to support him or her to make them work.
Making the World a More Beautiful and Sustainable Place
Sustainability and recycling are also terrific projects for young children. The
ideas of re-using and recycling are easily within the grasp of a young child. One
organization that caters projects to children is Terracyle, Inc.
(http://www.terracycle.net/index.htm).
Terracycle is an ecologically and socially responsible company that markets products
made completely from trash (their signature project makes organic plant food from
worm “poop”). The company also markets a variety of products made fully from recyclables
and has established multiple recycling options for organizations.
For example, schools, child care centers, or individuals can sign up to recycle
cookie wrappers or juice pouches, and send them to Terracycle with a small donation
per item going to the nonprofit organization of their choice. Becoming involved
with Terracycle could lead to children’s projects such as:
- Expanding your family’s recycling practices
- Read Michael Recycle together (see children’s book section)
- Researching what happens from the time you put something in a trash can until it
ends up in a landfill
- Brainstorming ways that used products could be re-purposed in your home
-
Further exploring the ideas behind Terracycle’s products
Volunteering and Supporting our Communities
While some topics concerning children in need may be hard for young children to
grasp, the idea of homelessness may be easier to understand than other issues. Your
children can begin to imagine what it might be like to not have an apartment or
house to call “home.”
The mission of the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children (www.brighthorizonsfoundation.org) is to brighten the lives
of children, youth, and families in crisis. Bright Spaces is the flagship program
of the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children, creating warm, comforting family
play areas where children and youth in crisis can grow, learn, and play.
There are multiple ways that families can get involved in The Bright Horizons Foundation
for Children. Talking together about children who don’t have a place to live might
be a place to start.
- Together, read The Teddy Bear and discuss.
- One way to explain homelessness to children is to talk about how many times
homeless children move. Many children have moved once, twice, or three
times in their lives, but help your child(ren) imagine what it would be like to
move every few months.
- Read and research about the different types of homes around the world,
the importance of homes to children and families, and how to help homeless children
who don’t have homes.
- As a family, make vegetable soup and bake bread or cookies to bring to a
homeless shelter.
- Your family’s child care program or school may already be involved in projects to
support the Foundation such as a “Walk-on” to raise money for a Bright Space.
Talk to your center director or principal to find out more or to express interest
in helping organize a “Walk-on” event.
- As a family project, collect materials for and create “bedtime bags”
(a teddy bear, book, nightlight and PJs in a bag) for children in shelters.
- For your child’s birthday party (age 5 and older), ask the birthday guest
to bring an item that a homeless shelter could use. It might be mittens,
scarves, and gloves or tooth brushes, hair clips, hair ribbons, or hair brushes.
After the party, you and your family can deliver them to a shelter.
- See the Foundation’s Web site (www.brighthorizons.com/foundation)
for more ideas.
A second organization that supports service opportunities is The Volunteer Family.
This organization encourages and facilitates opportunities for families to engage
in volunteer activities as a family unit (www.thevolunteerfamily.org). The Volunteer Family Web site
helps families find volunteer opportunities in their area and match them with their
interests. Bright Horizons is partnering with this organization.
Promoting Peace and Tolerance
In promoting peace and tolerance, it is particularly important to listen to and
respect children’s ideas on how to make positive changes in the world. Children
come to the world with an inherent sense of what is right. Rather than viewing their
ideas as either “cute” or “idealistic,” long-term dispositions are promoted when
children are listened to and actually given the opportunity to try their ideas to
affect change.
Kids for Peace: Uplifting our World through Love and Action is a Web site (http://www.kidsforpeaceusa.org/) created by a Harvard student
and a mom who was a teacher, who both care deeply about creating a better world.
Among the activities their Web site offers are:
- Participating in the Great Kindness Challenge: (http://www.greatkindnesschallenge.org/). A checklist of 50 challenges
is on the site to stimulate children to act kindly towards others and the world.
- Creating and sending “Peace Packs” around the world for children
in need. This is their primary service project.
- Having children take a “peace pledge.”
- Children can also form their own local “Kids for Peace” chapters.
Children’s Books and Resources
Children’s books can be an effective way to introduce children to the topics of
compassion, caring, and social awareness. While there are many excellent books on
these topics, here are a few to get you started:
Learn More
Download (PDF) more information or visit our
Education at Bright Horizons home page to learn more about our programs
for learning.
Visit the Bright
Horizons Foundation for Children, a non-profit organization committed to
helping to make a difference in the lives of children in distress.