Giving

Teaching the Value of Giving

Giving is a value that is best caught, than taught. Kids will learn this by observing you as a parent. It is a great value to learn in family projects. Examples of family projects are serving at a mission at Thanksgiving, providing gifts to a less fortunate family at Christmas, helping fix things for a family that can’t afford it, visiting the elderly at a retirement home, etc. As kids get older, this could grow to building a home in Mexico for a less fortunate family as a week long family mission trip.

Please use the following age level specific guidelines to help you teach this particular value.

3 – 4 YEAR-OLDS:

Three and four year-olds may show spontaneous times of giving and helping. Parents can help their little ones learn to give by giving themselves. As children see their parents give and perhaps even act as partners in family contributions, they will experience the positive feelings that come with sharing. As children gain more experience playing and sharing with each other children, they themselves will be ready to give to others.

5 – 6 YEAR-OLDS:

Five and six year-olds are starting to understand the feelings of other people. They can appreciate how much other people enjoy receiving gifts. In turn, these children can feel the joy of giving. Parents can help their children learn to give by providing ways for the children to participate in giving.

7 – 9 YEAR-OLDS:

Seven to nine year-olds enjoy completing projects. When they give the products to others as gifts, they feel affirmed about their own abilities and talents. Parents can encourage such contributions. Adults will want to avoid making children feel that their self-worth is dependent on “buying” the friendship of others through gift-giving.

Activities To Do to Learn About Giving

  1. Track the days to a special event (Christmas, birthday, New Year, special holiday) with a Paper Chain. Use scissors to cut 25 4-in strips of paper. On each paper strip, write down something that your child can do to help someone: read a story, sing a song, draw a picture, make the bed, etc. Glue, tape or staple the strips into paper links together to form a chain. Each day before the special event, remove one of the links from the chain and perform the helpful action that’s written on the paper.
  2. Make special gift baskets to share with other people. Collect baskets or small boxes or paper bags and items to fill them, such as fruit, cheese, tea, cookies, sausage, or crackers. Add designs drawn with magic markers. As a family, deliver it to a homebound neighbor or friend.
  3. Send greeting cards. Use paper, markers or crayons, stickers, scissors, glue and tape to make cards for other family members or friends. Older children can write their own messages. Younger children can dictate their ideas for parents to write.
  4. Give away your BEST smiles to members of your family.

Quigley’s Village Recommended Video on Giving: “A Quigley’s Village Christmas”

The video that ties into this value is “A Quigley’s Village Christmas.” In this video, Mr. Quigley and all the friends are busy preparing for their Christmas pageant. In the rush and confusion, Mr. Quigley accidentally loses Danny’s present. When Danny looks under the Christmas tree, he doesn’t find a gift with his name on it. He worries that he’s not getting a gift. Meanwhile, Spike and Bubba in their pageant roles as “Mary” and “Joseph,” try to make the Baby Jesus more comfortable than the Bible story calls for.

Danny and the other friends learn that Christmas means more than just getting presents. Milty gives an old kitchen table to make the Christmas star. Lemon contributes her doll, Mrs. Toddy, to the Christmas program. Mr. Quigley gives presents to each person in the play. The friends learn that Christmas means that God loves the world so much that God gave the best gift of all: Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The Christmas story, included as part of “A Quigley’s Village Christmas,” reminds us that there is a chain connection between love of self, love for others, love of God, and God’s love for the individual. Giving and serving is all wrapped up in this connection. Before young children can learn to love others and love God, they must see themselves positively. They must be able to declare that a toy is “mine” before they will understand what sharing is about. Giving is one step beyond sharing, because they will not get back the object they gave.

During the video, you may want to occasionally stop it and ask your children, “What do you think you would do (or feel or say) in this story?” Then, watch how the program ends.

After the video, ask your children to share what they thought about the story. Which character was their favorite? Which character was most like them? In what ways?

Additional activities to do after the video could be:

  1. Re-tell the Christmas story with pantomime. As a family, do the actions of the story: walking to Bethlehem, knocking on the door at the inn, shaking their heads to indicate there’s no room, sleeping in the stable, cradling the infant, and clapping hands in praise.
  2. Learn and sing together one of the songs from “A Quigley’s Village Christmas.”

Recommended Books to Learn About Giving

  • “The Baby Born in a Stable,” Janice Kramer. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1965.
  • “The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmes,” Stan and Jan Berenstain. New York, NY: Random House, 1988.
  • “Give It With Love Christopher,” Patricia C. McKissack. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1988.
  • “The Story of Baby Jesus,” Alice Joyce Davidson. Norwalk, CT: C.R. Gibson Co. 1985.
  • “Renfro Would Rather Rest,” Jack Gerst. Cincinnati, OH: Standard Publishing, 1989.
  • “When I Help My Mommy,” Robin Jones Gunn. Elgin, IL: Chariot Books, 1988. tandard Publishing, 1989.
  • “When I Help My Mommy,” Robin Jones Gunn. Elgin, IL: Chariot Books, 1988.