With Christmas approaching we are provided with an amazing opportunity to teach our little ones the importance of “paying it forward”. I’m sure many of our children will receive many things they have circled in the Toys R Us big book or things you have been dying to get them. I’m all for spoiling. However, children need to understand that there are many people who look, walk/talk like them even, that won’t get anything this season. So what can you do to teach them that to whom much is given much is expected?

• Help your children pick out some of their old toys that they barely play with or they have outgrown. Clean them, bag them, and take your children with you to drop them off to Good Will or a children’s shelter.
• Let your children help you pack paper bag lunches and pass them out to the homeless.
• Buy hats, scarves, and gloves and wrap them around trees in a area that has a high population of shelters and homeless individuals. Attach nice notes telling people to  take one please : )
• Pick a needed family through a social service agency and become a secret Santa. Let your children help you shop.
• Bake goodies and take them to a nearby senior center.

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” ~ Lao Tzu