My sister Manda, encouraged me to post about a creative idea that Dan & I had last night. She told me to just copy and paste the paragraph, but I couldn’t do that because I feel like it needs some background. At least, it deserves to be mentioned so that I can remember why we came up with this crazy idea anyway. So, here goes.
Over the last year or so, I have felt overwhelmed/overtaken by stuff. I realize that when you have kids, you accumulate even more stuff than you do when you are just married and it’s just the two of you. The problem is that clutter tends to build up and take over me and my whole being. For example, when my desk is littered with paper at work, I can’t even begin to even think about where to start. The mess has a way of binding me up and I have to take care of it before I can start anything new. At home, I find myself to be more lazy and procrastinate and I tend to let the piles form until I have a nervous breakdown. The problem is that I am at that point crippled by the overwhelming task at hand and I often times do nothing to fix it or solve it. And so it has become this way in my home with all the kids toys and clothes, etc… Another problem that I have noticed with the mass amount of toys that have taken over my home, is that I feel like my kids don’t respect them or care for them as much as they should. Maybe if there are fewer toys, they will learn to respect and cherish their toys and keep them nice, because there isn’t that endless supply of toys. I don’t know, maybe that’s not going to be the case, but I figure it’s sure worth a try.
I also have been feeling more and more blessed in the last 2-3 years, but especially just before last Christmas and again this year. It seems like I am bombarded with amazing charities and opportunities to share the things and finances that I have with. I sometimes get overwhelmed by trying to decide who, what & where to be charitable to and that leaves me feeling crippled as well. But, there are so many wonderful things to do and places to give and people to share with. I am making it a point to try and help out in as many different places as I can. I want to spread the wealth and share the love with as many organizations and people that I can this year. I know that the amounts will not be huge, but in our world today, I believe that even small amounts and few or small things can make a BIG difference in someone’s life.
So, now that you know the background and reasons for my creative juices to start flowing, here is what we did last night with the girls. I had already determined and had been warning the girls that before Christmas, we were going to pick thru all of our toys and give away the ones that we don’t use very much or don’t really care for that much. Needless to say, they seemed to be on-board with that plan, until we would go downstairs and look thru the toy boxes and "treasure" chests. Then, I would offer up and item that I know they hadn’t touched in the last 2-6 months (I know because I hadn’t helped pick it up and put it away when we have our basement clean-up day). Without fail, they would make up some excuse or reason to keep the item and it was usually because someone else played with it all the time. And so it would go until I came up with a good idea to help them CHOOSE to give up some of their toys. Last night, I offered them MONEY! What kid doesn’t like MONEY?! Well, we already give our kids quarters for doing good things, so this was just a way to carry it a little bit further. Now, before you think that we give our kids a ton of money for allowance or things like that, I will explain our pay scale. We give the girls 1 quarter for putting their folded clothes away without complaining and 2 quarters for putting them away without being asked. Another example is that our tooth fairy only gives 2 quarters for a lost tooth (a little cheap in my mind, but Kylie thinks that it is awesome). Alright, back to the toy collection last night. We told the girls that we would give them 2 quarters for every toy they collected to give to other kids that don’t have any toys. So, the girls went all thru the basement toys (with a little guidance from mom) and they collected a total of 24 toys (or "sets" of toys). Kylie collected 14 toys and received $7 and Kennedy collected 10 toys and received $5. I am going to say that this experience was well worth the $12 it cost us. I personally love knowing that we no longer have quite so much stuff just laying around not being used, and I know that we will all have a feeling of self worth when we bring the toys to organizations that really need our gently used gifts to distribute this year.
My final note is to say that we did put a stipulation on what that money is to be used for. The first quarter is going to be used for a charity that we are collecting money for and the 2nd quarter will be used to buy their sisters Christmas gifts. Every year, Dan takes the girls individually to a dollar store so that they can pick out gifts for mommy and their sisters. He has always paid for the gifts out of his stash, but this year they will be able to contribute some of their hard earned money to the gift. I hope that will encourage them to have an outward perspective and a real spirit of giving. I do realize that we are paying/bribing/rewarding them for things that they should do anyway, but let’s be real, that ain’t gonna happen. My girls are 5, 3, and 1 and I don’t believe that it is even possible for them to fully understand a whole lot outside of their own 4 walls (and maybe a few other close family and friends’ 4 walls). I guess my hope and wish is that this will be the start of a new tradition and that eventually they will form a servant heart from DOING the right thing and that in the future they won’t need or even want the payment/bribe/reward. I guess I will just pray that God will stir the right thing in their hearts and know that I am trying to do my best to raise Godly little girls who have a heart for those in need close by and for those in the world around them. And to make this whole process a little sweeter, we are going to commit to making our gift selections more intentional and we are going to limit the number of toys that we bring into our home.
Does anyone else have a creative idea to help teach kids about giving? I realize that it may be a challenge with little ones who don’t even know that there is a great big world out there and that there are people who are not as blessed as we are. But, I am open to suggestions as to how we can tweak this tradition or try something new. Please give me your feedback - I’m always looking for creative ways to raise our children with the right heart and values.
Thanks for listening to me ramble and thanks to Manda for encouraging me to post this little note (or not so little as it turns out). ;) I know that for my purposes, I will be able to look back and remember how we came up with this idea and hopefully keep the tradition alive.



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