Lessons on sharing and caring
OPINION —
Jan. 20 the life and birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr will be honored. King strove for equality and freedom for all people. Through his “I Have A Dream” speech children can learn about hope, sharing and caring. These things were demonstrated by the faith-filled life of the 39th president, President Jimmy Carter who just passed away at age 100.
After his presidency, Carter was a model for human rights and worked for several charitable causes. The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, was started in 1982 and contributes to issues relating to human rights and democracy. Carter worked “hands on” with Habitat For Humanity, an organization that works to provide housing for people with limited income. Both King and Carter promoted peace by sharing and caring. What a legacy these men passed on for children to learn from.
What a wonderful world we would have if everyone took the time to share what they have with others. Meeting the needs of others with food, material items or time, are lessons that need to be taught to children. It is hard for children to share. They need to be guided by example.
Parents, sit down, play and interact with your child, role playing situations of sharing. Offer praise and encouragement when they share.
All children are born unique and special. Some children will share without being asked or taught. But for most children, sharing is hard. Much of a young child’s identity is locked into what they have, such as a teddy bear or doll. Looking at the developmental stages of children – toddlers, twos and threes think more of their needs over the needs of others. Around the age of four children begin to understand what it means to share. Six, seven and eight-year olds learn the importance of sharing and cooperating with other children.
As an early childhood teacher, I’d like to share some tools I’ve used and learned from the classroom as well as from other teachers and resources.
- Demonstrate sharing and generosity by example, Take the time to let your child share. It may be cutting a piece of fruit in half and sharing with your child. When you cut an apple in half horizontally, a star is at the core. Tell your child they are a star for sharing with you.
- Read with your child. The local libraries have many good books about sharing.
- Point out and discuss other people’s needs to your child. Let them help make gifts others. Discuss favorite colors and ask them what their parent’s favorite color is. The same can go for food, they may say I like cheese pizza but ask them to think what Mom or Dad may like such as pepperoni pizza in which they would need to learn to share other people’s favorites.
- Praise children when they share with other people in the family. Hug, verbally encourage and let them know that you appreciate when they share. Don’t be too harsh when an older child struggles with sharing, but positively start guiding the child in how to share.
- Teach children how to share their toys with their friends. It can be helpful to separate their toys. While teaching how to share step by step, a child may benefit from having their favorite toy put away in order to avoid arguments. Ask your child to decide the toys they would like to share and which ones they would rather put away while playing with friends.
- It can be fun to sit back and watch little ones learn to share with each other. Children can learn from their peers on how to share. They learn the key word which is “compromise.”
- Children can show love, kindness and patience and express these traits in many ways as they interact with each other.
- A craft lesson I love to do with children is to make helping hands. These helping hands can be pulled as coupons to help you on a busy day. They teach children responsibility as well as sharing and caring. It is so wonderful to step back and watch a child share on his own. When children see parents and grandparents share, it shows them that they care. Children need to see and learn this to live in a peaceful world.
Beth Pinyerd has taught young children for many years. She holds a Masters in Education.
