Hellobee Boards

For our 3 year old, we’ve been working on giving for awhile now (and they do at daycare/preschool too, somewhat) so she definitely gets it (as much as a 3 year old can). I think the best way to teach is by modeling, and by making giving a routine part of your regular life, so it isn’t a big “thing”, it’s just a normal part of life.

I’ve always been honest with LO and told her that we are lucky to have what we have and that others are not as fortunate, so it’s our responsibility to help. Practically, that means doing real actions vs. just talking about it: we talk about how a lot of cats and dogs don’t have their home yet, so we need to buy them food and treats to give to them until they find their family. Some kids don’t have as much toys/clothes/stuff as LO has, so she should share what she has that she doesn’t use anymore. It works better to ease into doing this by having LO go through her baby stuff – clothes that don’t fit, toys that are baby toys, etc. Then she talks about “helping babies”. If she makes a big fuss about keeping something (that I KNOW she won’t play with 10 seconds after making a fuss about keeping it – I don’t fight her. She can keep whatever it is she takes a stand about, because I don’t want any negative feelings associated with giving).

Here’s some of the practical actions we take:

we go through LO’s old stuff and bag up what she wants to give and take it to a local shelter for women/children and drop it off together. That way, she sees and participates in giving.

We go to a pet shop and LO shops for homeless pups and kittens. She gets to pick out whatever food she wants to pick out, a couple of toys and some treats. Then we go to the animal shelter together to drop off everything.

We go grocery shopping together for food donations. I tell her what’s on the list and she gets to pick it off the shelf and put it into the cart, and then comes with me to drop off the food donations. I make Thanksgiving dinner each year for a local homeless shelter for veterans and this year LO will help me cook. While we cook, we’ll talk about how some people don’t have as much food as we do, so it feel good to help and give them food and make them food.

It’s pretty easy to incorporate older toddlers into giving by giving them specific age-appropriate tasks and reminding them that what they are able to do is very important.