Kids’ worlds are small. It mainly consists of their house, maybe school, and that’s the main extent of their daily lives. Especially now, during the coronavirus pandemic, their worlds are as small as ever.
Every parent needs help to get their family through this pandemic—one proactive way to get through this time is by using this downtime as an opportunity to instill good values in your kids. To help you do this, here are some tips for teaching your kids about charity.
Teach Them the Basics
First, start by giving your kids an overview. Talk about how there are a bunch of different charities that each do various things for a range of causes. This means there are many different types of charitable giving, too, that include giving your time, money, or things.
Be ready for questions—your kids may not understand exactly why charities would do what they do. Doesn’t everyone want to keep their things? Then again, kids have an uncanny capacity to surprise us with their generosity, so they may get it quickly. If they struggle, illustrate how a charity works by creating a story.
Practice Giving Back
Practice is a uniquely handy teacher. For this reason, the second tip for teaching your kids about charity is to get them involved in giving. Consider instituting little charitable acts throughout the house as you hunker down and social distance. Maybe even talk to your kids about doing chores so that they can earn money to give to a charity that helps people during the current crisis.
Tangibly doing something, or putting the idea of charity into motion, illustrates the concept to a child effectively, especially if they know how their gift will help others.
Give Them Good Exposure to a Charity
That said, they’ll need to learn about charities’ work for their own gift to make sense. While you may not be able to go out and volunteer, researching charities can help. Looking at videos of people helping others makes everything much more concrete for your kids and motivates them to be generous.
