5 Ways To Make a Difference

Volunteer With Your Children at a soup kitchen, a food bank, a coat drive, to raise money for a toy drive. They will feel a sense of accomplishment and community and a feeling of pride and power that they are capable of changing someone else’s life.

Brainstorm a list of people in your community, like the elderly, homeless, blind, new immigrants, and others, that your family could help. For example, read for someone who is blind, or take an elderly person shopping, give a single mom a break by caring for her kids for an hour (just enough time for a bubble bath) .

Encourage your child to ask, "Can I help?" Gestures such as holding the door open for strangers, smiling at others or helping you with daily/ weekly chores around the house will make them feel relevant and important.

Nurture empathy by giving examples of the negative effects their bad behaviour can have on others. Children can learn to appreciate that their actions can affect others and move them to make better choices because of the empathy they feel for others. Basing your discipline in honesty and giving explanations, rather than your ultimate power over them, sends the message that those with more power must treat those with less power with justice and respect. For example, my first year working in my classroom (I have children 4-12yrs old in my room at one time) one of my older students was acting bold and saying “yeah, well tomorrow I could come in and kill everyone!” A 4 year old boy who had heard got quiet instantly and his eyes got big with fear. Now, my impulse was to instantly get frustrated with the older child, however he would have learned nothing. I asked him to come over and requested he observe the younger child for a few minutes. He observed what I had. and asked why “he ‘Timmy’ looked so sad”, I explained that because of his ill thought out words this child who looked at him as a hero, now was afraid and thought that tomorrow his “hero” would do him harm. “This room no longer is a fun safe place to him” I added. The older child told me he had been kidding. That he would never hurt his “little buddy”. I explained that since he had caused the pain he would have to make it right. He started by announcing that “I hope you guys all know I was kidding before about the killing you stuff.” And in the next week or so, proceeded to make his ‘little buddy” his special project; reading to him, playing cars, and Lego. The child that had tried to get power through his words had learned he already possessed it, and he had the choice of how to use it.

Start Collecting. With your family, collect toys and clothing your family no longer uses. Donate them to a local women's shelter or another service organization. Every year in my classroom we run an “Operation Winter Warmth” campaign from September- November. We collect blankets, pillows, coats, clothes, boots, and the children do chores at home to earn change for the purchase of toiletries. We actually walk to a Dollar store or grocery store and let them purchase these items themselves. We then donate these items to the shelters in our neighbourhood. In the spring we will be raising money to buy laundry soap for these shelters.