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“Mommy, I know what Christmas is all about — toys!”

Lest you think that I have been feeding my four year old a steady diet of commercials, our family has many holiday traditions that aren’t about presents. We made our annual pilgrimage to Loma Alta to procure our Christmas tree. We enjoyed sliding down the hill on the Capitol Lawn before the Holiday Singalong and Downtown Stroll. We get dizzy underneath the Zilker Tree and check out holiday light displays.

This year, I’ve decided to add a new tradition: involving my son in charitable giving.

Of course, there are three primary ways to give to nonprofits. One is by donating your time, and we have been able to do that a few times in the past year, thanks to Little Helping Hands. Another is of course by donating toys and clothes, and I’m happy to say that now that I have a four year old, I’m finding this is much easier to do, and that I can involve him in the process. I felt lucky to have had the opportunity to take him with me to deliver a Thanksgiving meal to a small local shelter, so he could see firsthand who we were helping.

I realize that he is a little young to grasp the concept of financial contributions, but I want to take advantage of the fact that he is showing a growing interest in money. Although we have decided not to start an allowance until he is five, we want to open his eyes about the fact that we choose to give some of our money to those who are less fortunate.

I asked around and was a little surprised to find that none of my mom friends had tried this with their children. I did learn that Kim Scheberle, the Board President of Little Helping Hands, introduced spend, share and save piggybanks (see one example here) when her son Matthew was almost five. The spend bank was intended for shorter-term purchases, the save bank for longer-term purchases (like a Lego set) and the share bank for philanthropy. Once Matthew was upset that he couldn’t use the share money to buy something for himself. Although he received three dollars a week, one for each bank, Matthew only gave a dollar to agencies affiliated with PetSmart, and Kim starting wondering if her plan wasn’t panning out as she had hoped.

Then, out of the blue, after saving a dollar a week for about year, Matthew put his money towards a school fundraiser where he could “vote” to have a teacher do something funny for a day. Another time, again out of the blue, Matthew came home from school and put all his “share” money in a large Ziploc bag and told his mom he was donating it all to Little Helping Hands. Kim suggested pointing out opportunities to give, but not pushing it too much, as she realized her son had been thinking on and off about sharing the whole time.

I also spoke with Mackenzie Martin at I Live Here, I Give Here to get her advice. With a background as a preschool teacher, she thinks the earlier you introduce children the philanthropy, the better. “Kids understand giving and sharing”, she pointed out, and are reminded to share many, many times a day. Mackenzie suggested to follow your children’s interests and provide them with opportunities to learn more about local charities by taking a tour and encouraging them to ask questions. Although she acknowledges that there are important causes all around the world, keeping it local and “helping your neighbor is a tangible thing for kids to grasp.”

Mackenzie mentioned that I Live Here, I Give Here is developing a preschool curriculum to help encourage giving among the youngest Austinites. The organization hosts nonprofit fairs where families can learn more about different charities (apparently, several young attendees at the last fair were walking around with their piggy banks, asking the nonprofits why they deserved the money!) Their website has information on many local nonprofits. Monthly Community Needs Spotlights provide information from different local agencies on issues such as foster care, aging, refugees and homelessness and speakers are available to come speak to groups.

For our family, I plan to create four small cards with images to represent gifts to the library (books), an organization serving the homeless (house), a conservation group (animals) and a charity working in parks (playground). I wanted to choose just a few causes that I felt were tangible and either important to my son or what he has seen (i.e., a homeless man asking for spare change). I will show my son the cards and explain what our money might go towards. I will then give him twenty one dollar bills, lay the cards on the table and ask him to decide how to direct his contribution by placing the bills on the corresponding card. I will also explain to him that we will match his donation (although I’m not sure exactly how that will happen yet). In future years, I’m guessing he will use part of his allowance, although I like the idea of matching his contributions.

We’ll see how it goes! Should be a learning experience, at the very least. Although my son is young, I really like the idea of starting a tradition of giving and agree with Mackenzie when she said that regardless of your age, giving to others feels good.

Do you have a tradition around giving around the holidays? How have you involved your children? Are there any tips you would share on how to involve your kids in charity (be it volunteering, donating toys and clothes or making a financial contribution) this holiday season?

Written by: Nicole Basham

Posted by nxpana on Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 at 1:02 am | 2 Comments » You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.