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As we seek to help Isla and Cole grow their awareness and gratitude for all that we have, we focus on opportunities to give to others who are in need. One of the ways we do this is by working with the kids to sort through their toys and clothes, to see if there are items they can share with others. Before we go through their room, we discuss the purpose of the activity, placing emphasis on the following: ⠀
- we have so much to be thankful for⠀
- there are others out there who do not have much and would appreciate having more⠀
- one way we can help is by finding clothes and toys that we no longer use and make them available to someone else who might need and/or enjoy them
We also give the kiddos guidelines to consider when choosing items:⠀
- you do not HAVE to give anything— only give when your heart feels it is the right thing to do⠀
- we want to give items that are in good condition⠀
- it is okay to feel some sadness when parting with a toy that you used to play with a lot, because there are happy memories attached to those items⠀
We were absolutely blown away by the kids’ dedicated participation in this activity! They were thoughtful and intentional in their decision making, and genuinely excited by the opportunity to provide other children with nice toys and cozy clothes. I was not sure whether Cole was going to be able to grasp what we were doing, but he had no trouble identifying which items he wanted to “share with the other kids” and which items he was still playing with— it truly is never too early to start encouraging your children to give to others!⠀
A few additional thoughts about sorting and sharing toys:⠀
- Each year I plan for this advent activity a day or two before the kids write their letters to Santa. We feel it gives them a refreshed perspective of the types of things they actually play with long-term, and is great reminder of all that they already have.⠀
- We set up a “maybe” pile for items that the kids still feel some attachment towards. At the end of the sorting, they go back through those items and decide whether they would like to keep or share them.
- There is no shaming if kids want to keep toys— the choice is theirs.⠀
- We try to keep the purpose of this activity fresh in the kids’ minds while we work. We ask questions to help them reflect and make their own decisions regarding their toys. “Do you remember when you played with that last? Do you think it is something you will want to play with again? Is that a toy that you will want to use again or do you think it just holds lots of special memories? Is this a toy other children might appreciate more?”⠀
- This is an excellent opportunity to deep clean and organize your children’s spaces. It is so nice to have a fresh space during the holiday season!⠀
- It might help younger children to have a specific task during all the cleaning/sorting (otherwise, if they are anything like our Bubs, they just get into everything and add to the mess!). We assigned Cole the role of “garbage collector/worker guy” and he was responsible for throwing bits and pieces away in the garbage, placing old papers in the recycling, running dirty clothes to the laundry room, etc. He loved the responsibility, and it helped keep his busy hands from undoing all our sorting.⠀
