Kids Books About Generosity

MAN kids are selfish, no? Am I the only one who is constantly trying to remind my kids to share? And that they are not the centre of the universe? Alas, it is a virtue that takes a long time to cultivate.

What is Generosity?

Generosity means giving and sharing your time, your money and things, your space, your resources, your thoughts, your knowledge, and your talents and gifts. When you are generous, you give without expecting anything in return. You also don’t have expectations of what someone will do with your gift. Maybe someone won’t be grateful for your gift or understand how much it took for you to gift it, and that can feel sad, but that shouldn’t stop you from being generous again. Being generous is an attitude in your spirit.

One of the things I believe to be true, and yet have no actual scientific or financial evidence to prove, is that generosity comes back to you 10-fold. Whatever you give, you get back even greater riches in return. I don’t know if it’s karma or what – but I’ve just found in my life that the more I invest my time and resources into my local community around me, the more I am given in return. Sometimes that is in free things being given to me through a buy nothing group, or being invited to someone’s home for dinner because I invited them to mine, or having help through childcare when I need it.

In my life, my husband is pretty much the sole-breadwinner. But I like to think my financial contributions to our family are not only in the budgeting I do to make our finances stretch, but also in the social capital I build for us through the tool of generosity.

More than anything else, I hope I raise generous children. We talk a lot about having a generous spirit in our home, and my husband and I certainly model generous behaviors in our home and beyond.

Last week we had the pleasure of visiting a private turtle ranch. This retired guy (Terry) and his wife (Nadia) own 27 giant tortoises, and they host small groups to come and help feed the tortoises. Terry and Nadia struck me as so generous – to open their home to families they don’t know and teach kids about tortoises as what they do for fun in their retirement…it was just so special. I wish more of the world was like Terry and Nadia – just lovingly sharing their passion with the world in exchange for some celery and lettuce.

These in-situ real-life lessons in generosity – meeting generous people and thanking them for their gift, are really what it’s all about.

But we also greatly enjoyed reading these stories featuring generous characters:

Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow

In this story, a little girl is trying to figure out a thoughtful gift for her mother and thinking of what her mother likes and doesn’t like.

One Good Deed by Terri Fields

This is a great story to show the power of good deeds in connecting a community and “paying it forward”. Remember that movie? I loved that movie. In this story, the actions of one little boy domino to cheer up an entire street.

The Elves and the Shoemaker by Paul Galdone

In this fairytale, some elves generously make a tailor’s clothes at night while he sleeps. In return, he and his wife make the elves some clothes of their own. I like the Paul Galdone collection of fairytale classics and have collected the series.

Mama Panya’s Pancakes by Mary and Rich Chamberlin

This story epitomizes the idea that whatever you give you receive back in abundance. A mother and a daughter don’t have much food to share, but the daughter continues to invite people for dinner to eat pancakes. The mother is worried she won’t be able to stretch the pancake batter far enough for the number of people invited, but the guests all bring gifts to the hostess and to share with the group, so there is plenty for everyone.

Should I Share my Ice Cream? by Mo Willems

Another Elephant and Piggie favourite! While Gerald is thinking about sharing, he drops his ice cream, and then Piggie shares his ice cream instead. It is a sweet and funny story of sharing for little ones.

How do you build social and financial capital in your life through your generosity to others? How have you experienced generosity from others? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Until next week,

-Heather

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