Trying to explain the concept of charity to a four year old

This is a subject I have been talking a lot to Jaida about recently. Mostly because she is four and is entering that phase where a lot of little kids sort of live in a self-centered universe. We have always made donations to various charities, etc. We give to the toys for tots campaign during the holidays and stuff like that. Though honestly it really has not made quite the impression on Jaida that I was hoping for. If at all possible I try to avoid having Jaida be involved in monetary contributions to charity mostly because she has very little concept of how much money it takes to buy stuff and secondly she has a hard time wrapping her little mind around the fact that there are kids and adults in the world that do not have as much (food, clothes, love) as her. It is all hard for her to understand.

Our church does a lot of social activism work (for our local area) and the children are pretty involved through the religious education program. Still I feel the need for Jaida to understand just how fortunate she really is and to find a better way to help her understand ways that we can help other people (on a global scale). In my endeavor to achieve both these goals I found this website. You purchase your child an on-line gift card and then they use that gift card to shop on the website to buy things that can help other people. I think it has more overhead charges than I normally like but I think this is a good way to help Jaida understand the global enormity of the problem and how a simple thing can really help.

Parent-Teacher conference

I went to our Fall conference with Jaida's teacher. Of course Jaida received a glowing report in every category. Academically she is doing outstanding. Her teacher could not say enough about what a pleasure it is to teach Jaida and how eager she is to learn/discover new things. She commented on Jaida's amazingly long attention span also. One striking thing her teacher said is that Jaida is by far the most popular kid in her school. This is such an odd thing for me seeing as I spent much of my younger years on the outside looking in (so to speak). Her teacher said it is odd because Jaida is totally not an attention seeker at school yet the kids just flock to her. Joe and I see this in other areas such as at church or in her dance class also. I think part of it is that Jaida is a genuinely nice kid. She is also usually very happy and cheery. She is not the type to be another child's friend one minute and not the next ... she treats everyone equally and with respect. This is something we harp on her constantly about ... well that and treating others as you would like to be treated. I am glad some of what we talk to her about is actually getting through.

For the record

Jaida told me this morning that when she grows up she wants to be an artist that mainly paints, a book writer that draws pictures in books and a dentist (because she has shiny white teeth). I told her that I am sure she can be any one or combination of those that she wants to be if she sets her mind to it. She gave me a big smile in return.

A gruesome scene

Jaida recently received a bunch of books from her Grandma. They are all the Disney stories ... Lion King, Jungle Book, etc. Jaida LOVES these books. We don't own most of the Disney movies so this is really her first introduction to themes such as sibling violence, mother-less youngsters, killing (death she is familiar with but not the actual taking of a life) and a fair amount of violence. We use these books as a jumping off point for many discussions.

Anyhow, Jaida is quite intrigued by the fact that animals eat each other (Lion King?). She had her Lion King figurines as well as some other plastic animals at the table this morning while I was making breakfast. I deliver her food to her and see a grizzly little scene she set up. She had a plastic cow laying on its side and all the other animals were circling it and positioned as if they were eating it. I asked if she remembered that Giraffes are veggie eaters and typically only eat leaves from trees. Jaida's response - "not these Giraffes, they grew up in a way they shouldn't have , like Mowgli, they eat meat". I answered with a shrug and okay. She says "hey mom, look at all the animals they are feasting on beef - hey that rhymes!"

Names

Jaida has several baby dolls that she plays with. All have been named by her with no help of us. Most have had these same names for at least a year if not longer. Her favorite baby doll is the Bitty Baby from American Girl. Bitty is named Sam. At first we thought Sam was maybe short for Samantha since Bitty wears a lot of pink and appears to be a girl. Recently, Jaida informs us that Sam is NOT a girl but instead a boy baby that just likes to wear a lot of pink. Then there is Pix. Pix is a baby doll that has been adopted by Jax. He hauls Pix everywhere. Jaida named Pix though ... Pix is short for Pixie. There is also a big baby doll (generally newborn size doll), named Ping, that has never been in the inner circle of Jaida's doll favorites until lately. This doll is a girl and was recently promoted to the inner circle when Jaida realized some of cousin Mattie's newborn baby clothes fit her. Many outfit changes everyday. Lastly there is this little baby doll that Jaida calls Ching Ching. This doll mostly lives in the car. So, we have Sam, Pix, Ping, and Ching Ching ... quite the motley crew. :)

Goofy Girl

We are having our bathroom remodeled ... aka - gutted. The workmen show up Wednesday a.m. bright and early. Jaida is hanging out downstairs as we get ready to go for the day. She sees a guy walking out the front door with our toilet and says "the toilet has left the building". It was pretty funny. Then she proceeded to say the same thing every single time another bathroom item was hauled out the door. What was once cute became old very quickly.