Gifts of Character

December 15, 2011

Life Skills: Acceptance – Expanding Our Life Experience

Teaching Children Life Skills — Teaching character and life skills to students

Have you ever noticed that it is usually the differences between one person, group, or country with another that are viewed as wrong, shortcomings or not acceptable – that create some of the biggest challenges and aggressive behavior? It can make things very difficult to move forward, to have an understanding, and to achieving goals in a team like manner. If I look at someone and immediately reject them and their experiences because they do not fit our idea of being like us, we may be rejecting an opportunity to expand our own knowledge and experience.

If we have a hard time being accepting we may miss out on meeting and getting to know new people, trying new things or even learning about new things. Being able to look past the appearances may allow us to explore the individuality of someone new. Have you ever had a conversation with someone that normally you would not be conversing with, only to find out how interesting they are, or that the two of you have some very common interests?

Everyone of us has a story. In my experience I have found that we are more the same than we might expect. Being able to accept someone for who they are, what they might look like and where they are in their life is one of the keys to expanding our own experiences in life.

December 13, 2011

Life Skills: Acceptance – How Parents Can Start Teaching Acceptance to Our Children

Long before we are able to accept others for who they are, we must learn to accept ourselves for who we are. It was interesting how when our students were asked about one thing that they liked about themselves, they came up with the things they like to do. Then a few of them talked about how they liked being a kind person, or someone who made friends easily.

Liking ourselves begins with knowing what we enjoy doing, our favorite (whatever) and then being willing to stick with that even if it is different than what others like to do. As parents we sometimes have in our mind what we would like to see our children like and how we would like to see them be. However if our child likes to build things they may not be the next greatest soccer player, no matter how much we would like to see that happen. As a parent our acceptance of that and celebration of them is important to their growth in self-esteem, confidence and resistance to bullying that may take place.

Never underestimate the power of our words. In one of our classes after not getting a great response to what do you like about yourself, I proceeded to look at each student and tell them what I found unique and special about each of them. Later in the evening I asked one of the students what they had said about themselves and she could not remember. But quickly said, “But I remember what you said.” Affirming our appreciation for what is different and unique and special about our children will help them to accept themselves and from there we can build on accepting others.

December 8, 2011

Life Skills: “Acceptance” the Definition

Each month we define and discuss a word of character development and life skill with all of our students.

This month the word is Acceptance and will be defined this way.

Young students: Acceptance means: “It’s OK to be different”

Older students: Acceptance means: Respect for the differences between oneself, others and the way people do things.

Here are the worksheets for our students:

Acceptance Worksheet Tiger Tots

Acceptance Worksheet 5-6

Acceptance Worksheet 7-12

Acceptance Worksheet Teens Adults

If you would like to see how we will talk about this subject with our students please follow our discussions here during the month of November or come in and TRY A CLASS.

November 23, 2011

Life Skills: Generosity Includes Giving Thanks

Generosity simply could not be discussed without discussing the simple words of gratitude, “thank you”. There is an expectation that when generosity is shown that the recipient of the generous act will demonstrate their gratefulness with a “thank you”. From the other side though if we are not to be seen as someone who takes things for granted, we should be ‘generous’ with giving thanks to others for their generous acts.

Who could you thank right now for helping you? It may not be giving you a gift of ‘treasure’, it may be the gift of ‘time’, of listening to you about your day. It may be the gift of food at dinner prepared with loving care. Sometimes when an act of kindness is repeated everyday over and over again, we can get used to and even begin to expect that it will be their for us everyday. I often think about what it would be like to get home from a day of teaching at 8:30 or 9 PM as I often do, and not have a meal ready for me to eat. What about you? Do you have some act that is done for you every day or every week that you have grown to expect? If so, take the time to think about how grateful you are that someone in your life is so kind and thoughtful and then say “thank you”. Let’s be generous with our thanks to all those who touch our lives. Make others feel special and valuable for all they do for us. Share your generosity of treasures, time and talent with thankfulness.

November 10, 2011

Life Skills: Generosity – Make a Life By “What We Give”

Winston Churchill is quoted as saying that “we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Most people are very aware of the needs that many have in the world we live in and that need seems to be increasing on a daily basis. Certainly even in the past couple of years we have seen a dramatic increase of individuals and families who are living at or below the poverty level. Unemployment and difficult times have struck so many that have never experienced those difficulties previously.

But if “we make a life by what we give”, we can ask ourselves if giving generously is something that we are in the habit of doing, or just on occaision. How have you made “time donations” in your community? There are so many ways to affect the lives of others, even when we do not have a lot of “treasures” to give. What are the most fulfilling ways that you have found to do that?

Do you enjoy working on feeding the hungry locally or internationally? Is your interest in mentoring disadvantaged students or do you enjoy working with students with special needs? Are your interest around the environment or with protection of animals in the world? Whatever your focus, interest or love, giving of our time is satisfying to our own soul and helps others. In regard to our children, when they learn the joys of doing for others they are also learning about gratitude for all they have been provided with, they learn how to be generous without asking anything in return. As the adults in their lives we have the privilege of teaching them these lessons by our word and example.

November 8, 2011

Life Skills: Generosity – Our Time is Valuable & Appreciated By Others

When talking about giving and generosity we many time relate this to what we can give in material items. For our children we talk about sharing toys, giving gifts or drawing a picture or card. Learning to share these physical items is an important part of learning about friendship and even empathy, it is also important for all of us to remember that one of the most important things that we can share with others is our time.

Sharing our time, may mean taking the time to do a project or play a game with another person or it may be taking some time to make someone feel better if they are not well. For older children learning to look for ways that we can be helpful to others and especially our family is a good way of being generous with our time. What if we shared our time and saved a parent time by doing a chore around the home that was unexpected. How generous it would be if we watched after a one of our siblings or helped others on a project they are working on. Using our time to help family members is a good way to start thinking about how we can be generous outside of the family.

When we learn to give of our time to others, even when the task seems small, we are contributing a small piece of what needs to get done. We should never say, “Oh this is nothing.” For every little bit that we practice in giving we are helping others – whether we see the end result or not. Our contribution of our time will have both a physical and emotional impact on those receiving our efforts.