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Life Skills – Charity: The Definition

Teaching Children Life Skills

Each month we will discuss a life skill with all of our students.  This month the word is Charity.  This word will be defined in the following ways for our students.

 

 

Young students:  Charity: “I give to those in need!”

Older students:  Charity means:  ”Giving to those in need without expecting anything in return.”

Each age group has a worksheet that parents can use to continue the discussion at home with their children, and one for adults to allow them to think more deeply about the skill and how it applies to them.  Would you like to receive the worksheet?  Stop by our studio at 133 Gibralter Avenue in Annapolis, MD and tell us the age of your child.  We will give you a worksheet and invite you to watch Mr. Joe discuss the word with the students in class.  You can also follow our discussions here on this website.

If you would like to become a member of Balanced Life Skills, come TRY CLASSES FOR FREE.   We are not your typical martial arts school, in fact we are an education center, working with our students on physical skills along with empowering families with compassion, awareness and respect.  We believe in every child and build their confidence in themselves.  Balanced Life Skills takes part in community service and encourages each student to do the same.  You are welcomed to come in and talk to the parents that are here and watch the class for the age group you are interested in.

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Student’s demonstrate doing good for others

Talking to our students and children about subjects that may seem difficult for them to understand is an important concept in starting early.  I have found that the subjects that I was not sure was really getting through to the students would come back later, with them speaking of them with authority. 

A couple of months ago we talked about ‘CHARITY’.  Days, weeks and now months later our students are still finding ways to demonstrate that they understand the concept of charity.  Here is a student and his younger brother who have taken charity seriously and brought in their shoes that they have outgrown for Souls 4 Soles. 

Souls 4 Soles is an organization that collects shoes for those millions of individuals around the world that do not have them.  Some of the shoes are slightly used, some are brand new and supplied by manufacturers from around the world.  Balanced Life Skills started our relationship with them through the efforts of Brian Williams and the Think Kindness organization. 

Along with Balanced Life Skills, several high schools from the area have supplied over $10,000.00 to help pay for the delivery of shoes around the world along with over 10,000 pairs of shoes.  Teaching our children young to be concerned about their neighbors in the world, and to grow in their desire to give to those in need.

 



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BLS helping Lighthouse Shelter

This morning a group of Balanced Life Skills parents and students got together and prepared lunches for the clients of the LIghthouse Shelter.  We finished so fast that when some folks arrived the work was already done and the lunches were delivered.  The spirit of giving of our time, talents and resources is strong in our school.  In talked about charity in the month of August and are following it up with discussions on Leadership in September. 

Leadership is when we take an idea or a cause that we are interested in and engage others to achieve a common goal.   I was so happy that some of the volunteers this morning suggested that we should help out with lunches for those in need more often.  I believe that we will be able to do accomplish this goal with the action of our students and parents. 

If you would like to share in this work, email Balanced Life Skills and lets see if we can schedule a time, once a month, to assist those in our community who need our help.  Thanks to our helpers this morning for the quick work you made of our project this morning.

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Charity: definition

Each month we define and discuss a word of character development with all of our students.  This month the word is Charity.  It will be defined this way.

Young students:  Charity means: “I give to people, places or things in need!”

Older students:  Charity means:  Giving to those in need without expecting anything in return.

If you would like to see how we will deal with this subject with our students please follow our discussions here during the month of August.



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Student demonstrates spirit of Charity

We have been discussing the word charity at our school.  One of our students demonstrated a great spirit of giving without expecting anything in return this year with his own personal birthday party.  Joey is now 9 years old and in lieu of accepting gifts at his party, he made the following request.

He asked his friends to bring a food donation to his party.  Then this week he delivered the food to the Lighthouse Shelter personally.

His dad said, “We have found this practice to be helpful in delivering the message that there are many people in need of our help and we should also be thankful for the lives that we do have.”

Thank you Joey for putting into action the lessons you have learned about charity.  Great job!


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Charity: giving of our treasures

This month the word we are discussing is Charity.  This was always one of the main reasons I started this school.  The idea was that to build the very best students we could build they must learn and practice a wide variety of life skills.  One of them is the ability to give to others without expecting anything in return.

This is of course difficult at first for children as they have no income and I do not believe that just going in and getting canned food off of mom and dad’s pantry shelf and carrying it to school is exactly teaching them about service to others.  

So as we discuss charity it is giving of service or goods to those in need.  Those who need are ones who don’t have what they need to survive and be comfortable.   Our children will have a difficult time grasping that, but we can share with them the cost of food and how so many in our world today – in fact a large majority – live on less than $2 per day.  If you can show them how little that buys, they may begin to understand.  

The real question for me and others has been, what can our children do that is theirs and still be learning about giving.  One of the ways is by sharing some of our own treasures with others.  So when they outgrow their favorite shirt, or get new shoes, they can learn to share the old ones with others.  Or it may be a toy that they do not play with anymore.  Could they share it with a another child, perhaps one that is without toys.  

In addition to that lesson, if our child receives an allowance we could encourage them to put a part of their “treasure” towards giving to a charity or a cause that is important to them.  Doing these things at an early age helps to instill the concept of sharing our treasures with those who are in need.  

I have several students in our school who in lieu of birthday presents they accept donations of toys or books to be given to various community groups that help the homeless or are in some way disadvantaged.  When our child is able to do this, the act is not just about them anymore.  They are now acting as leaders in their community, setting the example for other children in giving to charity.