Giving Friday #8: Purchasing Christmas Gifts

This week, we spent our Giving Friday at Target :).  Tyler's after-school program through YMCA was doing a service learning project in which they were collecting toys for a local charity.  We went to Target to support this effort, talking on the way about how it would feel to not get gifts at Christmastime.  We talked about what kind of gifts their "friends" may like and then we spent quite a bit of time in the store picking out the perfect gifts. 

Although they still were a bit upset at the end that they didn't get to keep what they selected, I did see a transformation in them from the beginning to the end.  As the excitement about making someone else happy with their gifts grew, they seemed just a little less hung up on the fact that they had to give the gift away.  I hope that it is these small transformations that will continue to strengthen their empathy muscles.

Megan is 4!

It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years already from the cold December day that came into our lives.  She's still a very sweet girl (well, at least about 85% of the time) who is really enjoying school and is slowly but surely coming out of her shell (on our airplane ride home for Thanksgiving, the people across from us asked if she always talked so much).

On her birthday, Megan enjoyed the traditional birthday breakfast (a donut with candles) and opened all of her presents.  She then got to celebrate with her friends at school before dinner with the family.

The Saturday after her birthday she and 3 of her friends had a Tinker Bell party complete with fairy wands that they decorated, a game of pin the star on Tinker Bell's wand, and a fairy treasure hunt with pixie dust (aka birdseed).  Everyone had a great time.

For more photos, click on the photo below.

Giving Thursday/Friday #7: Acts of Kindness

Well, we've had to change our days to Friday instead of Thursday due to Tyler's new Tae Kwon Do class, but we're still enjoying it.

This Thursday, we adapted an idea from the Big Hearted Families site and learned a bit abousimple (not always "random") acts of kindness that we can do each day. 

We watched this video from the RAK site and talked about the "Have you Filled a Bucket Today?" book again.  Then we filled an "Acts of Kindness" bucket with ideas for simple things we can do each day to spread happiness (e.g., give compliments, hold the door open, smile, thank teachers and bus drivers, etc.).  We hope to pick a card each week and focus on doing that act of kindness for the week and discuss our experiences each night.

Hopefully it will be a project that continues to have impact for many months.

We're so thankful...

...For being able to spend Thanksgiving 2012 with Granny, Grandpa, the Shripka's, Burke's, and Chernesky's.  Though it was a short trip, it was packed with a lot of fun.  Click on the top photo for more.

Giving Thursday #6: Operation Christmas Child

 

For our 6th Giving Thursday, we hosted Ty's Cub Scout troop and created boxes for Operation Christmas Child.  Tyler and Megan had a great time picking out toys for their "friends" and actually started to get over the fact that they couldn't keep them for themselves.


We started with this video and talked about how different Christmas can be in different parts of the world.  Since we were focused on being a citizen for the meeting, we talked about how we don't just need to be citizens of our town, city, state, or country, but also of the world.  It was a fun night and a project I'm definitely interested in doing again next year.

Halloween 2012

Our Halloween (or should I say Halloweens) was great this year.  A party at the gymansitics "parent's night out," trunk-or-treating with the Cub Scouts, and learning how to trick or treat in our new neighborhood (most do it in cars or golf carts...and everyone sits out at where the street meets their driveway) made for lots of candy collection and a good deal of variety.  Tinkerbell and the ninja had a lot of fun.

Click here for more pics.

The first joint soccer season--Fall 2012

Tyler and Megan had a lot of fun playing for two different teams with the same name (and we had lots of fun watching them).  Click on the photo below for more.

Giving Thursday #5: Making Giving Boxes

After a short break due to a couple weeks of travel for work (although Jeff did do some activities with the kids, but I'll let him write about those), we continued our new tradition a few days ago with an activity that will hopefully encourage ongoing giving:  Making giving boxes/containers.  I got this idea from a fellow Big Hearted Families pilot family.

The idea is that they decorate the containers and put them in their closet to collect toys or clothes that they'd like to give to someone who needs them.  We started with a video to give them a bit more perspective about how many people throughout the world have so much less than them and closed with a reflection activity shared on the Big Hearted Families site. 

After the small protest that arose after I explained that they should go through their closets and play room to see if there was anything they'd like to donate, I was very surprised when I went upstairs and saw quite a bit in each of the containers.  I was also happy to see Ty's reflection below.

Ty's picture of himself taking items out of the closet and putting them in his donation box.

Giving Thursday #4: School Kits for Church World Service--They're asking for it!

As part of our participation in Big Hearted Families, we continued our "experiment" with another "Giving Thursday."

This past Thursday we embarked on a slightly more costly activity and packed school kits for Church World Service.


He wanted to make it educational :)

She loved that it was pink

The kids really enjoyed decorating the bags (especially with the iron-on decorations) and were able to get a bit of a sense of how it is for kids across the world who don't have the ability to grab the school supply list and spend fun time (well, sometimes it's fun) in the store choosing what color notebooks they want this year.

However, I think the highlight of the night came when exhausted from the day, I asked them if they wanted to do Giving Thursday on Friday instead.  They immediately got the "that's not fair" expression on their faces and said, "No!  We want to do it today!"  When I asked Megan why she liked GT, she said, "Because I like giving things to people and helping them."  Not bad for four weeks into the experiment...hopefully their enthusiasm continues.

Here are some more details for our fourth GT:

Intro/education:  Heart to Heart video by Church World Services--shows the path of their kits from packing to unpacking with the recipients across the world.

Guidelines for activity:  CWS website

Reflection/extension:

• Discussion around the following questions
• Why do you like having new school supplies?
• What would it feel like if you weren't able to get them
• Reference to a book from Doing Good Together's Kinder Book Club which Tyler really liked when we borrowed it from the library a couple of months ago--One Hen, How One Small Loan Made a Difference

Giving Thursday #3--Color-a-Smile

This Thursday we continued the experiment with Big Hearted Families and colored pictures for a great organization, Color-a-smile.  It's such an easy project to do (most kids love to color) and can have a great impact.  If you're a parent with kids who love to color, I highly recommend looking into sharing some of your kids' artwork with those who need a bit of cheer.

During our activity, I made an effort again to encourage reflection.  To help kickstart this reflection, I like to start with a short video whenever possible.  This week, since one of the organizations that Color-a-Smile donates the drawings to is Meals and Wheels, and since we have a personal connection to MOW having volunteered for them a few years ago (a fond memory that Tyler talks about often), we watched a video about hunger among US seniors.  When Ty saw that Texas was one of the top 10 states in terms of the number of hugry seniors he gasped loudly. 

As they colored, we talked about how it feels when we're hungry and we tried to imagine what it would feel like if you were hungry and didn't know where your next meal would come from.  We also talked about how when you're hungry you might not be able to give your unique gifts to others (the key understanding that I mentioned was my goal for this effort last time).  Megan was much more involved in this conversation (and the activity) than the last two and I'm guessing our conversation will pop up again sometime when I least expect it.  Finally, we talked about how this activty may "fill someone's bucket," tying in a favorite new book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today.

A good time was had by all and I'm looking forward to seeing how and when our conversation may pop up again.

Oh, and as a special treat...here's a video that Tyler insisted we create when we were talking last week about needing a theme song for Giving Thursdays.


Coming up next week:  Creating School Kits for Church World Services

The "Giving Thursday" Experiment

It is vital that when educating our children’s brains that we do not neglect to educate their hearts.
--Dalai Lama

Over the past few years, I've started to think a lot about the importance of developing empathy in Tyler and Megan.  I feel like one of the most important perspectives that I can share with them is that they are not alone in this world and that there are many people in the world who have less than they do in one way or another.  Although I know (from books like Born for Love) a lot more than my actions impacts the development of empathy, I also know that we can play a very important role.

This interest has led me to wonderful organizations, such as Doing Good Together and Little Helping Hands, among others.  I've been in communication (and volunteering in whatever way I can) for the wonderful women leading these organizations.  However, even though I've thought alot about taking action and getting involved in family volunteering, I've failed to make it a habit and my best intentions have been remained just that...intentions.

However, recently I've had an opportunity to change that.  Last month, both organizations have been part of the launch of a new program to promote the development of empathy in children, Big Hearted Families.  I signed our family up to be a pilot family for a year. 

I share this mostly so that you all (or the 3 of you who might read this blog) can help to hold me accountable.  After learning a good deal about habits, I realized that I needed to give myself a trigger/cue in order to turn my intentions into action.  So I've decided to institute what Tyler has named "Giving Thursdays."  Each Thursday, I pick the kids up a little early and we either go to a nonprofit or complete a service project at home. 

Below are pictures from our first two Thursdays.  The first Thursday we made cards for the older adults at The Friendship Center and last week we made no-sew fleece blankets for Project Linus.

What the pictures don't show are the conversations that we have reflecting on the experience.  I'm very eager to help the kids understand that we do not help others because we're better than them.  We help because we are all special creations that have unique gifts to offer and we want to make sure that everyone (even those who may be struggling) have the best chance of offering their gifts to the world. 

Enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for more reports on our Giving Thursdays.  Hopefully, we'll one day realize the benefits...as Szalavitz and Perry state in Born for Love, "...raising children in a way that fully expresses empathy may be the key to cultural productivity, creativity, and security."

Making cards for The Friendship Center--When I asked what they liked best about older adults, Tyler responded: "They know all of their manners already."



Making blanket for Project Linus

Their debut?

Could this be the beginning of a brother-sister duo?
My favorite part is around minute 3...


By the way, the lead singer of Built to Be Broken, Benji, is a contestant on The Voice this season.

Entering the world of Cub Scouts

With Ty in first grade, we're continuing a Schmidt family tradition and starting Cub Scouts. Ty's having a great time so far and was proud to wear his new uniform for the first time.

A glimpse into Tyler's 7th Year

Every year, I make Tyler and Megan a book on Shutterfly.  This year I can share the project here.  For those of you who don't get to visit our house very often, here's a glimpse into Ty's 7th year.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

Fall firsts

The last couple of weeks have been full of firsts for Tyler and Megan...Tyler's first day of 1st grade and Megan's first soccer practice (you should see her eyes light up when she gets to play). 

Can you tell they like this pose?

Click here for a few more :).

Ty is 7!

It's hard to believe that our little boy is 7 already!  He still loves to make us laugh (as you can tell in the picture below) and is incredibly sweet to his sister (most of the time) and us. 

We had a great celebration on the 3rd with the four of us and then had his friends over for exactly what he wanted...a Lego Ninjago pool party complete with origami ninja throwing stars (or shurikens according to Tyler), a code to transform your name into a ninja name, an awesome ninja training course made by Dad, and of course, fun in the pool.  (Thanks to the blogger behind Craft Interrrupted for making the prep for this party so easy!) Click on the photo below for all of the pictures.

10 days, 3 states, family, friends, and a celebration of 10 years of marriage

My favorite week of the year was absolutely incredible this year.  In a week and a half, we...

1) spent time with Granny and Grandpa and the Shripkas in Palatine that included lots of water fun, play-doh, dancing in matching nightgowns, and hours with the toys in the basement (click on the photo for more)...

2) enjoyed beautiful weather with the Raney's, Burke's and Chernesky's up at my favorite place in the world complete with water-skiing, tubing, lots of swimming, hiking on the raspberry trail, and dinner at the Lakeside Grill (click below for many more photos)...

3) and last but not least, while the kids enjoyed a few more days with the Burke's and Chernesky's up north (thanks again!!), Jeff and I travelled to Portland with our good friends to celebrate our 10th anniversary.  It was an amazing 4 day trip with more beautiful weather and a wonderful way to celebrate the incredible 10 years we've shared  (you know the drill...click the photo for more).

Happy 4th of July from TX!

We had a fun first 4th of July in TX with 3 ft. long sparklers and a BBQ dinner and fireworks at Lake Conroe.

Starting summer vacation on Sand Key

Jeff picked up Ty at his last day of school and took the kids directly to the airport for a flight to Tampa and a fun weekend with Granny and Grandpa at the condo.  We had beautiful weather, fun times on the beach, a successful fishing trip, and of course, the required trips to Frenchy's on the Beach and PJ's.  For more pics click on the photo below.

My child can read! (Just kidding)

Easter 2012

We had a great Easter with Granny and Grandpa and the Raney's.  Click on the photo to the right to see all of our fun. 

Spring Break 2012

We had a great spring break visiting the Riverwalk and Alamo in San Antonio, camping, hiking and rock climbing at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, and golfing and playing in our pool at home.  Click on the photo above for more.

"Spring" in our new house

We've had a great time getting used to our new house (and have enjoyed swimming and golfing in February and March). 

Click here for more.

Merry Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas in Palatine!  We got to spend Christmas Eve with the Chernesky's and Burke's at Navy Pier and Christmas with the Schmidt's and Shripka's.  It was a great respite in the middle of our move from Virginia to Texas.  I somehow lost a lot of my pictures (maybe it had to do with packing our lives and driving across the country), but click on the collage below for those that I still have.