Making a difference in the world and helping others are the best inoculations against poor self esteem for children. Having a sense of purpose, knowing that you can influence others and give back, creates a sense of self efficacy that leads to great self esteem. Performing meaningful activities decreases boredom, isolation, self-centeredness as well as materialism.

Don’t Wait, Start Now!
When most parents think about teaching their children to give back, they tend to think about teens or even elementary school kids. But as Oprah Winfrey said recently, “You are never too young to make a big difference in somebody’s life.” Teaching very young children to give back can start as soon as they are verbal and can hold a crayon to paper.

By teaching this lesson to children as young as two or three years old, you help them develop the habit of giving and helping others therefore allowing this way of thinking and behaving to become more deeply ingrained. Once begun, this practice can carry on through childhood, through the notoriously narcissistic teen years and on through adulthood thus making a difference not only in the world but also in your home.

Helping Others Scrapbook
When my children were two years old, I started a “Helping Others” scrapbook with my daughters Quincy and Mendez. I have gone out of my way to find age appropriate opportunities for them to be charitable with their time, art work, hands, and even money. The scrapbook serves to memorialize these deeds thereby allowing them the opportunity to look back on all the kind things they have done to help others that they can feel good about. Also, this allows them to revisit these generous deeds as their developmental ability to understand what they have done increases.

Great Ways for 2-5 Year Olds to Give Back

These are some of the projects that we have done or will be doing. I invite you try some of these at home.

Make a card for a very ill child. Young children love making artwork and now their art can help make a sick child happy. My favorite website is www.MakeaChildSmile.com which features children with chronic or life-threatening illnesses. The site has profiles of children which include their ages, interests, and information about their family so your family can send cards to siblings and parents as well. Many of the families have websites where you can get updates about how their child is doing. The site also includes tips about writing letters to sick kids, for example, you never want to say “get better soon” to a terminally ill child.

Adopt an endangered animal. Let your child pick the list of 24 photographs of endangered animals on www.Defenders.org. When you send in a donation in his or her name your child can receive a personalized certificate, photo of the animal, activity book, fact sheet, and plush toy of the animal they helped. This is a great opportunity to talk about being kind to animals and taking care of the environment.

• ‹ Raising Lifetime Readers from the Start
• Pet and Human Hair ›