I think everybody will benefit from insight on the pleasure of sharing once in a while. After all, I remember how often I feel a little wavering expressing my favorite tidbit if there’s only a couple chomps left (mmmm strawberries) … how much tougher it would be for my multi-year-old to produce the trucks he’s playing! The more we find out about communication, the more we realize it is a great form of interfacing with others, and the more we learn, the more we feel.
I’ve found it appears to be incredibly helpful for young people to understand what they’re doing, rather than actually instructing them to “share” when they’re obviously not. This behavior lets kids understand how much they are actually doing, which will also give you a subtle approach to talking with them about various issues they will get a kick out of the opportunity to focus on doing more.
I began the campaign by clarifying the term “sharing is conscious” as I slowly wrote it on paper: exploring how, as we share, we show us that we care for them when we need something that we accept when others provide it, and how good it feels to give and receive. (Note: I think my kids listen way better while we’re really dealing with it – i.e., setting up a plan – than when I’m just “addressing” them.) At that point, I said we’re going to play Pictionary about stuff we share in our family: the craftsman will choose something we’ve seen discussed and draw while the others speculate (and we’d swap being craftsman) I started this campaign hoping my 4-year-old would like to draw along (he usually loves Pictionary games!), anyway he wanted me to draw this time, so I’m fine with that. We work for the interaction of our culture, not for a single outcome. (He loved drawing his own picture a while later.) For starters, I drew a few squares, and then the kids talked about what I was doing … at that point we immediately mentioned ways we should share the object, offered a specific case of doing someone discussing it (if we could recall one) and remembered how the other person felt when we shared, and so on.
Additionally, the kids suggested that I draw a couple of additional items they think about themselves … like nuts (currently most valued tidbit) and a feline (we don’t have one, so I couldn’t really make sense of where that came from, and we debated sharing felines anyway).
As I said, I ended up doing the drawing heft, but my multi-year-old likewise loved writing about stuff and rehashing a portion of the words we used that I would claim just cute. Shortly after, it was smooth to see him disclose to daddy what we had addressed by throwing up all the stuff – I was shocked by the extent he avoided the action!
This campaign was straightforward and enjoyable … but it also made the case that sharing is a good thing (and not just something. Mom constantly demands unexplained reasons). One benefit is that we have a fun banner to put up and remind us of caring about others by sharing!
End up considering kids to “trade” frequently? Why can you make a successful encounter?
