Through Sabrina's preschool we are donating Christmas gifts to a local children's hospital. There's a little tree in the school lobby bearing paper ornaments with gift ideas on them. I really wanted the donation to be meaningful to Sabrina, so I set aside today to talk about the donation, think about the gifts we wanted to give, purchase them and then take them directly to the school to drop off. It seemed to me keeping it all in one day would help her understand and make the giving tangible.
First we discussed hospitals and illness and how what makes her happy would probably make other children happy too. Sabrina said books, art and blocks make her happiest of all. Books and art have always been her favorites, but blocks are a recent love, and she has been building with them every day for a week now. I pushed a little more and asked her which books make her coziest, especially when she is not feeling good. She had a bad cold last week so could relate.
In the afternoon we got Kitten's First Full Moon and Zen Shorts, a big box of Melissa and Doug blocks similar to the ones she has, and a bunch of art supplies and craft kits at our local toystore.
The gifts can't be wrapped, but we taped little tags to them explaining why Sabrina loves the gift herself. For Zen Shorts she said "This book is about children and a bear who are happy. It is a story and pictures that will make you happy." I wrote, she added a big smiley face. So starts another nice tradition, I hope.
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