$7.29

P made her first donation.

We do not attend a church, and I have been struggling with how to teach P the meaning of charity, donating, and giving back to society in general. She is still too young to volunteer with me at a soup kitchen or a toy drive, but she isn't too young to put a little money aside for those less fortunate.

I want my children to actively understand the meaning of giving so they will always understand how to be charitable with time or money. I try to be a good role model by taking them with me when I donate to the food pantry, they pick out the toys for Toys for Tots each year (well, since they were 2 and could actually point to something that looked fun), and always announce when it is time to make our annual donation to Dana Farber or when a friend is doing a run or collecting for a cause. Even if I only have a dollar or five bucks to spare - I still want to share, and they can too.

Struggling with how to organize it, I asked my friend Susan (over at Travels With Pirates) how she did it with her daughter. She said she has one piggy bank for savings, one for spending, and one for charity. I loved the idea and quickly instituted it in my home.

Now we now have blue piggy for spending, baby shoe for savings, and the princess Papa Bill painted for her for charity. My next step was to find a suitable charity for her, and well, it kind of fell into our laps! Her preschool collects for "One for Books" through Scholastic. For every dollar donated, Scholastic matches monetary donations with a donation of up to one million books to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, Kids in Distressed Situations, Inc., and the Kids in Need Foundation. Given P's love for books and reading, this seemed perfect.

So, we sat down; emptied her princess; had a lesson about coins, dollars, and counting coins; added up her savings; and, came up with $7.29 for her to donate.

She jumped up and down and was thrilled to give freely. She was especially excited that with her money, a child will have one book they can look at before they go to sleep. "You mean they don't even have a bookshelf?" she asked, and then proceeded "I love to help so kids can read." Jeez, I love that kid.