​​A veteran pre-K teacher in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Los Angeles had the tradition each December of having Jessie, the class Elf on a shelf, who gifted all her students small tokens of holiday cheer. Although it was difficult to do on her teacher salary, she found ways to give something small--a pencil, a pack of crayons, or a small notebook. No matter how small her gift, the students were always grateful.

Then, the pandemic hit and through the switch to online learning, the educators' eyes were opened to the many hardships that their students faced--living in rooms with little or no heat, doing the daily zoom calls at the back of a mini-mart while the parent worked, or in motel rooms where their families were temporarily sheltered.

The teacher knew that she had to do something but on her limited means, what could she do. She created a simple wish list on Amazon: a blanket for each of her twenty-four students and shared it on the Nextdoor app. Five minutes later, she received a text from one of her neighbors saying that they were looking at the wish list but there were no items needed. Amazed, she reached out to her colleagues to see if she could add their students to the wish list.

In the end, each of the six hundred students in her school received a gift from these generous donors. With the help of colleagues, the blankets were given out at a distribution point to grateful children and their parents. During the summer of 2021, the teacher was contacted by a number of her donors who wanted to know how they could contribute again. She put together a list of school supplies which was quickly filled, and all six hundred students started the new school year with backpacks filled with school supplies. 

On one of the neighborhood forums, someone wrote about how much she appreciated being part of this wonderful event. She said, "On neighborhood forums, there's so much slander, hate, and political stuff. People bash others including teachers. But when something like this comes up, everybody jumps in to help, even the people who have been so negative. It's just absolute community."

In the world of a young child, what matters is being kind and caring, looking out for another, and sharing what you have. Jessie the Elf represents a 2,000-year-old narrative in which a severely disadvantaged child--one born to penniless parents in a drafty barn--would go on to teach the world that it's children who have it right, that our differences are trivial and that love is the thing that matters most. In our troubled times, it's easy to believe that the lesson has been lost. But it hasn't. It's just that sometimes we need the little children to reawaken it in us.

Except from article in Reader's Digest, December 2022

A group of researchers asked children between the ages of four and eight years old, "What does love mean?" The answers that the children gave were quite profound and insightful. I have shared some of them below, but I encourage you to ask your children, grandchildren, and even other adults this question this season to remind us of what it is all about.
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• ​"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."  Rebecca - age 8
• "Love is what makes you smile when you're tired." Terri - age 4
• "Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." Bobby - age 7 
• "Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken." Elaine - age 5
• "During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore." Cindy - age 8
• And the final one...Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

If we approach this holiday season looking for examples of love, I am sure that we will be surprised and moved at what we see around us. In life, we get more of what we look for and focus on--let's choose love.

For the complete article that this blog was based on:
www.dailygood.org/story/3260/what-does-love-mean-how-4-8-year-old-kids-describe-love-ladan-lashkari/

​Did you know that there is a resource for imparting wisdom that we often overlook? It is the use of books and literature in our homes to subtly set the stage for a conversation about a topic that we’d like to explore with our children. Books and stories also provide the opportunity to explore and widen our view of the world. Ann Patchett, renowned American author has said, “Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability to feel empathy for people we've never met, living lives we couldn't possibly experience for ourselves, because the book puts us inside the character's skin.”

In addition, the most recent market research on how to sharpen our brain suggests that the easiest and most time-tested method is . . . READING! The very nature of reading encourages the brain to work harder and better. Typically, when we read, we have more time to think. Reading gives us a unique pause button for comprehension and insight. With oral language—when we watch a film or listen to an audio story—we don’t press pause.

This is especially true for anyone who struggles with reading. Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University studied children ages eight to ten who were below-average readers. One hundred hours of remedial reading classes significantly improved the quality of their brains’ white matter—the tissue that carries signals between areas of gray matter, where information is processed. The researchers’ concluded that the brains of these children had begun to rewire themselves in ways that could benefit the entire brain, not only the reading-centric temporal cortex.

So, if you still have a present to buy for your child, a grandchild or a favorite niece or nephew, consider buying a book and even read it with them, if you can. In the case that you have already purchased all of your holiday gifts, consider doing this for an upcoming birthday or other occasion. If you need some book suggestions, here is a list of some of my favorites that I have read to my children and students over the years. tinyurl.com/2p83c24j

And if you have parents of young children, my book, 7 Gifts to Give Your Child: Parenting That Will Touch Their Future would make an excellent gift.
www.amazon.com/Gifts-Give-Your-Child-Parenting/dp/B09LGWWXVZ