December 2013 – Sharing

“Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.”
-Brian Tracy”Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.”
-Dalai Lama XIV”If you have a candle, the light won’t glow any dimmer if I light yours off of mine.”
-Steven Tyler

Sharing is an important lesson you can teach your child. Children learn by example, and don’t forget, you are
their role model. If your child notices that you share with others, it can help to teach your child to do the
same.

Here are some tips on sharing:

Children learn by being given the duty to share. This enriches their character and makes them a generous, more
amicable human being. They will grow up realizing that human beings live and survive because of each other. As a
grown-up, they will not lose touch with the real meaning of what being kind and benevolent is. A generous person
is a good spouse, parent, employer and employee.

As community members, we are instrumental in the social development of our little ones. Find plenty of
opportunities to model sharing, talk about sharing, and to compliment children as they make progress along the
way.

Ways to teach sharing:

What is sharing?

Sharing is giving, service, love, helpfulness.

Sharing is kindness, generosity, unselfishness, sacrifice.

Ways to show you care and can share:

• With your actions
• With your words
• With your thoughts
• With material gifts

With your actions:

• You might make your parents’ bed, rake leaves off the lawn, tutor a younger child, open a door for
  someone, or sit with someone new at lunch.
• Spend an hour visiting with a friend.
• Be helpful and kind to someone who needs a hand.

With your words:

• Say kind things to and about other people.
• Offer advice when it’s wanted and sympathy when it’s needed.
• Sometimes silence is golden; sometimes the kindest words are those that aren’t spoken.

With your thoughts:

• Positive thoughts can be very powerful.
• You can do an act of kindness for another person merely by thinking good thoughts about him or her.
• Other people will feel the positive thoughts you sent their way.

With material gifts:

• Try giving household items to the homeless, donating trees to your community, buying a shirt for your
  brother or chocolates for a friend.
• Don’t limit your gifts to special occasions (charity drives, birthdays, and holidays).

Activities

• Write in your journal about a time when someone was kind to you or did a service for you. How did you
  feel?
• Read a biography about a famous philanthropist—someone who has dedicated his or her life to improving
  the lives of others.
• Research how other countries have cared for their citizens through history in times of greatest need
  such as disasters, wars, poverty, and illness.
• Do a “secret service” or a project in which you do something nice for others without telling them.
• Write your own “random acts” of sharing book.
• Brainstorm a list of possible needs and wants for various people. Help fulfill those needs.
• Start a kindness “chain reaction.”
• Make “I Care” kits – for a new student, for people who have suffered a misfortune such as a loss of a
  pet, home.
• Collect songs about caring and sharing.
• Be a caring team player. Brainstorm ways to support team members when they make mistakes, have poor
  skills, or have difficulty getting along.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

One Gift Deserves Another by Joanne Oppenheim

Tit for Tat by Dorothy Van Woekrom

One of Each by Mary Anne Hoberman

The Mitten Tree by Candace Christiansen

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas by Russell Hoban

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The Value of Sharing: the Story of the Mayo Brothers by Spencer Johnson

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy

Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

“Knowledge sharing within the workplace is one of the most critical cultural values of an organization. More
successful managers use employee work groups to strategically build innovative ideas that can strengthen the
business approach to regional marketplaces within its industry. The organizational culture within businesses
today
has similar structures, such as mission statements, vision statements, goals, business objectives, operational
processes, employee classification levels, and other supporting infrastructures. If more employers push the
staff to
use knowledge sharing practices with others, this may lead to developing more business resources, increasing
employee’s productivity without increasing costs in the areas of time and training. Knowledge sharing is more
than
giving pertinent information to others within the organization. It is sharing knowledge to enable positive
cultural
transformation to turn into successful business innovation.” (Fain, Kimberly. “Hoarding Knowledge: Job Security
for
Employees or Bad for Business.” Examiner.com. Clarity Digital Group LLC, 25 May 2012. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.)

http://www.examiner.com/article/hoarding-knowledge-job-security-for-employees-or-bad-for-business