Tuesday, June 30, 2015

11 Children's Books That Teach Compassion


This past week we had some awesome finds from our local library.  On the top of that list is a book by David McPhail, The Teddy Bear.  This book was the perfect read for not only my 5 year old but for my 9 year old also.


I skimmed through it at the library and immediately knew I had to borrow this one.  The book is about a little boy who has a favorite teddy bear (something most kids can relate to) that goes everywhere with him.  Sadly, the boy loses his bear but the bear is not lost for long as another finds it and loves it just as much if not more.  It's the person who finds it that's the surprise and from there a very strong message is shared.  The Teddy Bear is a story of compassion, love and kindness.

Once I finished reading this aloud to both of my children I asked questions to be sure they understood the message.  My 9 year old grasped it better than my 5 year old which I expected but with a bit more explaining my 5 year old understood enough to appreciate this sweet read.

This book and the message it shares encouraged me to find a way for my children to spread the same compassion as the boy in the book.  As most kids, my two have their fair amount of stuffed animals and normally we save them up and donate them to Goodwill. However, I wanted to take things a step further so I searched and found organizations that accept stuffed animals for children AND the elderly who are experiencing traumatic type situations.  Places like firehouses, police stations, emergency services even nursing homes are happy to accept stuffed animals to have on hand.  They use them to comfort the sick, injured or whatever emergency/crisis they are tending to.

From now on as my kids go through their stuffed animal friends we will put them away until we have a large enough bin and then we will donate them to our local police, fire and emergency services.

If your child(ren) or organization that you might belong to, like boy or girl scouts, would like to do the same simply contact your local authorities and ask if they would be interested in your gently used stuffed animals.  Or you can contact the organizations I've listed below and share with them.  I will be leading a girl scout troop this upcoming year and this will definitely be one of our projects.

It's so great when a simple book like The Teddy Bear can send such a strong message that it encourages acts of kindness and love.

Organizations accepting stuffed animals:

Stuffed Animals for Emergencies

Project Smile

More books that share the message of compassion:

Click here to be brought directly to the page with these books




























17 comments:

  1. Chair for my mother was one of my favorites growing up. It was a reading rainbow one and I loved it so I got it for my son. It was so sad that I was trying not to cry while reading it. I haven't heard of the Teddy Bear so I will have to check it out :)

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    1. I understand about the crying. I was re-telling The Teddy Bear story to my Mom and husband and got choked up!!

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  2. Very interesting! thank you for sharing with the #pinitparty!

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  3. Interesting selection of books. I have not seen them before. Thank you for sharing it with us #pintorials

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  4. Great list of books. I don't think I know any of them so they are ones to watch out for :) Thanks for linking to we love weekends. x

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    1. I always love when I find a list of books I haven't heard of before! Hoping you find some of these goodies and that they are greatly enjoyed!

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  5. Everyone needs more compassion! We are featuring you tomorrow at our #laughlearnlinkup Come and visit us :-)

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    1. I couldn't agree more! Thank you also for the feature :)

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  6. What a great list! I think teaching compassion is one of the best attributes we can teach our children. Going to pin this to my toddler empathy board!

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  7. such a hard thing to teach!! Great to know there are resources out there that help teach kids compassion! thanks for sharing with us at Snickerdoodle!

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    1. We're so glad we have been introduced to these great books!!

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  8. Great list of books. Lots of new titles to me. Thanks for sharing on We Love Weekends.

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    1. Thaleia - I'm glad some of these titles are new for you. I love when we find some new ones that turn into real goodies!!

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