by: Michael Sanni Positive Kids Motivation can come in many forms: a high five, pat on the back, a “good job” or any subtle encouragement to do better. However, anyone can give motivation but many lack their own motivation to make it sincere. Especially, when dealing with children, sincerity is the key to successful kid’s motivation. Children face false facades in their life every day from the teacher just teaching from the book to receive a paycheck, the coach who has to be there for required hours or the local community leaders who care to promote their career. Children realize that these types of ‘motivations’ are for only personal gratification. Real kid’s motivation comes from those who sincerely want to enrich a child’s life without self-gratification. Seeing a child succeed is gratification enough. Without positive kid’s motivation, children learn to live ordinary lives, but with the right motivation they live extraordinary lives. And these extraordinary lives become life changers for others because they are sincere in their motives to enrich the lives around them. What life do you live, ordinary or extraordinary?
CHARITY, FRIENDSHIP, HUMAN RIGHTS Have you ever had someone do a favor for you without being asked? Have you ever had a friend share their most favorite or expensive toy with you? Have you ever eaten at a meal prepared by your parents relative? If so, you know what it is like to be served. Service is the sacrifice of one’s own desires, time, and energy to benefit others. It is being selfless instead of selfish. It is easy to allow people to serve us, because it feels good. Being served is so easy that sometimes we don’t even realize it’s happening. For example, when our parents or grandparents cook a meal for us, we are served. When a person picks up something that you’ve dropped and returns it to you, you are being served. We are served all day at school by our teachers, principals, secretaries, and many others. In fact, you probably serve people each day as well! Have you ever done a favor for someone without being asked? Have you ever given a thing that you really like away to someone you thought needed it more? Have you ever volunteered to help someone without expecting anything in return? If so, then you know what it feels like to serve someone. Sometimes, serving others is not easy. In today’s society, people often use the word “serving” negatively. Often, we are taught that it is more important to serve ourselves than to serve others. Many think that one must be an adult, educated, or rich to properly serve someone else. But that is simply not true! Anyone can be of service to others at anytime. You don’t have to be a grown up, educated, or rich to serve others. You don’t have to travel great distances either. It can be as easy as raking up the leaves in your elderly neighbor’s yard, shoveling snow, or simply picking up your bedroom before your mom asks you to. Sometimes, it can feel like hard work, but every time you choose to serve someone else, you will walk away with the most amazing feeling in the world. As Booker T. Washington once said: “Those who are the happiest are those who do the most for others.” Here are some great quotes for kids about serving others. Read them and then see below for ways you can serve others starting today! “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.” -Martin Luther King Jr. “The best gift you could ever give someone is your time because you’re giving them something you’ll never get back.” -Anonymous “Your passion becomes your legacy when you serve others, being who you are, doing what you love.” -Anonymous “Those who are the happiest are those who do the most for others.” -Booker T. Washington “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” -John Bunyan “The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” -Albert Schweitzer “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.” -Romans 12:10 “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” -Ghandi “A life not lived for others is not a life.” -Mother Teresa “People will forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou “The willingness to serve makes you a better person…and the world a better place.” -Anon. “To serve oneself is pleasure, to serve OTHERS is joy.” -Sri Amma Bhagavan “No one has ever become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank “One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.” -Lewis Carol “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” –Charles Dickens “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” -Buddha “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away” – Pablo Picasso “What I spent I had; what I saved I lost; what I gave, I have.” – German motto “The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Ghandi “Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another’s pain, life is not in vain.” – Helen Keller “For it is in giving that we receive.” – Francis of Assisi “Think of giving not as a duty, but as a privilege.” – John D. Rockefeller “You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.” – Robert Louis Stevenson “Happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but from what we give.” – Ben Carson “Never get tired of doing little things for others, sometimes those little things occupy the biggest parts of their hearts.” – Unknown “No person was ever honored for what he received. He was honored for what he gave.” – Calvin Coolidge “I must be willing to give whatever it takes to do good to others. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts.” – Mother Teresa “You will discover that you have two hands. One is for helping yourself and the other is for helping others.” – Audrey Hepburn “Life is not about giving up or giving in. Life is about giving.” – Anthony Douglas Williams Here is funny video that talks about the importance of serving others.
by Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. As part of our color review week, the children tried out a little brown finger painting but instead of using brown paint, they used chocolate pudding.
After mixing up a bowl of chocolate pudding, they dipped their fingers in the pudding and began making brown pudding prints on a piece of paper…
To this point I noticed that the children were treating this process much as they would any other finger painting process. The main difference was that rather than being given a shallow container or small dab of finger paint to work with – they had a large bowl of ooey gooey chocolate material to work with.
This remarkable kid is beyond inspirational. Accomplished incredible things at such a young age.
Colin Southwood began growing his hair since he was 4 years old, after his grandparents and a teacher at his school were diagnosed with cancer. The remarkable young boy then decided to donate his flowing locks to make wigs out of it.
by Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. Over the years, I have created lots of photos with simple messages (memes) to share with other preschool teachers or parents. Here are a few you might like to check out… For every one process being mastered, one hundred masterpieces are created. ~Deborah J. Stewart
May every small child have the opportunity to explore big art. ~Deborah J. Stewart
“Never help a child do something at which he thinks he can succeed by himself.” ~Maria Montessori
Childhood isn’t a destination, it’s a journey. ~Unknown
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” ~Albert Einstein
Every mark is meaningful. ~Deborah J. Stewart
“The prime purpose of being four is to enjoy being four – of secondary importance is to prepare for being five.” ~Jim Trelease
The best memories of childhood are made outside. ~Deborah J. Stewart
When I look in the mirror, I see myself with my own eyes. When I look at you, I see myself through your eyes. ~Deborah J. Stewart
“A person’s a person no matter how small.” Dr. Seuss
This remarkable kid is beyond inspirational. Accomplished incredible things at such a young age.
5 year old, Jayden Sink, set up a lemonade stand to promote peace outside of a Westboro Baptist Church. The adorable little girl even managed to raise $1,400 by the end of the day! The proceeds were donated to the Rainbow House charity.
by MICHAEL STUTMAN What are the things in school and in life that get you most excited? Maybe its sports or animals or music or cooking or Legos or writing or art or drama or cars or fashion or computers or helping people? Maybe it is all of those things? Do you have something that you are passionate about? If so, you are very lucky! If not, don’t worry, you just need to pay attention to what you like and dislike, be curious and be open to trying new things. Having passion and enthusiasm are key for achieving success and meaning in school and life. As Arthur Balfour once said, “Enthusiasm moves the world.” While some people discover and focus on their passions very early in life, others take a long time to do so. The important thing is really just to pay attention to what inspires you and makes you happy. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, loved science from the time he was very young. He was especially interested in the science of sound. When he was a child, he would sit in a field and try to listen to the sound of wheat growing! When he was in his teens, he spent his own time studying the way the way our voices work.
Although Bell didn’t realize at that time that he would go on to change the world by inventing the telephone, his childhood interests and passions were leading him there…and he followed them. This story is the same for many people who have changed the world. Here are some great quotes for kids about passion and enthusiasm. And then, below, are ways that you can use these gifts to make a difference in your life and the world. “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” – Julia Child “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstien “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” – Harriet Tubman “Feel your emotions, Live true your passions, Keep still your mind.” – Geoffrey Gluckman “Passion is a feeling that tells you: this is the right thing to do. Nothing can stand in my way. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says. This feeling is so good that it cannot be ignored. – Wayne Dyer “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela “Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” – Anthony D’Angelo “Passion is what drives us crazy, what makes us do extraordinary things, to discover, to challenge ourselves. Passion is and should always be the heart of courage.” – Midori Komatsu “Be brave and be patient. Have faith in yourself; trust in the significance of your life and the purpose of your passion.” Jillian Michaels “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” – Oprah Winfrey “Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson “No matter what you do with your life, be passionate.” – Jon Bon Jovi Rest in reason; move in passion.” – Khalil Gibran “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman “A person can succeed at almost anything for which they have unlimited enthusiasm.” – Charles Schwab “Why do we have to listen to our hearts?” the boy asked, when they had made camp that day. Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.” – Paulo Cohelmo (The Alchemist) “Doing what you love isn’t a priviledge; it’s an obligation.” – Barbara Sher Now check out the video from a 17 year old who talks about how and when he developed his passion:
