Yesterday morning, as we rushed around getting ready for school, Sophie asked me out of the blue, “Mom, where’s Charity?” I mumbled something in response, thinking that Charity was a girl in her class…since there’s a Trinity, too. But when I walked by Sophie crouched on the floor counting out her coins, I realized that she meant charity as in an institution or an act. “Oh,” I said and I explained to her what a charity is. I used examples like churches or libraries or groups for people who have diseases or some other need…or even for animals. “Would you like to give your money to charity, Sophie?”
Yes. She marched away, listing all the places she would give her coins: the church, the library and a group for animals, the library so they could hire back the people they had to let go because of budget cuts. Then she backed off the charity for animals and asked about what the church does with their money. I explained it to her and later, my mom offered the example of giving money to families at Christmastime who need it to buy gifts for their children and Christmas dinner and warm clothes. And Sophie decided that would be a good one.
I was just so proud of her that she came up with this on her own, obviously after listening to someone talking about a charity whether at church or here at home or on tv…and thought to share her little bit of 8 year old girl wealth with someone else…