During school yesterday, I offered two journal projects to my Boy - a fun one and a work one, and he could choose which to do first. He chose the fun one: Write or draw a picture of two things you'd like for Christmas.
He sat and thought, and said he couldn't think of anything. I reminded him we had talked about some regular Legos (to replace the Duplo kind he's outgrown). "Oh, yeah! Awesome Legos!" He wrote down Legos. More pondering.
"Fritz!" (the new family puppy). "Fritz was kind of for Christmas." I was surprised to hear him put those together. My husband and I had just talked about Fritz kind of being for Christmas - rather, he mentioned it and I said that it was the first I'd heard of it. (We had promised the Boy a pet once we moved and got settled.) Even if we thought Fritzy could kind of be for Christmas, I didn't want to assume that our Boy thought the same. His suggestion seemed to come out of nowhere.
My heart was so warmed by my Boy's contentment. Presented with the opportunity to request anything, he was drawing a blank. (This same child who will get bonkers excited over every toy commercial.)
I did not push or prod him to think of a second thing, but instead rolled into an altered version of the "work" journal entry: What would you like to do for someone else this Christmas? (A lot more personal than the "what makes a person a hero?" that I had planned.)
My B's face lit up. We tossed around some ideas. And he pinpointed what he wanted to do: Take some of his money to give to the people who don't have money or don't have a lot of money.
And now it's up to us parents to help him do that. Our church helps support a "Village of Hope" in Uganda. B and I looked at the Web site together, and I explained a bit of how the Village of Hope project helps people (specifically children). So I think B can take his coins to church and they can put it toward that.
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