With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, I’ll be concentrating on ways to show kids how to give thanks, from baking cookies for good friends, to journaling to preserve family stories. Of course there will be lots of terrific Thanksgiving recipes and books, too.

One way to give thanks is to contribute to a charity. Show your children how you give to charities. Take them with you when you volunteer. Go through your family’s gently used books, toys and clothes and take them to your local Goodwill or Salvation Army. Show the kids how their donations – either time, money or goods – will help other people.

Since I’m a big believer in books, showing children the importance of reading and fostering a love of books, I’m a supporter of RIF (Reading is Fundamental). From a recent RIF email:

With only 5 days to go in our 40th anniversary fundraising challenge, we have raised over $1,700 needed to reach our target by November 3. Our goal remains the same—we want to raise $25,000 by our 40th birthday celebration on Friday. Your donation will match the gifts we’ve already received from two generous corporate partners, bringing the grand total to $100,000!

We have big goals for 2007. We want to put more books in the hands of our nation’s children—free, new, age-appropriate books that they can keep forever. We want to engage more parents in their children’s lives—all parents should have an opportunity to help their child learn to love reading and knowledge so they can succeed in life. We want to train more childcare instructors on best practices to encourage literacy development—with 13 million preschoolers in childcare, this age group needs our attention. We want every child in the United States to experience the joy reading. But we can’t do it alone.

If you’d like to help, go to the RIF website to donate.

Technorati tags: giving thanks, RIF

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