Lessons in Compassion and Kindness in a Charming Picture Book for Both Young and Old Readers

Picture books are a great tool for teaching life lessons. Parents will want to add Tami Lewis Brown's new book We Really Do Care to their child's home library to read over and over. Our society in its present condition is sometimes sorely lacking in compassion and empathy. We should be teaching our children these life characteristics at an early age. Reading stories that teach these characteristics is the perfect activity to introduce these concepts and start a conversation with children about the importance of being compassionate and having empathy.

A little boy has many possessions that he does not want to share. His ball, his beloved pets, and his brother are all things that he wants to keep for himself. Sharing is not a part of his vocabulary. He meets a little girl one day and his thinking takes a turn for the better. The little girl does not have a ball, or pets, or even a family of her own. He becomes friends with the little girl and they find many things in common. The little boy and girl share feelings about their fears of being alone and losing things that they cherish. The little girl has experienced these feelings and the little boy is afraid of losing his toys, of being alone, and losing his pets. They discover that they have these feelings in common. The little boy realizes that he can share his ball and even his pets. He decides that he really does care about the little girl.

Brown introduces the idea that caring can spread all over the world. The little boy and girl begin to think of everything that they care about. Families all over the world, our environment, all of the animals in our world, and our planet all become ideas and things to care about. The simple text and adorable illustrations from Tania de Regil combine to make this a delightful new picture book for our times.

We Really Do Care was published by Philomel Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. It is recommended for ages 4-8 and has an ISBN of 9781984836304.

I found picture books to be a wonderful tool to use when teaching lessons in my kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classes. Young children easily grasp concepts when they are engaged in reading a story about the concept. Tami Lewis Brown's We Really Do Care has a wealth of ideas for creative lessons to incorporate into your kindergarten or pre-kindergarten curriculum. Our society now demands that we begin to teach the concepts of sharing, compassion, and empathy at an early age. Young children are aware of news events that they may see on television and parents sometimes have to explain the tragedies that are happening in our world. reading stories such as We Really Do Care makes it easy to introduce compassion into our children's life.

*Read We Really Do Care in a group story time session. Call attention to the things that the little boy does not want to share. Engage students in a conversation about the things that they have that they really do not want to share. Engage them in a discussion of the reasons that they do not want to share these things.

*What happens in the story to cause the little boy to change his mind about sharing? Engage students in a discussion about a time when they decided to share something with another friend.

*Call attention to the page that names forests, rivers, and seas in our environment that the little boy and girl decide that they care about. This opens a new lesson in caring for our environment. Engage students in a discussion about the things in their town or city that involves nature and how they should care about nature and the environment.

*Call attention to the page that speaks to caring about their family and all the families of the world. Engage students in a conversation about how they can show compassion for families around the world. Engage students in a conversation about events such as hurricanes and natural disasters around the world that they may have seen or heard about. Have they seen news stories about community organizations that reach out with supplies that show caring and compassion for the places that have experienced these natural disasters? Plan a class activity that allows the children to collect needed articles for an organization that is helping with an area of the world that has experienced a natural disaster.

*Call attention to the animals that the little boy and girl decide that they should care about. Does your town have an animal shelter that the citizens support? Plan an activity to offer the opportunity for children to bring in pet supplies to donate to a local shelter or humane society.

*Plan an art activity for children to draw the things that they care about.