Saturday, August 15, 2009

The Hundred Dresses

I am constantly struggling trying to figure out how to raise these kids to be grateful without spoiling them. It is hard not to spoil them. I've been trying to seek out service opportunities for the kids to participate in. Our church rolled out "The Hundred Dresses" A Humanitarian Project. A partnership with the amazing organization Mothers Without Borders.Inspired by the Caldecott winning book The Hundred Dresses, the woman of our congregation would make 100 of these t-shirt style dresses to be sent over to Uganda. This was the perfect project for our family. We scored a bunch of these bright orange t-shirts on clearance and a handful of other colors. AK picked out the fabric, and Mr. Boy pressed the sewing pedal on the machine for each and everyone. We made a bunch of them, and I showed the kids where the dresses would be going on a map. While the sewing machine hummed, we talked about these sweet girls who would recieve them. We talked about how the stitches had to be strong because they would be worn often and washed in rivers or on rocks. We discussed what it would be like to live in Uganda. The kids loved working on this project and tommorrow the last set of dresses will be delivered and by Christmas they will be handed out to some deserving girls halfway around the world.
Anyone have any brilliant ideas on how to raise grateful children?

2 comments:

Dover Fam said...

Thank you so much for the awesome swap basket! I love it!!! My kids loved the umbrellas. :) I love that you are doing the 100 dresses thing. :) I am doing this at my church too. We are reading the book and then donating dresses to a local womens/children shelter. Such a great message. Thanks again and I hope you like your basket of goodies too. :)

Brooke said...

What a great idea - I love that. I worry about that a lot too - I feel like my kids are inundated with "fun" all the time - I know they need to serve too but somehow that alwasy gets pushed off the agenda. I'll let you know if I have any brilliant ideas ;)