Ways to teach children to be global citizens

-          Turn story time into a teachable moment: Learning about other countries and cultures can happen during daily activities. Choose children’s books that accurately portray other cultures or focus on historical events for afternoon or bedtime reading. After finishing the book, parents can talk to children about what they learned and how the lives of the characters in the book differ from their own.

-          Make the facts digestible for young minds: Young children may have a difficult time comprehending abstract statistics about inequality around the world. Create a math activity at home to make this information more relatable. Use beads or buttons to count out how many children are in the child’s class, and then remove items based on global averages for clean water access or hunger statistics. According to World Vision’s 2015 Food Assistance Report, 1 in 6 children – more than 1.4 million kids - are dangerously underweight because they lack access to adequate food and nutritional assistance. For a classroom of 24, remove 4 beads to represent these children.

-          Experiment at home: Ask children to put themselves in another person’s shoes by conducting experiments at home. For example, create a family menu budgeting $1.25 a day per family member. Give children $1.25 during the next grocery store trip - the amount of money that 1.3 billion people worldwide live on each day, according to World Vision - and let them shop and price compare themselves. Afterwards, talk about the types of foods they couldn’t purchase and what kinds of foods the menu is limited to: Were you able to purchase fresh fruits or vegetables? Is the meal limited to rice or pasta? What kind of protein could you afford to buy?

-          Sponsor a child: Get children involved directly in providing a “hand up” to communities in need around the world by sponsoring a child as a family through World Vision. Involve children in the process of choosing a boy or girl to sponsor; ask them to write cards and draw pictures for the sponsored child, and talk to them regularly about how the sponsorship donation is helping provide equal opportunities for boys and girls, clean water, bed nets, job training for parents, and much more – including the freedom to simply be a child.

Our family is currently sponsoring a child that our boys helped pick out while at a Third Day concert. It has been a great learning tool for them about helping others in other countries. They see my husband and I helping in our community all the time since their dad works at a Homeless shelter and mission. I love having my children see Christ working through us and that they are learning to do his work not only in their community but out in the World as well.