Grow big hearts one story at a time.
Grownups have book clubs – why not families? At Doing Good Together we’ve pioneered what we call the Big-Hearted Family Book Club.
We encourage families to pair a book with a related act of service, which means children get to practice kindness and build empathy while also developing a passion for books, conversation, and generosity.
Potential Recipients
Your whole family will benefit from the meaningful time you spend together. The impact of your service work will vary based on the project you choose to pair with your book.
What you’ll need
Print DGT’s Big-Hearted Book Club planning tool or use a blank sheet of paper.
Supplies will vary based on the service project or kindness activity you choose to accompany your book.
Instructions
Set time aside for your recurring family book club
As a family, browse DGT’s Read with Empathy collection and choose 4 to 6 chapter books or picture books on a variety of topics
As a family, browse DGT’s Pick-a-Project collection to discover service project ideas that work with your chosen topics (Hint: all of DGT’s projects feature book titles and/or applicable book lists)
Reflection
Was it difficult to agree on a book or books to read?
What do you look for in a service project? Do you prefer crafts that provide comfort or projects that directly fight poverty? Something else?
What issues do you want to learn more about as a family? Why? Can you find book titles that speak to that issue?
Resources
Invite friends or neighbors to participate in your family’s big-hearted book club.
Consider working with a local organization for several months in a row. For example, if you support your local food pantry, you could host a food drive one month, assemble birthday bags one month, and repackage rice and beans one month to make a difference in lots of different ways as you learn about hunger.
Take it further
Invite friends, extended family, or neighbors to participate in your Big-Hearted Book Club
Share your story of service and reflection with the charitable organization you supported (like the food pantry in our example above). They can use your story to amplify their mission and inspire others to support their work.
Browse the projects in our Big-Hearted Families Tookit!
Disclaimer: Doing Good Together™ is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
The recommendations we offer are based solely on our mission to empower parents to raise children who care and contribute.