Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?

Ezie and Mallory came home the other day with a note from their school regarding a book about bucket filling. I put the note to the side to read later and this morning I finally got around to reading it. I am always so impressed with the Elementary School in our town because they started teaching the kids about respect, honor, pride, manners and other character building things in Pre-K and continue to teach these values through the 5th grade.


In our town I honestly think that if these values were not taught by the Elementary School a huge percent of the kids would never be exposed to them. These values are things that we have instilled in our kids since they were just little toddlers. I am huge on please and thank you's, respecting others feeling and things, treating others as you would like for them to treat you, and so on. Unfortunately, most of the people in this town cuss and fight with other people in front of their kids. Show disrespect to other people, the police and to their own kids. The only reason we live in this town is because it has very cheap housing, but we definitely have been paying the price. Hopefully we will be moving in the next few months. I will miss the kids school though. The Principal and staff are such wonderful examples to our kids and I really admire them for the work they do.

Anyway, back to the subject. The note is about a new program called, Bucket Filling, that the school has started. The program is based on the book Have You Filled Your Bucket Today, by Carol McCloud.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

"All day long, everyone in the whole wide world walks around carrying an invisible bucket. You can't see it but its there. You have a bucket. Your Mom and dad each have a bucket. Your sister and brother have a bucket. Your grandparents, friends, and neighbors all have a bucket. Everyone carries an invisible bucket. Your bucket has one purpose only. It's purpose is to hold your good thoughts and good feeling about yourself. You feel very happy and good when your bucket is full and you feel very sad and lonely when you bucket is empty. You fill a bucket when you show love to someone, when you say or do something kind, or even when you give someone a smile. But, you can also dip into a bucket and take out some good feelings. You dip into a bucket when you make fun of someone , when you say or do mean things. or even when you ignore someone. That's being a bucket dipper."

I haven't read the book, but I am once again impressed by Mrs. Shields and the teaching staff for initiating another program to help build character in the children of our town. Thank you Mrs. Shields!!! You are a wonderful principal and person!!
We are going to get some buckets for our family and write down things about each other and ouselves to encourage bucket filling. Be sure and check out the Bucket Filling site and the program.