This is my new favorite bilingual children’s book! Rubber Shoes…A lesson in gratitude is an adorable story by Gladys Elizabeth Barbieri about a young girl (by the same name) who goes shopping for new shoes with her mother. When she can’t get the sparkly ballet slippers she wants, and instead receives a pair of zapatos de goma, little Gladys is disappointed and embarrassed. She tries her hardest to destroy or lose the shoes, but fails to rid herself of the ugly things. To teach her daughter a lesson, Gladys’s mother takes her to give the shoes to a less fortunate little girl, who is thrilled by the same shoes that Gladys hated so much. Suddenly, Gladys doesn’t care about fancy shoes anymore.
Los zapatos de goma is a precious story with beautiful illustrations by Lina Safar. Every page includes English and Spanish translations at the perfect level for children transitioning from simplistic board books to more intricate cuentos. The story is written in the voice of Gladys, which makes the lección de gratitud all the more apparent.
I have enjoyed reading this book to my son every day for the past week, and I’m sure it will long remain one of his bedtime favorites.
THE GIVEAWAY
This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner: Blanca !
We’re giving away a copy of Rubber Shoes…A lesson in Gratitude. To enter this giveaway, please share with us how you teach your niños to be grateful for what they have.
This giveaway ends at midnight EST on Monday, Oct. 2, 2011. Entries/Comments that do not follow the submission guidelines will be invalid and automatically deleted. Sorry, just need to keep it fair. Good luck to all!
Check out the Giveaway Rules.
This book looks so cute! One thing I picked up from a friend is to keep a “blessing box”. My husband, my son, and I write things we are thankful for and put them into a little box. Around Thanksgiving, we read through them. It is really uplifting to see all of the blessings in our lives.
The book looks wonderful – thank you for such a great giveaway! One of the ways we teach our children gratitude is that at their birthday party with their friends, rather than receive gift as they do from family, they collect school supplies or toiletries for children in need and their families. The day after the party we go to the shelter and deliver the items. Their birthdays are in October and November so for us it’s a very timely reminder of an important message. Gracias!!
I do a lot of volunteer work and I take my grandkidz with me. I see how they are giving, sharing and especially communicating with the other children of many different nationalities. While I teach ESL my grandkidz share not only material things but of themselves. And at times I can not provide the luxuries that other families have, I am amazed on how happy they are being with me. No video games, no expensive toys, but walks are a big party of our time together. Also going to the bookstore and reading, knowing we will not take any book home. But these small outings are joyous to their time with me and vice versa. But what really touched my heart is at ESL class they told the other children, hey the teacher is my grandma. I cried. How they love being with me, someone with hardly any luxuries. Wow,they appreciate all we have which is love.
I teach my son to be grateful by allowing him to help me weed out his old clothes that don’t fit. He knows that they go to someone else, and he helps me fold and picks out an old birthday bag of his to put it in.
I teach my girls to be grateful by thanking God for what we have daily and also teaching them that what we have now is really all we need! We also often give away different toys or clothes regularily!
We live in a very urban environment were it is not uncommon to pass several homeless individuals on our walk to our local park. It is pretty easy from your kids to be grateful for what they have when they see people that live without on a daily basis.
We make sure to talk about what we want and need. We talk to our little one about the things we have, the things we need, and how it is important to not be wasteful. We teach her that the resources on our planet are meant to provide for tons of people and that instead of focusing on things, we should focus on the time we have to enjoy each other. For her birthday, we gave out friendship bracelets and little toys.
I love teaching my kids lessons through books. Instead of nagging them and giving them a laundry lists of “you shoulds”, books can influence my children to make good decisions in a fun and non-threatening way. Gladys Barbieri’s book is a universal book which always sparks up a conversation in my house about wants and needs. With all the commercial pressures children face these days, Rubber Shoes: A Lesson in Gratitude is an important book to share with all children.
my baby is still small, (2 years) and learned to be thankful for the things you give, and to say please when he wants something, so we began to teach him to be grateful for the things you have.
wow! I need a story like this one right about now! I pray with my 4 yeard old daughter and almost 3 year old son every night for all the children in the world and their parents that do not have homes, food, health, and toys. I need to start looking into where I can involve her with age appropriate community service work.
I’ve been trying to teach my kids how to be grateful — it’s tough! This book would be great!
we made books and wrote and drew things we wanted to tell God thank You for.
Our children are always required to say “gracias” or ” thank you”. We directly remind them
And our daughter is especially good about her courtesies. When the kids don’t get what they want, we remind them of any positive factors surrounding the circumstances and remind them to say thank you for those things. Reminding them and requiring them to verbalized this gratitude actually impacts and molds their attitudes, calms them and refocuses them on contentment. Love the book recommendation. Michas gracias. Agredecida, Melissa
I love reading all the ideas. Thank you for sharing!
At the holidays, we take our kids shopping for their favorite snack foods. We then package up the foods and take them to the homeless shelter where they give them to the kids there. We like for our kids to meet the other kids and play with them as well.
At 4 months old, mi hijo is too young to grasp this concept just yet, but that doesn’t mean that my husband and I don’t model it! Much like children acquire language(s) by hearing it/them modeled and not by drilling grammar into their heads, I think one of the best ways to teach concepts like gratitude is to demonstrate it as part of your life so it becomes second nature.