Customer Reviews

How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
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Just bought this today on a trip over to Gallup University in Omaha. I read it to my kids tonight (daughter, 7 - son, 4). They both really liked it and we had a great little discussion about the meaning of buckets and how it feels to fill and spill your bucket and the buckets of others. They both understood it very well. I recommend it for kids of all ages. I bought one for my mom too - she's a very inspirational person, mother, teacher, grandmother. It makes a great gift. I'm thinking it will make a great teacher's gift for my daughter's teacher too!

I cannot even begin to describe the healing power of bucket filling in my own school. As an elementary school counselor, it's the #1 way I usually deal with kids when it comes to oh....EVERYTHING. I've taught this metaphor for years and it is built into our thinking and language. The kids use it for problem solving, bullying, friendship issues, home problems, helping others, expressing a need, describing their feelings, talking about a hurt and much more. Relationships are strengthened when students choose to live their lives by this philosophy.

I originally found out about bucket filling through author Carol McCloud's book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?. It's a neat picture book explaining just what is the business of "Bucket Filling." If you've been using this story (or even if you haven't) to explain this wonderful metaphor, then you ABSOLUTELY need How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids.

What makes this book so special is the focus is on a boy, Felix, and what happens to his bucket throughout his day. He wakes up in the morning with a pretty full bucket. But he spills the cereal and his mom scolds him. Ouch, hurt feelings. DRIP. I loved watching the students' reaction to that word. They hadn't heard bucket filling described that way. Felix gets to school and has a series of negative encounters with kids. DRIP. DRIP. All those positive feelings he started with start going away until his bucket is almost empty. '
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But then something happens to stop the DRIPS. Felix's teacher gives him a compliment. DROP. The class is supportive of him and praises his effort. DROP! He starts receiving compliments and acts of kindness from others as the school day continues. DROP! His bucket starts to fill back up with positive feelings.

Here comes my favorite part. '' Once his bucket is filled back up he looks around the playground and notices everyone else has one too....and a lot of them need filling. He now has a real understanding of how it works. And so will your kids! So Felix gets right to it by being kind and helpful. DROP! DROP! This time there are two drops. When he fills another person's bucket, he fills his own too.

The students were SO excited when they saw the cover. I've been reading it the first couple weeks of school so kids can remember to start filling others' buckets immediately. I plan on reading it again throughout the school year. This is one of those stories they like to hear over and over again. It is very well written, the illustrations are perfect, and it speaks to kids. They completely relate to Felix and the ups and downs of his day. Using the "drips" and "drops" as a way to describe positive and negative interactions was easily understood by the students. We've started putting our new discovered language to use! ''Bucket filling is a way of life in my school. I hope you do the same in your school and home.

Having read the full version of this great book, I brought the "Kids" version in the hope that my 10 & 12 year old daughters would derive similar learnings.

However, I found [as did they] that this "Kids" version is aimed more at much younger readers. The general consensus is that the appropriate definition of "Kids" for this book is from 4-8 years, and not much more.

Perhaps a third version could be edited to target the early teens, when adolescent minds are developing to a stage of greater appreciation for key learnings such as this.

Overall, a good book but not for young readers over the ages of say 8 years.

My children, 4 and 6, love it. They understand the concept of the bucket very well. When I asked them what it meant to have a full bucket, they knew that it was about feeling good. We can build on this story.

It is visual and teaches how the bucket gets filled not only by somebody making us feel good but also when we make others feel better.

This book has given us a shorthand at home to help our kids check in on whether they are being a bucket filler or bucket leaker with their actions. My 4 year old will catch herself filling someone's bucket and let me know. I love how conscious they have become about the effect of how they treat others through this engaging story.

I read this to my granddaughters and a couple of their friends. They have used the concept many times, and parents are thrilled. It is heart-warming to see a four year old give flowers to the other grandmother, so that it will "help fill her bucket!" So sweet. This is an excellent way to redirect beginning arguments, and prepare for back to school contacts! Love It!!

I'm a 35yr old Nursing student who read this book while doing a presentation on hand washing to 18 4yr olds. It really changed the way I talk & act every day...I wanna make sure to be a bucket filler!!! So I knew I had to get a copy for my kids. I also got the daily workbook that goes along with it.

I read this book to my class of third graders earlier this week after I had noticed an increase in arguments and spats between several of them during recess. While the story is geared towards younger kids, I used it to springboard a discussion about how treating others a certain way makes both them and us feel a certain way. The discussion was good and I even shared a recent example of how I had dipped into my mom's bucket during a discussion related to my upcoming wedding planning that showed them it is something we all do from time to time but the important thing is that we are aware of it and that we right our wrongs and strive to be a bucket filler! I followed up this discussion by reading Have You Filled a Bucket Today: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids by Carol McCloud which is a similar concept but goes more into specific ways that we can fill each others buckets. I think the analogies of the bucket helped my kids think more about the way they interact with each other. I would definitely recommend this book (and the other one) to use with kids third grade and under.

This is a great book to use as an incentive for rewarding good behavior, etc. After reading the book we made a bucket out of construction paper and attached it to the bulletin board and put slips of paper in when a good deed was done, or for good behavior and remembering to be polite, etc..At the end of the week we count and get rewarded such as picking out dessert or picking a movie whatever we decide upon.

This is a great book for kids, it simply illustrates feelings, and how to make others feel good...or bad. It's easy to use the language of the book after a few reads to reinforce the message...Tom are you emptying your sisters bucket? This is real world education, go for it.