Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids Hardcover – October 15, 2007

A friend of mine mentioned seeing Carol McCloud speak recently at her church. She told me the basic idea of her bucket filling philosophy and I was hooked. I make my living as a corporate entertainer and motivational speaker for corporate events. Corporations hire me to entertain and motivate their employees. I'm thrilled when I see a book like this that gets the message out to young children. If they take Carol's message throughout their life I think the world won't need to hire people like myself to motivate them. They'll already have their buckets full and be motivating themselves and others along the way! There goes my job in 20 years!!!!After ordering this book I sat my children down and read it to them. The wonderful illustrations by David Messing drew them right in, along with Carol's wonderful story / lesson. It's a story but so much more it teaches them to care for others and do the right thing. It quickly registered with my kids. You could almost see their brains working as the bucket theory kicked in. It's not religious based and there isn't a hidden agenda. It's a feel good, do good, be good kinda book!!! :) We've had this book in our home for a week or so now and my kids keep asking me to read it to them. They "get it" and are being great little bucket fillers. Sure beats the "Santa is watching you. You better be GOOD!" ploy we've been trying for years!I've already talked to the principal at my children's school and we hope to have Carol give a presentation there. Think the entire school would do leaps and bounds better if we had everyone trying to fill their buckets.Thanks Carol for putting out a wonderful book.John Pullum[...]

I actually found this book by accident. My mother needed a similar book, and I ordered the wrong title. When I received the book,I decided to keep it, thinking I would find a good use for the book. I found a great use for the book.I am a student assistance specialist, and my main job description is to provide services to elementary students for behavior intervention and prevention for academic success. I read this book with my students for various topics, such as: friendship, self-esteem, anger management, and social skills. After reading the book, I have the student make a bucket out of construction paper, design/color the front, and add the colorful strips. On the strips, I have the student write (or I write) one way he/she can fill a bucket or how someone has filled his/her bucket. I usually send home some blank strips so families can do it together.The students seem to like this book and especially have fun with the bucket.I enjoy reading the book and asking the question of my students, "have you filled a bucket today (or this week)? It is a fun book. It is a creative book. The message is simple yet meaningful. Young children can easily grasp the message and put it to use that day.

We bought this book for each of our Dads and Grandpas for Father's Day with a bucket filled with their favorite treats and goodies and a note about how they have filled our buckets. We read it to my 3-year-old and I was amazed that she understood the concept. After we read this book to her, her behavior was even better than it usually is. She would give out sincere compliments, hugs, help others without being asked and then would say, "You filled my bucket and I filled yours!" She loved learning how to fill others' buckets and she gets so excited when she does nice things for others. I am so surprised that people reviewed this book negatively. Granted, I do believe that we are each in charge of our own emotions and we choose how to feel and interpret others' actions; However, this book is so positive and gives children (and even adults) ideas on how to do nice things for others to "fill their buckets." What is bad about teaching children how to do nice things for others and not to bully? Even adults need to learn this concept too.I highly recommend this book and it makes a great gift for teachers, grandparents, etc.

What can I say about this book? So much! I was first introduced to this book when my daughter was in 2nd grade. I had the realization that some parents hate to get; my daughter was being a verbal bully! Oh the pains that hit my heart. How do you get a child to understand how bad their words hurt others when they can't physically see it. I struggled and cried and tried to get my daughter to understand what her words were doing. I was able to get through to her but it hadn't completely hit home. My daughters old Kindergarten teacher introduced this book to us. Oh mother of lifesavers! This book put everything into terms that my daughter could understand and there are printable activities online to help reinforce the message. With the help of this book and constant reinforcement (referencing the book) my daughter is no longer a verbal bully! Woohoo! This book is now my go to book when family or friends have little ones. P.S. some adults could do good by reading this book too :)

My 3 yr old is crazy about this book! I got this for him based on the rave reviews, and when it arrived I worried he wouldn’t be quite ready for it at his age. But I just explained the buckets were pretend, just a way to talk about feelings, and we’ve read it a dozen times already. He always wants to read it and pretend to fill each other’s buckets, and he’s really interested in how the one boy pushed another and emptied both of their buckets, and why we don’t push and we try to fill buckets by being nice. It’s such an incredible, effective lesson for kids on kindness! Even for the littlest ones, if they can understand make-believe and you can explain what’s happening each page, it’s fun and makes sense to them as a way to encourage their natural kindness early.