Have you filled a bucket today?
Are you familiar with being a bucket filler? Maybe you’ve heard about the 5 Love Languages and how “love tanks” need to be filled up. Many children are familiar with the bucket filler book because they’ve been introduced in classrooms, but it may be a new concept to you as a mom. We love the Bucket Filling concept so much that this poster (below) hangs in our kitchen. We’ve read the books and use the terminology of “bucket fillers” and “bucket dippers” frequently in our home. Are you reading to learn how to become a Bucket Filling Family?
The short description: Giving Love Fills Buckets…. How Full is Your Bucket?
Bucket Filler Questions To Ask:
- What fills your bucket?
- Are you a bucket dipper or a bucket filler?
- How are you protecting your bucket?
- How can you fill up someone else’s bucket?
What is a Bucket Filler?
Through the book How Full is Your Bucket?, we learned that everyone has an invisible bucket hanging over their heads. It’s filled with all of your good thoughts and feelings. You feel happy when your bucket is full and you feel sad when your bucket is empty. You can fill a bucket when you do something kind for someone or make someone feel special. There are bucket dippers too, someone who does mean things or acts like a bully.
Someone who does good things for others fills buckets, but also fills their own bucket. But, you never feel good when you dip from someone else’s bucket. Children must be taught how to love others. Children who learn how to express love and kindness, often lead happier lives.
Someone who does good things for others fills buckets, but also fills their own bucket.
When your bucket is FULL, you are able to spread love and kindness to others. Isn’t this what we all wish for in our homes? The same is true for moms and dads too. Running with an empty bucket or love tank, makes everyone miserable!
Bucket Filler Books and Resources
(Amazon Affiliate)
How Full is Your Bucket? by Rath and Reckmeyer (picture book)
Have you Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud (picture book)
Fill a Bucket: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Young Children (picture book)
Growing Up with a Bucket Full of Happiness: Three Rules for a Happier Life by Carol McLoud (chapter style)
Bucket Filler t-shirt (click here)
Our Bucket Filling Story:
We were having a sad after school experience… the day was going well, but the bus ride home was rough. The kids were getting in trouble and yelled at by the bus driver, it was very noisy and chaotic. Needless to say, I had a child walking through the front door with an empty bucket. Kerry pointed us to Growing Up With a Bucket Full of Happiness book, we learned that you could put a lid on your bucket. Novel concept! This was a game changer for us. You can protect your good thoughts and feelings by putting a lid on your bucket. For my child, this meant when everyone was getting in trouble on the bus he could put his “invisible lid” on his bucket. He wanted to be a Bucket Filler, not a Bucket Dipper.
Love Languages v Bucket Fillers
How does Bucket Filling tie in with the Five Love Languages?
I feel that the way we show love towards someone is by speaking their specific love language (touch, service, words of affirmation, quality time, and gifts). They are all outlined for you in this post, click here.
Create a How to fill a bucket? Chart
Mom Note: This is not in the book, but I’ve used this concept a few times.
“You can also poke holes in your own bucket. Every time you forget to use manners or are disrespectful, it pokes tiny hole in your own bucket. Not only are you dipping from someone else’s bucket, but it also makes you feel bad.”
When we work so hard to build our children’s self esteem, it can be frustrating to see the good stuff “leaking” out!
After learning about our buckets and reflecting on all of the good stuff, we decided to make a chart for our house. We can think of many ways to be a bucket dipper, but we decided to focus on the positive!
What does a Bucket Filler look like, sounds like and feel like?
Mom Tip for Creating a Chart:
- I just scribbled our notes onto a piece of paper for our rough draft.
- Then copied them over to a piece of construction paper that could hang up on our kitchen cabinet.
- I traced the bucket out of one of the books.
- I then added the Bible verse.
These books are a must read for every member of your family. Parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, grandparents – gather together and be a BUCKET FILLING Family!
Click here for more helpful parenting resources…
Consequences Chart for Toddlers to Teens
We love the bucket filling books and I love the visual you added a long with it for the kids to see. Super encouraging! Thank you for writing and posting it!
Thanks for the great idea. We need this at our house right now, not only the idea to help others, but also the idea to fill our own buckets. I love that you have both included as important here. I’m trying an adaptation of this out with my family this month and put a link to it on my blog.
I love this concept and visual reminders! Thank you for posting!
My 4 year old and I love the bucket filling philosophy. I adore the visual you created. Is there any chance you’d create a PDF file for mom’s like me, who have no artistic inclination or talent, but would love to have this framed in their home for their children to see?