HomeParentMoms Teaching Charity to Our Children - From Mom's Point of View
Teaching Charity to Our Children - From Mom's Point of View
Teaching Charity to Our Children
By Laurie Neal of You Married Him
Here are some ideas to put the whole family in the charitable spirit.
'Adopt a Grandparent' and visit a local nursing home. Newborns and toddlers can come along to provide company and lots of hugs. Older children can read with the residents and put on plays or skits.
Volunteer to water or start a garden at a senior center.
Organize a food drive in your neighborhood. Even small children can help deliver and collect bags.
Many charities request local residents to send pledge sheets to the neighbors. Let the kids stamp, label and deliver the sheets.
Organize a toy, book or clothing drive. Have the kids chip in by donating some of their unused toys and outgrown clothing.
Help your children write letters and draw pictures to mail to the elderly or others in town who are not able to get out much.
Volunteer to read to the blind. Let older children read while the younger ones cuddle and turn pages.
Walk, brush, feed and clean pets at a rescue shelter.
Spend some time volunteering at a food kitchen. Let the kids help fix plates and clear the tables.
Work together to make baked goods as a donation to a church, community or charity fair.
Collect change and/or bottle return money to donate to charity.
Volunteer for Meals on Wheels and let the kids come along to help with deliveries.
Many shelters and food kitchens need drivers to pick up donations at markets and restaurants each day. Have the kids pitch in and help.
Teach a class together. Senior centers, YMCAs and women shelters are very receptive to the help. Computer and internet skills are always needed.
Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. Volunteers are need to build, paint, cook and serve food, watch children and much more. Sign up to receive Habitat's free newsletter for monthly updates.
Encourage your children to donate one item off their Christmas or birthday wish list to a less fortunate child.
Help your child donate a portion of his allowance and birthday money to the charity of his choice.
Before all giving occasions (holidays, birthdays, etc) clean out the toyboxes and help your children donate the less popular toys to Goodwill.
Instead of exchanging duplicate gifts - donate one of the items to charity.
Spend all or part of your holiday helping the Make A Wish Foundation or other charity make the day special for kids who wouldn't have a holiday celebration withouth them.
National Family Volunteer Day is sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation.
Dear Reader: You can help us make this website even better!
We'd love to hear your comments about this article! Scroll down to sound off! All of our articles and ideas have come from our imagination and from reader submissions. Please use this form to contact us if you have articles, crafts, activities, games, recipes, songs or poems that you would like to add to this website. Make sure to stop by our friendly forums too! Read more articles from moms in our section devoted just to them!
Webmasters and Authors:
We are looking for more "mom authors'! We will gladly include a link back to your site or book in exchange for sharing your content. Just contact us!
Make Sure to Visit These Related Links and Articles
One of our favorite holidays is Easter. We love the religious and non-religious alike. There is much joy to be had in spring and no matter how you celebrate, we are sure that you can find something for everyone in our Easter section. Click here to get started.
Each month we will feature new activities, letters, and themes. It is easy to make learning your ABC's fun with all of our letter themed activities. The letters featured this month are:
Subscribe now to get updated when we add new articles, activities, crafts, stories, fingerplays, parenting advice and more. You will be updated each time we add a new article to ChildFun. (This replaces our previous newsletters.) Click here to subscribe!
