Do you have any ideas for family service projects?

we've donated days doing yardwork for members in the ward - elderly, disabled, or young moms.....

surprise dinners for families

12 days of christmas idea for birthdays or other holidays.

food drive for shelters or food bank

When you go grocery shopping do the coupon thing (buy one get one, give the free one). Have a cookie sale. Make them and sell them in the community. Have a food drive (oodles of noodles pasta drive is so much fun). Have the children make 'jewelry' and sell it door to door.

Collect toothbrushes (check with the local dentists) and other personal care items for a domestic abuse shelter. Collect blankets (or make them with fleece) and donate to a homeless shelter. Read at the story hour at the library or at the waiting room at the hospital.

Our local food pantry enjoys families coming in and helping. We have them sort veggies (every age can do that).

Grow a garden in the summer time. You can 'plant a row' or just donate the surplus to the food pantry (or soup kitchen). It is again, something everyone in the family can do. Even a 2 year old can pick off potato bugs or pull weeds.

Kudos for wanting to teach your children! The need is great; the opportunities are endless.

I live in a care home, and many of the residents have been part of a program organized by the local church it's called adopt a gran. It simply involves young families like yours adopting one of the older residents as a surrogate grandparent once a month or so some who are shut in like having a visit by little nose-miners bearing maybe drawings to put up on the wall, or going for a walk in more clement weather, or maybe sharing cake and cookies or the kids do a puzzle with their "gran" or some such little thing.

It's kind of late now, but I'll tell you what we did for our kids before Christmas to try to emphasize the giving aspect. We noticed the same thing in our two 4 year olds; it was all about what they WANTED.

1) We went over the nativity story several times leading up to Christmas, emphasizing why we have Christmas and why we give gifts.

2) We made paper angels for each child that we hung on the Christmas tree. On each, the child wrote a gift that they wanted to give to Jesus, just like the wise men gave gifts to Jesus. Each child came up with their own, e.g., one boy said he was going to do his own prayers every day. We had to remind them because they kept forgetting, but that was a good thing because we ended up talking about it almost every day. (I cannot claim this idea as my own; I got it from the Friend).

3) We let them pick out their own gifts for each other member of the family, we let them do the wrapping (with help of course), and had them put the present under the tree themselves. On Christmas day, we let them physically give the gift they chose to the recipient and gave a lot of positive reinforcement.

4) We also do a "giving tree" in our congregation, and we let our kids participate. We went out and bought some toys for another family, and it was hard for our kids at first because they wanted those toys. But they finally understood what it was for; it was a good learning experience for them.

As one would expect with 4 year olds, their focus was still on what they received, but the above helped, particularly in their show of gratitude. I was also thinking that next year we would have them pick some of their old toys to give to the salvation army or something like that. I guess that's something one could do any time.

As far as family service projects, they may be too young for a homeless shelter, but that is always a great service project for youth. There are always a lot of local charities (food banks, bishop's storehouse, etc.) that are always looking for volunteers.

I think you're on the right track. Service is a remedy to so many ills.

Hi, I have a 2-year old also, as well as nieces and nephews that range from newborn to 8 years old. We also noticed this Christmas the lack of gratitude some of these kids had. So I applaud you for your efforts...

Now, here are some different ideas:

-Weeding a friend or neighbor's garden. (My 2-year old helps me with this)

-Raking leaves, shoveling snow or mowing lawns.

-Picking up doggie poop.

-Babysitting and/or Petsitting

-Picking up garbage, littler, debris. (My 2-year old does this also) We provide gloves or plastic bags, so that they are not physically touching things that are too gross or yucky.

-Baking cookies for someone (My 2-year old helps me add pre-measured ingredients to the bowl and helps me mix it.)

Some other ideas would include...

-Have a birthday party where the gifts received are donated to a children's hospital or to homeless shelters, etc... (Please make sure to notify guests and your child ahead of time)

-Have your children donate gently used toys or clothing.

-Have your child do chores to earn money to donate to a charity. It is especially helpful if they pick out where the money is going to (A local animal shelter, elderly, church, etc)

Good grief!! The gun toting duck didn't leave much room for any additional thoughts. LOL

My first thought was about nursing homes. I used to love taking flowers into the nursing homes and see the faces light up. One time I went in with a nice bouquet of flowers to be given to a lady I visited on a monthly basis. As I passed another inmate (patient/resident) she exclaimed "those are beautiful! Who are they for? I asked her name and when she told me, I said that they were for her. Don't tell anyone that I lied. The joy in seeing that lovely little lady light up cannot be compared.

Even a single flower does wonders. Sometimes I would take in a whole bouquet and give single flowers to different 'inmates.' If you were to have your children with you to pass out the flowers it would have a double impact. We elderly types love little children and babies.

Staying with the nursing home idea, another service I found to bring joy to the lovely people that live therein was to read stories to them. It still brings a smile to my face when I think of the time that I read the story about Rapunzel (did I spell that correctly?) to a small group of ladies. These little service projects can be done in any weather or season.

Living near the Pacific Ocean, the local annual beach cleanup is the first thing that came to mind. So, if you're planning a summer vacation, contact a chamber of commerce at your destination and find out when you can contribute just a few hours to the local beach or park cleanup and schedule accordingly.

Good idea!

There are many ideas out there, you might try:

Shoveling other people's driveways

Cooking Dinner(s) for the elderly

Go to a park and pick up garbage

Mow Lawns

Help someone carry groceries to the car

It goes on and on!

Good luck

At Christmas time, you could anonymously do the 12 days of Christmas and be a secret Santa for a needy family in your area. Have the kids help you shop for, wrap, and deliver the gifts. We did that this year and my kids loved it. They had a hard time at first with the idea that the things they picked out weren't for them, but once they got used to it, they were really excited about how happy they were making the other family (the other family has kids the same age as mine).

If you're in an area where it snows, you could have them help you shovel the walks/driveway for someone who isn't as able to (like a single mom or someone who is disabled or elderly or something). They sell little snow shovels that the little one could at least play with while you shovel.

Once it warms up a little, you could have them help you plant a flower garden somewhere. This is especially nice if it's in a public place. Sometimes a city will let you have a strip of land next to a sidewalk or a flower bed in front of the public offices, etc. You could also offer to do it at a nursing home if they'll let you. Have them help you care for it throughout the summer and keep it pretty for everyone else.

Mowing lawns for other people is always a good one especially if it's someone who has a hard time doing it themselves (again, think single/young moms, disabled, elderly, etc). Raking leaves in the fall sort of falls into the same category.

Not sure how able you are to do this, but you could offer date nights to some of the parents in your area where your 9 and 7 year old are primarily responsible for caring for the children, but you're there to supervise and help them. Parents always love free date nights.

Back on the people who can't do things for themselves, you could observe (or ask) and see if there are any repairs needed on the homes of some of these people that you're able to do, like hanging pictures for them, repairing holes in walls, resetting rocks in their flower beds, etc. Depending on the job, it might just be time consuming or involve a lot of bending, and bending is something little ones are really good at. Weeding other peoples' gardens can be a good service as well.

You could offer to wash someone's cars for them.

I'd be over the moon if someone randomly offered to make my family dinner one night so I didn't need to worry about it. By the time I get home from work at night, I rarely feel like cooking. I usually do, but it's not particularly enjoyable for me because I want some time to sit and unwind. If I got home and dinner was ready, I'd love that. You could have the kids help you prepare a dinner for someone who's really busy that you know (get their permission first) and deliver it to them. The 2 year old could help you stir things, sprinkle cheese over the top of things, etc. Toddlers are really good at helping with things like that.

Offer to do laundry for one of those busy working moms or disabled people. Laundry tends to be a really tedious task for many people, and even just not having to wait through changing it over, lugging it back to the bedrooms, etc. can be a relief.

OOh...while I'm thinking about nursing homes, depending on which one it is, sometimes they'll let you "adopt" them and come visit the residents on a regular basis. It can be really pleasurable for the people who have to live there to have young people around again. Having the kids draw them pictures, play music for them, sing, read stories with them, etc, can really raise the spirits.

I'm sure I'll think of more. I'll let you know if I do.

Edited to add:

For the holiday things, you could consider making a holiday meal and offering it for someone who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford one. I see that a lot on Craigslist here and I think it's a sweet gesture.

great. We're retired and we like to do something every week and its tough to especially in the cold weather

start:

1. soldiers-gift cards/telephone cards

2. churches-painting/homeless/making signs/banners

3. county-homeless shelters

4. organized - habitat for humanity etc

List is endless

We're going to Berkley springs wv on a week long mission this summer.