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The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas always brings out the charitable side of people. They open their wallets for the Salvation Army bell ringers, donate food during food drives, or finally give that pile of clothes to the local Goodwill. But it's also a good time to get your kids involved in the giving spirit. Teaching them to be charitable during the holidays is a great starting point for year-round charity and volunteering.
Brian at www.mourningconstitution.com picks one charity every year that he focuses on for his charitable giving. This idea is great for kids. Not only does it afford kids the opportunity to pick a charity that they're interested in, it gives them the chance to really focus their energies on helping out that one charity. As with adults, too many options is just confusing.
Once your child (with your assistance, depending upon her age) has picked an organization or charity, encourage him or her to think about all of the different ways she can contribute. Thriftyfamilyfun.com has some great ideas for helping needy families at Christmas and volunteering year-round as well. If she's too young to walk dogs, she can collect blankets to donate to the animal shelter. If she has extra toys that she's not using, she can donate them to Second Chance toys (the recycling of plastic toys also helps the environment... a double bonus). If he likes to draw, he can make "snack bags" for children living in a shelter. If he does want to contribute money, encourage your child to think about the ways he can raise that money. Teaching them to think about ways to help works on their creativity and critical thinking skills.
The most important influence in encouraging a child to give back is us. Including our kids in our charitable giving by volunteering as a family, encouraging the child's interests, or just explaining why volunteering is important, we have a positive impact on their self-esteem, achievement, and life choices. And it's definitely a good way to spend some good quality time together.
For a list of volunteer opportunities in Delaware, visit http://www.1-800-volunteer.org/1800Vol/volunteerdelaware/vcindex.do
For more information on Second Chance Toys, visit http://secondchancetoys.typepad.com
For more inexpensive ways to encourage a child to volunteer, visit http://thriftyfun.com and type "helping a needy family" in the search bar.
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