Volunteer Work for My 5 Year Old

Maybe instead of volunteering, you can donate. Weed through her toys, and let her pick out some that she is willing to give away to another little girl who doesn't get to have a _____ (dolly, teddy, whatever) because they don't have enough money.

My suggestions: care packages to soldiers, or sponsor a child from Compassion International or some similar organization.

One lovely thing to consider about volunteer work is that it only matters if the child *chooses* to volunteer. And that the opportunity be age-appropriate to your child's level of understanding.

Several people have posted here in the past asking questions on this subject. I would look into some low-key community based projects, like growing seeds to start plants for families who would like to grow their own food but are not financially able to get started. Our city has a group called "Growing Gardens" that does this, and my son's preschool has the children planting seeds for this organization. The flats of plants are then taken away, after becoming beautiful, viable plants.

A neighborhood clean-up walk together is also good. She can wear kid gardening gloves and help you pick up paper trash and non-sharps refuse. Then you can talk about it later, how nice things look. If your neighborhood is tidy, hit a park and do the same.

Or perhaps you could organize a garage/bake sale with proceeds going to your local homeless shelter, or the victims of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan, or those devastated by the recent storms in the South. She could look through her toys and decide to donate some for the sale. She could help with the baking, which would be fun for her, and the sale, as she could. This is an all-around win/win idea, in my book.

It's my experience, however, that children don't always learn the lessons we want them to learn until they are older. Storybooks about the value of charity and kindness ("Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters" by John Steptoe is a great one for children this age, and any of the books by Demi) are very informative. We also want to help our children gently become aware of life's inequalities while not leaving them feeling helpless because they really can't fix it. I also caution against children volunteering at shelters/feeding unless you know the environment. I worked for a while with a mobile soup kitchen, as well as some other more stationary hunger projects, and there can be people affected with serious mental health issues. So, keep it safe and low-key, and let her grow into this understanding as she matures.

I like the idea of letting her help choose some gently used toys and clothes she's outgrown or no longer uses to donate to charity. Another possibility is to have her help you shop for items for the local food shelf and then she can join you in dropping them off. I know our local food shelves are really struggling this year. My boys have way too much stuff and I always include them in selecting items for the "donate bag" and make it clear that we are donating it to those who have much less than they do.

I don't ever think you are too young to begin trying to teach this stuff, so good job, Mama! Have you thought about an assisted living facility? She could play games with the residents, and while they aren't her age, you could still talk about how hard it must be for them to live there (pick one that isn't particularly nice). My son has gone with me (he is 4) and always enjoys himself.

I don't know if you live near any big cities, but my aunt used to take her kids (ages 6, 4, and 1) in to D.C. where the homeless people hung out and hand out brown bag lunches they made earlier in the day. My cousins loved giving them out, and it taught them how blessed they were to have food in their bellies!

Finally, what if she helps at the local food pantry? I don't know how young they allow kids at yours, but ours will take anyone who is willing to help out. Again, just to show her that not everyone has food to eat may begin to open her eyes to what others have/don't have.

Good luck!

I saw Maria Shriver talk about how her mother taught them charity. One night per week they had cereal for dinner. They put the money they would've spent on dinner in a jar. Once the jar reached a certain amount they would give it to a charity. I believe she said they each took turns researching and deciding which charity to give it to. They did this thier whole lives, so, that was instilled in them since they were babies.

Not so sure she will get it at this age. I am not sure where you would even
go. Cannot go to a soup kitchen, too young. Too young for hospital. She
will learn from watching you volunteering as she gets older.

Why don't you volunteer somewhere where your daughter can go with you. Every year I work with Santa's Helpers and my daughter goes with me sometimes. She has since she was six. Seeing what little some people get for Christmas really made an impact on her. No it did not ruin her idea of Santa either.

I would highly recommend Greater Lewisville Cares. This is a local organization that offers a number of volunteer opportunities for families in our area. They work with a variety of community service agencies to find out what volunteer needs they have, then publish opportunities in their monthly calendar which is sent to all GLC members.

Members can pick and choose what projects fit their schedule and areas of interest. These projects do not involve long time commitments and are ideal for busy working individuals, families, or others who need greater flexibility in their service activities.

Some projects you might see on their monthly calendar include:
* Helping clients at checkout in the CCA pantry
* Lending a hand at special holiday programs such as distributing holiday food baskets or working with area toy drives
* Putting together family packets or cleaning toys for the Children’s Advocacy Center of Denton County
* Cheering on Special Olympics of North Texas athletes
* Playing bingo, celebrating birthdays or providing music at an assisted living center
* Assisting local animal rescues
* Delivering Meals on Wheels
* Serving a meal at a local soup kitchen

These are just some of the many different types of projects offered each month.

It looks like they have two new-volunteer orientations coming up soon:
May 12, 2011 @ 7:00 pm
June 09, 2011 @ 7:00 pm

Location: Texas New Mexico Power Company, 577 Garden Ridge Blvd., Lewisville

URL: http://www.greaterlewisvillecares.org

Good luck!
www.familyeguide.com
Your online resource of family activities in
Lewisville, Flower Mound & the surrounding cities.

I was looking for something similar recently (to do with my son) and found a local agency that needed volunteers to shop and run errands for and/or with seniors. I e-mailed the contact listed and she said they had no problems with kids being along but I haven't pursued it further yet. Good Luck!

I don't know why people keep saying that she's not going to get it this age. It doesn't make sense to me. Does she need to know the exact definition of "Charity" or "volunteering"? No. Can she learn that no matter what her age or station in life, she can help in whatever way she is able? Absolutely! Will she learn by your example of volunteering? No doubt about it. Is it important for her to know that the life she lives isn't the norm for other children and people in the world? Imperative.

Call a local nursing home and see if you're able to visit with the residents during a meal time. They love small children there! And many of them are lonely. If you call in advance, the staff will be able to tell you which residents would benefit from a visit.

I think the neighborhood walk to pick up trash that another poster mentioned is a fantastic idea (easy to do and requires little preparation on your part).

At Christmastime, there's a great program through Samaritan's purse called Operation Shoebox. Basically, you fill up a shoebox of age-appropriate toys, schools supplies and toiletries to send to a child in a third world country. If it doesn't bother you that it is religiously affiliated, it's a great program to get kids involved. She gets to pick out toys to send to another child somewhere else in the world. It really helps them gain perspective. A lot of churches and non-profits start to host this program in late-October.

Maybe the two of you could host a neighborhood bake sale or lemonade stand and donate the funds to an organization, like the Red Cross, that's helping the tornado victims in Alabama.

It's not about making her feel an obligation to volunteerism as much as it is showing her that there is a world outside of the one she lives in (and seems to be the center of) and that she can be a part of making it better.

Note after posting: How could I forget about putting together a package for a military member? I'm a former Army wife *hangs head in shame* Seriously, a small package with a picture and a letter of thanks goes a long way to a deployed soldier. It's an opportunity for you to explain what service to our country looks like and an opportunity for your child to help a soldier remember what he/she's fighting for (especially if the tour has been a long and difficult one).

How about volunteering at your local SPCA for a few hours.
Call them and ask if/when that could happen.
How about taking her to a convelescent (sp?) home to bring cheer with your visit to the elderly that are home-bound there?
Call ahead and ask them when that might be possible.
I think that's a great way to spread cheer and teach valuable lessons of compassion especially in this day and age.
Good for you!
Oh and you can ask them to go through their toys to pull out any gently used, no longer loved toys to donate to Goodwill.
And....certain times of the year they do toy drives for kids, food drives at the grocery store etc.

I'm not in Flower Mound, so I don't what is closest to your home and how far you are willing to drive. I've done this with my Son and he loved it. We go to a United Methodist Church and we have a Mission that helps the homeless. We would bring some of his toys and clothes and take the toys to the toy area/shelves where the toys go. I would organize the toy shelves and group items together and make it more presentable and easier for people to find things they are looking for. My Son was the "toy tester", he actually played some with the toys, which was OK, cause you want the toys to work. I would have him take the pieces that were missing other pieces or broken,etc.. and put them in the trash. Both of us would have fun, it was something we could do together and feel good about helping out the homeless. I would talk to him about the homeless and the kids and that they don't have many toys like you do or many books or clothes,etc... Our mission has a "store" for them to come and shop and get what they need to help them. There's an area for kids clothing, kids toys/books, misc.. home items, suits/work attire, bedding/linens,etc...

You might want to check out churches-various ones that might have a Mission or something similiar to the church we are members of and do something similiar.
If your child loves animals, you can volunteer at the Animal Shelter and walk dogs and bring newspapers for the dogs or toys,etc.. or other things the shelter would like help with.
Churches do have a lot of areas where you can volunteer. If you have a church home, you can ask around for ways to volunteer at the church. The Children's Ministry area may have closets that need to be organized or cleaned out and sorted thru,etc.. Your local library may need assistance in areas, so you could check with your library. There many places that you could volunteer. Good luck and have fun!

I signed up for www.VolunteerMatch.org. It lists various different volunteer opportunities in the area and beyond. Next to each description it states age requirements. There are a lot of things that the kids need to be teens, but there are other oppurtunities as well. My girls and I signed up through VolunteerMatch to work the Mudrun a few weeks ago. I also signed up their dance class to go perform for an assisted living facility.

Your daughter is not too young to volunteer nor is she too young to understand it. My girls (who just turned 9) have been involved in volunteer work for years. They also go on my father's Meels on Wheels route with him when they visit him in Michigan.

My neighborhood association does a community clean-up in which families go out picking up refuse. You may want to contact your neighborhood association to see if they do anything like that. If not, then you can suggest it.

Oh- and we are also going to go to the senior center and my daughters are going to help with bingo. We haven't done it yet, but we are signed up to do it soon.

There is so much you can do to help and I think it's important to teach our kids that sometimes you just do things for other people because you want to help. There doesn't always have to be something in it for you. Actually, you do get something out of it. The feeling that money just cannot buy.

How about volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House? When my daughter was going through having a heart transplant, every night different groups or families would come in and prepare a meal for the residents there. It would be a good way for her to see how lucky she is, because the kids she would be volunteering her time for would be kids mostly recovering for Cancer, and some other life-threatening conditions mixed in. Once you see this, you feel truly blessed. Another thing kids did while we were staying there is make cards or leave any kind of item like little stuffed animals, blankets, etc for each child - it really made each child feel special. Volunteering and getting the picture that sometimes others get the short end of the stick in life might sink in with her well if its other children she is helping. Good for you for starting her on this so young! I am with you and feel it is so important! Right now I'm working with my 6 year old on recycling and other ways to keep our world beautiful :)

Good for you!! I think that is a wonderful idea, just wanted to give you some kuddos for trying to raise a well-rounded, compassionate little girl.

This isn't exactly volunteering, but at that age it teaches empathy: donate her gently-used toys and books to a women/children's shelter. Or, the next time she has a birthday party, suggest that the guests bring canned food instead of gifts, and donate the food to the food bank together. I have always done this with my daughters and I believe they do have empathy for those less fortunate. As they grow older and more capable, I hope they will want to volunteer in the community with me, but for now when they are so young, I think teaching them to be considerate of less fortunate people, and not to view themselves as better because they have more money, is a great place to start.

Mission Arlington. All throughout the year for different holidays they allow the Kingergarten -highschool children to help them. Example: Easter - they let the kids fill eggs for the huge easter egg hunt they do. Christmas - they will let the kids help sort/stack/etc. the gifts and toys they receive for the family give away for those less fortunate.

Also, (I didn't read the post) you could pick a name from one of the giving trees around the area and tell her that instead of buying her "x" number of gifts each holiday that you will donate a gift to a child less fortunate. Let her pick it out and wrap it.