What kind of volunteer work do/did your elementary aged kids do? (under 12yo or so)

[luuknam]

Just wondering.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Dd volunteered at the Y from when she was 10.

[kirstenhill]

Kids in our church can volunteer with younger kids starting at age 11, so DD is now helping out once a month with 3 and 4 year olds in Sunday school.

 

The kids have done meal packing, where various ingredients are packed up for meals that can be reconstituted in 3rd world countries to feed hungry kids (Feed My Starving Children is one organization, but I think there are a bunch that do this).

 

We've also done a number of things that the kids couldn't necessarily do by themselves, but we can do as a family or paired up one child/one adult - volunteering at neighborhood events (things like taking tickets at a both of a neighborhood event with homemade carnival games), being a race volunteer for a charity race (handing out water, helping stuff race bags, etc), with other families cleaning plaques at a park that honor veterans that died in the world wars, picking up trash in a park, helping senior citizens with yard work, etc. Our church looks for family volunteer opportunities for families to get out and serve in the community, so we've been informed of a number of opportunities that way that I might not have thought of on my own.

[Rachel]

My 7 year old goes with me to the food pantry, the minimum age for volunteers is 6.

 

My 5 year old has volunteered with me at a 5k race.

 

All three of my kids help when we cook meals for the Ronald McDonald House.

[poppy]

Through Girl Scouts my daughter has volunteered at road races (giving out waters), fairs (helping at a craft booth), the senior center (doing crafts with seniors, singing Christmas carols) and a few other places. This is a huge part of Scouts to me: opportunities for community service.

[6packofun]

We have helped sort through donated items at various ministry/charity organizations.  For example, a few local pregnancy crisis centers needed their BIG closet organized--it contains all of the diapers, clothing, formula, etc. that they give to the moms who need it.  Similar thing with another charity that helps out families in financial crisis.  A couple times we've delivered food and clothing together, but I can only do that when we have a decent vehicle and I won't take the kids with me into one or two really bad areas of town.  Our village is opening up an old Girl Scout campground and they need help with clearing trails and other stuff like that so we're going to volunteer for that.  Our library has allowed our younger ones to assist with some things, too.

[6packofun]

Oh, and you can always find a church that is doing Operation Christmas Child and offer to help pack the shoeboxes that get sent to kids all over the world!  :)  (If that's your kind of thing, of course. ;) )

[Tiberia]

Dd11 and I volunteer at the local Humane Society in the "Cat Room." I have to be with her until she's 15, but she does a great job socializing cats, helping customers, and keeping the room organized. They gave us a short training session, then we sign up as our schedule allows. We try to go once a week for about an hour. 

[bluemongoose]

christmas shoeboxes

collecting food for food drives

singing at assisted living places at christmas and easter

making presents (bracelets etc.) for needy kids

placing flags at memorial day

singing at a memorial day ceremony

cleaning up a pioneer grave site

picking up trash

making centerpieces for a community kitchen

making cards and care packages for servicemen

setting up chairs for an event

 

 

[Kiara.I]

My 7 year old goes with me to the food pantry, the minimum age for volunteers is 6.

 

My 5 year old has volunteered with me at a 5k race.

 

All three of my kids help when we cook meals for the Ronald McDonald House.

Can I ask how you make the food pantry work? Is like to do this with my oldest. And then, when he's familiar with it, I could take the next one along...

Did you arrange childcare for the younger two?

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[emzhengjiu]

Both of my daughters began volunteering at the zoo at 11 yo.  Also, both my girls are acolytes at our church.  Our youth group makes and serves dinner at a homeless shelter once per month.  They volunteer other places as well now, but many require kids to be older than 11.

[73349]

DS has picked up trash with me and helped me shop for and deliver school supplies, food, etc. He's done three charity fundraising walks with DH.

 

Our churches organize gleaning from farms, but we haven't done that yet.

[Dmmetler]

DD volunteers with a reptile education group, along with her pet ball python, Pinkie Py(thon). She gets to give presentations at schools and community events and talk about snakes to her heart's content.

[umsami]

My kids are slackers, pretty much.

 

They've done beach clean-ups with Scouts.  They've done canned food drives with Scouts.  That's about it.

[J-rap]

They did a lot with the local nursing home.  They would assist at special events/parties there (push wheel chairs, face painting, pass out cake and ice cream, etc.).  They also helped out with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers).

 

 

[annandatje]

They helped out with fostering dogs for various rescue groups and participated in various volunteer projects through Scouts and other organizations.

[Pink and Green Mom]

My younger son loves to help out in the concession stand of sporting events (because he hates sports and would rather make change than watch his brother play).

[catz]

We've done food shelf, food packing, sandwich making, nursing home visits, care package making for social justice organizations, park garbage pickups, charity hat making (with looms), etc

 

This website has good family friendly ideas on

http://www.doinggoodtogether.org/

[rebcoola]

We have had trouble finding oppurtunities for our younger sets but meals on wheels lets them come along, they knit hats for babies through our crisis pregnancy network, they collect shoes,their own  bake sale at church for a friends ministry, operation christmas child,  make and sell jewelry, hats scarves, hair bows on facebook auctions.  

[KungFuPanda]

At that age they mostly did projects with groups of kids. Things like performing at senior centers and visiting the residents, putting together packets for homeless people, care packages for troops, assembling casseroles for a local men's shelter, gathering yard sale items for charity sales, they made fleece tie blankets for something.

[kroe1]

Helping with dance and theatre classes and performing for community theaters. She also helped with backstage duties.

[poppy]

My 7 year old goes with me to the food pantry, the minimum age for volunteers is 6.

 

My 5 year old has volunteered with me at a 5k race.

 

All three of my kids help when we cook meals for the Ronald McDonald House.

 

Here our minimum age for food pantry is 14.  I don't know if a  younger kid would have the discretion necessary since he might families of kids in his class picking up the free food.

[ScoutTN]

Sort food at a food pantry

Park clean up day, trail maintenance, weed pulling.

Administrative help in children's ministry at church.

Singing at a nursing home.

Visiting veterans at the VA hospital.

Helping another family as a mother's helper with toddlers and preschoolers.

Taking an elderly neighbor's trash cans back to the house every week.

Christmas shoeboxes.

Help make and serve meals for Room in the Inn.

[katilac]

They did a lot with the local nursing home.  They would assist at special events/parties there (push wheel chairs, face painting, pass out cake and ice cream, etc.).  They also helped out with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers).

 

We have a senior citizens center right down the street from us, very easy walking distance. Not a nursing home, not an assisted living facility, just a center where they go to play card, take classes, and so on. They won't even let my 17-yr-old volunteer! They were very gracious and appreciative when she asked, but said that only 18 and up were allowed. Which is a shame, because they would probably wind up with all 4 of us pretty often. 

 

Here our minimum age for food pantry is 14.  I don't know if a  younger kid would have the discretion necessary since he might families of kids in his class picking up the free food.

 

Around here, the kids are just sorting and  packing up food. They are not going to see who picks it up, that is a completely separate area. 

[Lara in Colo]

We don't volunteer in a formal way, but I am a person that constantly is helping my neighbors and the children are part of that.  We help the older neighbors shovel their driveways in the winter, we gather their trash cans at the end of trash day, we watch their house while they are gone-- when one neighbor was feeling ill because of the heat, we bought them a window air conditioner.  We know where the dogs belong and try to return them if they get out.   If a neighbors yard isn't looking like their normal upkeep, we ask and offer to mow or rake or something.   Just stuff like that -- I few years ago I had to point stuff out to the children, now they point it out to me.

[sassenach]

We work the food bank that is hosted by our church about once a month. 

[bettyandbob]

my dd volunteered with my neighbor's guinea pig rescue group. 

 

I see kids volunteering at local historical sites as costumed docents. 

 

I see kids at water stations in road races. 

 

There is a local historical farm that has kids take weekly shifts for animal care (mostly for the chickens and ducks). Children under 12 have to have an adult with them to do a weekly shift. These are homeschoolers because the shifts are all mornings. 

[KrissiK]

My 11 year old son volunteers at a thrift shop one morning a week. He goes with my father-in-law who's been volunteering there for several years.

[Rachel]

Can I ask how you make the food pantry work? Is like to do this with my oldest. And then, when he's familiar with it, I could take the next one along...

Did you arrange childcare for the younger two?

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I have my husband to help with my younger kids, I only sign up for shifts when he's available.

 

The food pantry is the big distribution center for the area, they have set shifts for volunteers a couple nights a week and on Saturdays. In general kids can only help on Saturdays (depends on the age). The shifts are 3 or 4 hours long. You either sort canned goods or help break down bulk food like rice into smaller packages to be distributed. It just depends on what they need that day. It is hard work if you do the sorting, the weighing and measuring is fun. 6 is the minimum age to volunteer with a parent but I don't think all 6 year olds could handle the shift, it's a long time without a break. Our pantry has a website with lots of information for volunteers and there is also a coordinator I was able to email to ask questions.

[Rachel]

Here our minimum age for food pantry is 14. I don't know if a younger kid would have the discretion necessary since he might families of kids in his class picking up the free food.

This is at warehouse where donations are sorted. They don't let kids help with distribution.

[Wabi Sabi]

We don't currently, but we did volunteer at a local food pantry for a couple of years. The pantry has shelves like a grocery store that are kept stocked with whatever is available and people are giving bags to shop the shelves for themselves so that they take just what they'll actually use. Our job was to help stock the shelves, even when the pantry was open. We regularly saw people we knew in there shopping, but it was never a big deal with this particular food pantry. They also have community gardens, kids' cooking classes, gardening workshops, workshops on keeping chickens or making your own bread or home canning, etc that are open to anyone, so it wouldn't be unusual to see all sorts of people from the community in the pantry at any given time for various reasons. 

My oldest has had a lemonade stand (through the Lemonade Day group) and has donated the proceeds to charity. 

My youngest has solicited donations to buy a goat through Heifer International and is planning to trick or treat for Unicef this Halloween. 

As a family we have fostered kittens through the local animal shelter. 

 

[Jaz]

Operation Christmas Child

Feed My Starving Children

helping with projects at church

[Shellydon]

All 4 kids and myself volunteer weekly at a riding stable for kids with disabilities.  My older kids can lead/sidewalk and everyone cleans stalls, grooms horses etc.

[BooksandBoys]

My kids and their friends go to a local nursing home every month to play games with the residents, sing songs, and give hugs.

[jelbe5]

My children are older now, but some of the things we have done when they were younger (and continue to do):

 

Pack boxes for Operation Christmas Child

 

Pack food at Feed My Starving Children

 

Collect and donate food for the local food pantry

 

Collect toiletries and travel size items for kits for the homeless shelter

 

Visit shut ins and sing Christmas carols

[SKL]

We've helped pack food boxes for low-income families.  Planted trees at a national park.  Made crafts for Operation Christmas Child and for elderly people in nursing homes.  That's all I can think of off-hand.  These were done when my kids were ages 4-8.

[mamiof5]

We've done shoe boxes, feed my starving children, Christmas choir at church, Christmas shop for homeless folks, nursery homes, and a few more I can't remember

[KatieJ]

Our daughter helped out at story hour at the library when her younger brothers went.

[J-rap]

We have a senior citizens center right down the street from us, very easy walking distance. Not a nursing home, not an assisted living facility, just a center where they go to play card, take classes, and so on. They won't even let my 17-yr-old volunteer! They were very gracious and appreciative when she asked, but said that only 18 and up were allowed. Which is a shame, because they would probably wind up with all 4 of us pretty often. 

 

 

 

Wow, that is too bad!  You'd think they would welcome young people who are willing to help!

[ashfern]

They read books to the seniors in the "memory" ward of a local assisted living facility. It's really hard to find something for that age group. The only other thing I was able to find was reading books to the shelter animals. Since all kids have to volunteer to graduate from high school, most of the activities are reserved for the 16+ age group.

[Reefgazer]

Packed boxes of food for the needy, volunteered as an assistant in the church nursery, participated in a neighborhood garden clean-up, made sandwiches for a local homeless shelter.

[Susan in TN]

My kids go with me to a nursing home to throw a "once-a-month" birthday party for the residents. They help decorate, serve cake and punch, and talk to the residents. Sometimes they will make a craft to give them. Sometimes they bring a toy to show around or play balloon with them.

[Pam in CT]

All 4 kids and myself volunteer weekly at a riding stable for kids with disabilities.  My older kids can lead/sidewalk and everyone cleans stalls, grooms horses etc.

That is really cool.

 

Around here, the main food distribution center and all the local pantries I know of have certain hours that are just for intake & shelf organization (no contact with clients), and they permit families and school / scout groups to volunteer during those hours.  Even little kids get the hang of the basic tasks ("bring anything that looks like pasta from those bags and boxes over there, to me over here, and I'll stack it up on this high shelf... OK, now I'll come over to this section, and you bring me all the cereal boxes...")

 

We've done invasive plant removal for our local garden club and for the AMC when they were little as a family.

 

From about 12 onwards, they can find things to do independently -- my eldest volunteered from age 12 at a local nature center, helping with their camp in the mornings and with trail maintenance in the afternoon.  She also did an afternoon a week at a senior residence -- mostly playing card games and serving tea & cookies.  My middle volunteered at the local arts center, first with their summer day camp and later as a teen docent.  My youngest helped with story hour at the library over the summer.