if you have children that love dogs, go to a shelter and volunteer to walk them. A little cleanup help is good too.

it’s fun and it gets the “wiggles” out.

FWIW — we’ve found that charities involving animals were especially popular for the young ones [i.e. buying doggie treats for the local shelter, etc.] You can expand the list to more complicated areas as they get older.

I also like it when we live in a larger city with a more international population. We’ve volunteered (well, more befriended, it was nothing official) with refugee families to help them with English and will do that again in a few weeks when we finally live in a city where a few people don’t speak English. We will also be officially volunteering with international students. I also think it’s worthwhile for parents to do service projects on their own and let their children know what they are doing and that the children will be able to participate when they are older. In fact, volunteering in an orphanage was the only time I’ve ever had a regular babysitter take care of my children and I’d do it again.

It is hard to find traditional places to volunteer with small children and you do have to be more creative.

I’ve involved our kids in my own service projects, even if it amounts simply to their driving around with me.

Two Costcos gave me all of the turkeys they hadn’t sold by December 23, plus all of the employee-gift turkeys the employees didn’t want. There were about 60 altogether. We gave some to local (non-Mormon) churches to distribute, and gathered addresses from extended family of people they knew who would appreciate a turkey. After several hours of driving around we still had at least 20 turkeys we hadn’t placed, we decided to go to a poorer part of Salt Lake, parking at a Big Lots, and asking the people leaving if they’d like a free Christmas turkey. Many of them were immigrants, and all of them expressed more appreciation than did the people we’d taken the turkeys to directly. My guess is that the people we’d taken the turkeys to directly felt a little embarrassed that we’d singled them out, whereas people leaving Big Lots didn’t feel like they were a charity case. Anyway, my kids thought it was fun to give stuff away, and learned that phone calls and leg work can put something together. Do it with your family! Call your Costco manager in November if you want to try it where you live. (Just don’t call the Salt Lake ones on 5300 and 10600 South. They’re mine!)

Our kids have also received permission from their school teachers to place a box in the classroom and solicit donations from their classmates. (Stuffed animals in one case, school supplies in the other.) It was for Iraqi children, through Operation Give.

When my daughter was 9 she did a neighborhood bake sale. She baked a bunch of different kinds of cookies and we all went with her to sell them to our neighbors. She used the $ to buy small distraction items for kids getting chemo treatments at our local hospital. We went as a family to pick out the items (the hospital gave us a list of suggestions) and deliver them to the hospital (we weren’t permitted to interact with the patients, because of infection concerns). The event was such a success that wedid it the next year (this time we bought toys for the family homeless shelter).

We do “angel tree” gifts at Christmas–the kids do extra chores to earn $ for the gifts. One year my daughter sold cookie dough to raise $.

We’ve done baby blankets for the Humanitarian Service Center–the kids pick out fabric and push the pedal on the sewing machine. (My older kids can sew seams as well).

We have a mason jar on our kitchen windowsill where we collect change for a Guatamalan orphan boy. His picture is on the front. The kids are encouraged to contribute when they get their allowances.

My kids 8 and older are encouraged to make small contributions to our family fast offering (they get their allowances on the Saturday before Fast Sunday, so this makes it easy).

They’ve written their testimonies in copies of the Book of Mormon and have handed them out to teachers, etc.

I didn’t have kids when I went to the orientation, but I remember their making clear that some projects were very family-appropriate. The site has links to all sorts of actual local organizations under their umbrella. I keep meaning to go to an orientation, so thanks for getting me motivated again. It seems like a great way to perform service in the greater community.

My kids hlps me pick out or make treats for people who don’t feel well or need a visit.

Assuming your kids are cold and flu free, many dialysis or chemo patients really light up at having kids to interact with (same goes for any hospital wards or nursing homes).

I am sure your kids already Visit Teach with you on occassion.