Five Ways to Teach Your Kids to Give Back
Parents spend a lot of time teaching their kids right and wrong. Life often rolls along and some lessons are left off the agenda unfortunately.
One lesson that shouldn't be left off the agenda is teaching your kids to give back to their community. Here are five ways to teach your young ones why it's important to get involved and help others.
Make It Fun
Kids get bored quick. They need constant stimulation and activity to keep their little brains from wandering off. The last thing you want to do is make your charitable efforts feel like work. So why not make giving back fun?
Try to create activities that the kids love to do but also include a charitable component. Additionally, tell the them that for every dollar raised, tree planted or piece of garbage they pick up, you'll match their efforts.
Let Them Be Creative
We often end up telling our kids what to do. In this case, let the kids figure out for themselves what they'd like to give back. This way, the kids take ownership of the activity. This will give them a sense of pride and accomplishment, not to mention, make you a proud parent.
Involve Their Friends
Kids are more apt to get involved with activities when they are with their friends and other kids they know. So, why not ask your fellow parents if their kids could get involved and make the initiative a neighborhood cause and not just one for your household.
No Parachute Parents Allowed
While the kids will need some parental guidance, let them run the activity. Let them be the one to devise the plan, act on it and see what sort of impact they can have with their efforts.
Too much parenting — or helicopter parenting — may lessen the fun for the kids and make it more of "mom and dad's thing", not their own.
Show Them the Impact
At the end of the day, you're helping your children do a good thing. It's important to show them the impact they've had on others and put their efforts into perspective. This is a seed that, when planted, should motivate your kids to continue with these efforts as they get older, not to mention with their own family someday.
How do you teach your kids about giving back to the community?
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