At-Home Service Projects Your Whole Family Will Enjoy

Part of parenting is promoting values and ways to uphold those values. Part of upholding values is promoting concepts within the community. To do this as a family is a great way to encourage your children to be a part of something that they can be proud of. Depending on what it is your family takes an interest in, it may even be a great way to help those that are less fortunate than your own family. Making service projects is a great way to do this and is a productive way to spend family fun night, especially during the winter season.

Decide on a project. What is it your family wants to get involved in? Is your community having economic issues that mean you can help out families that need help? Do you want to teach your children how every family helps out during war time by sending packages over seas? Do you want to promote literacy or maybe adult learning? Before you begin any service project, be sure to make one of your family fun nights a planning night so that as a family you can all decide what it is you would like to promote or help out with. Below are some suggestions.

Make candy packages for a soup kitchen, children's home or even a nursing home. To do this, you simply melt chocolate, then put it into small molds. When the chocolate hardens, place a few pieces in colored tissue paper and wrap with a ribbon. This was a particularly fun project in my own home and led me to see an entirely new side of my son's generosity as we planned to hand them out to family members at a public place. Though my son did give some to family members, he also randomly handed them to people that he thought "could use a smile" during the holiday season.

Send fun thank you packages to service members. Make your family fun night one that can be shared with others. The family can write brief "thank you" notes to service members, then put together individual packages filled with cards, dice, joke books and other fun things. Take the packages to your nearest Veteran's Administration, American Legion or VFW so that they can help you decide exactly where to send them.

Put together a routine for a nursing home. Many nursing homes welcome visitors who want to brighten up the day. Family fun night can be made into rehearsals for a comedy show, musical or play. Contact a nursing home of your choice to learn about interests and time constraints so that you can plan your family service project within those constraints. Give the whole family a chance to show off their skills by basing the routine on what your family has to offer.

Make jewelry for those less fortunate. Some people are lucky to have a place to sleep on Christmas, much less any presents to open. Your winter family fun can involve making bracelets or necklaces out of beads or embroidery thread so that your family can give someone something to smile about on Christmas morning. Take the jewelry to the nearest homeless shelter to hand out to their residents.

Winter family fun can be more than just getting together to play games and enjoy each other's company. Though these are necessary to any family, nights like these can benefit the community as well. Teach your children about responsibility to their community by turning your family fun night into a service project night that can benefit those that may need it most.