Learning How to be a Community Leader Together: Service Projects for Kids

Service Project Ideas for kids to get involved in the Community

Michelle from Life is my Lemonade is guest posting today.Today, she shares her reluctant adventures in teaching a child how to be a community leader. Michelle and I met in college where we pledged Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. Needless to say, we've known each other awhile. Michelle also helps out with Pinterest account management. (Psst... Michelle's a little shy.) Here are some great ideas for service projects for your kids. Enjoy!

Race for the Cure 2011 

What do you do when your child says I’m bored? I decided to take a page out of my family’s book and take her on a new adventure.  It started when she was old enough to put groceries away.  I took her to the food pantry to help put groceries away on the shelves and explained why we were helping out. Over the years, this evolved into working to bag up the bags for Saturday openings. Then, she asked if she could help out on Saturday’s when the pantry was open. She wanted to be able to work directly with the people that came into the food pantry and help them out to their cars. Aww!  That was a great idea so we stepped into the rotation and did a Saturday morning every once in awhile. 

Helping out at a food pantry doesn't mean just donating items.

I’m proud of how she stepped up and asked for more time with the people that came in. Her Grandpa would be proud of her. She didn't get to know him because he died from Leukemia a few years before she was born. One of the proudest memories I have is of his funeral, there were so many people there that came up to me and explained how they knew him. He had helped them throughout the years. He gave so many pints of blood I can’t even tell you what level he was at. He also was an EMT for many years, picked up people who needed transportation to doctor’s visits and church.  He and my mom both volunteered for numerous committees.  

When those people that he has touched came to show respect it made an unbearable day better. I was proud to know that he had done so much for others. Those are the moments I share with my daughter now. I am hoping that she will be able to say that she is proud of me for giving back as well. 

Here are some of the things we do or plan to do when she says she is bored:

Race for the Cure –whenever we can to support my Aunt who is a survivor and the friends we have lost. Relay for Life-again whenever we can to remember my dad and find a cure.

Sheltering Wings-This is a local domestic violence shelter that helped me out.  We have done many projects from planting flowers around their building, donating money, going to their various fundraising events, donating items for the silent auctions, earrings for the kids to give their Moms on Mother’s Day, numerous sweet treats just because and most recently Megan has written and received grants to help provide pre-school supplies for their new pre-school classroom and make up Birthday boxes for the kids. 

Yep, she really did the work on writing the grants. It’s one of the requirements for the grant because it is a Youth as Resources grant from United Way. Parents can assist but the kids are on the ones that write it up and give the presentation. When she was younger I helped out with the grant writing, but now that she is a teen it’s all her and her Girl Scout troop. 

Pinterest idea turned into a warm welcome treat for Sheltering Wings

Pre-school supplies purchased with Grant monies

So, while Megan is learning to help out in the community she is having a good time and getting great experience. She donated time at the shelter to babysit and play games with the kids. She learned that she likes to babysit, and she can earn money when she’s not donating her time.

Another bonus to helping out in the community is that she is setting goals:

• Goal #1 earn the Bronze award for Girl Scouts. Happy to say that’s checked off, She earned her bronze award with a book drive and building a bookcase for the shelter.

• Goal #2 the Silver award for The Kid's Guide to Service Projects: Over 500 Service Ideas for Young People Who Want to Make a Difference. And another check, she earned her silver award with the birthday boxes.

• Goal #3 she is going for the Gold award.  She has a list of the different places that she wants to help and a year to wait and plan so we will see what will happen. Top of the list for today is animal shelter, Riley or Peyton Manning children’s hospital, or outdoor area. Whatever she decides to do will be on her to plan from start to finish and raise the money for because this is an individual project.  She can get help from the community but she has to put in at least 100 hours of time to meet the goal. I don’t think it will be a problem though because she put in close to that with the Silver award.

Going for the Gold Award

Recommended:

The Kid's Guide to Service Projects: Over 500 Service Ideas for Young People Who Want to Make a Difference*

Sign up for our free newsletter

More Teen focused blog posts

7 Homemade Christmas Ornament Craft Ideas

Heirloom Ornaments and Decorations from our Family Tree

Our tree has lots of beautiful ornaments, expensive ones, antique family heirlooms, and decorations celebrating the kids' first Christmas. The best Christmas ornaments are those we make ourselves. They don't have to be embarrassing! These homemade ornaments are craft projects you can do as a family, and they will last for years to come. Enjoy!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.*

Fimo Clay is easier than salt dough, and it lasts longer than play dough. Many craft stores carry it. Just open, create, and insert hole in top with a straw. Voila! Quick, simple, holiday ornaments or package tie-ons.

One year, my niece made everyone beautiful 
homemade gift ornaments from Fimo clay.

Christmas Tree Cardinal Legend.

The cardinal is considered the Christmas bird and is a reminder to Christians of their faith in Christ. This one is an old family heirloom, but you can make a homemade no-sew new one with felt and tacky glue. Cut two layers of the cardinal, stuff with scrap fabric or tissue paper, glue the seams together, and use Sharpies to draw the features.

Ever since I can remember, we've had a cardinal near the top of our tree.

Handmade Winter Snowflake Crochet Craft for Tree Ornament.

Crochet a beautiful snowflake like my Grandmother did, then paint it with a glue/water solution or Modge Podge. You can also use Fabric Starch. Make a solution, place snowflake into bag, pour in liquid starch. Find How to DIY here.

Old-fashioned cookie cutters make awesome 
Christmas Tree ornaments. Just insert a ribbon.

Homemade Craft Stick Snow Ski Ornament Craft.
Perfect After-school or Scout project.

My Mother and Aunt used to make an ornament for all the cousins every Christmas. My Aunt made lots of crafts in 4-H programs. This one is a favorite that stood the test of time. 

Just paint two craft sticks with acrylic paint, hot glue them in the mid-point forming an "x", apply fake snow or white glitter paint to each end, and decorate with a bow. Holiday Snow Ski Ornament is a great Christmas craft idea for kids.

Homemade Christmas Tree Craft Stick Fridge Magnet or Holiday Puppet.

Get preschoolers and elementary kids crafting with this simple holiday decoration. I cut out two of various holiday shapes: Triangles, Circles, Stars. Then, place a popsicle stick between the layers and glue the edges together. 

Collect old advertiser fridge magnets, cut them up and repurpose them. You can attach to the back with tacky glue or glue between the layers to hide the magnet. 

A red triangle and pink circle make a great Santa Face. Let the littles decorate the ornaments with glitter, star stickers, and pipecleaners. Place low on fridge and let the little use them to make a holiday puppet show or give as gifts to the Grandparents!  :-)

Homemade Christmas Decoration Fridge Magnet.

DIY Handmade Paper Pulp Heart Christmas Tree Craft Ornament.

Here is a fun link explaining how to make these ornaments or plantable paper seed cards. Great gift idea! My high school Art teacher (the spark of my creativity) gave these as gifts one year. 


Recommended Reading:

Christmas Party Games 

Heirloom Ornament Ideas for Tree

Little Christmas Decorations to Knit and Crochet*







ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

6 Travel Tips for traveling with Kids

Looking for Tips for Traveling with the Kids?

Road Trip! Tracey shares 6 travel tips for traveling with 6 kids in a van for 16 hours (and making it out with your sanity). Aside from these tips, make sure you have lots of family, car games ready to roll out!

Kids Travel Tips: Entertainment is essential!

First of all, you may already be insane for attempting such a feat, but with careful planning, and a LOT of patience (and potty stops), you can make it happen!

#1 – If one person pees, we all pee!

 Don’t miss out on the chance to empty all the bladders at once! With any luck, you can get everyone on the same schedule and won’t have to make 6 stops everyone hour for all the kids to pee. There’s also the added incentive that “we will get there quicker if we make less stops!”. This helped a lot on the way home when we were getting down to the final hours of the return trip.

#2 – Distractions are the key!

Long car rides are the worst when you’re short on patience. Let each kid pack a small ‘carry on’ (grocery sack) with their own activities – crayons/coloring book, video game, books, cars, dolls, you get the picture. You can always fall back on the classic car rides games – ABC signs, license plate states, etc.

#3 – Pain in the neck!

Naps are inevitable when you are on a road trip, and I don’t know about you, but I cringe every time I peer back and see my kids asleep and contorted into painful looking positions. We bought inexpensive neck pillows for each of the kids (so there was no fighting!) and there were no complaints! If they were tired, they just threw on their Neck Pillow, settled in, and were out like a light. Some of the kids even wore their neck pillows for the majority of the trip, just for the fun of it. We also brought a small blanket for each of the kids to keep cozy with.

Everything is a pillow...zzzzz.

#4 – Pass the trash!

Typically, when we reach our destination, the kids pile out of the vehicle and leave a field of destruction inside the car. From snacks and drinks to lunch stops and miscellaneous rubble that appears from who-knows-where, the floor is littered with a layer of trash. To counter this, we made it a little more fun to keep things clean by having the kids pass their trash up, each time they had any, and each person in the passing line yells “trash!” as they hand it on down the line. They got quite a kick out of this and would look around for things they could send up to the front. For the most part, all that made it to the floor were toys from the ‘carry on’ bags, which is another battle all on its own.

#5 – Limit fluids!

There are always snack stops when you are on the road and it’s tempting to grab something when you make a pit stop, but the more the kids are drinking and eating, the more they are going to have to use the restroom, and the more stops you are going to have to make. Give the kids each a beverage, but have designated times they can have a drink instead of letting them drink freely. This greatly reduced our stops on the journey home!

Awww look, they're not fighting!

#6 – Be patient!

Remember, you are traveling with kids. They are going to act like kids. Kids fight, bicker, get tired, whine, get hungry, and have to pee…a lot! So try to remain calm and level headed and if needed, make an unscheduled pit stop so the kids can stretch their legs and reset their attitudes (if you are lucky!). While you are handling all there is to handle, you might want to consider that a nearby destination would be just as great for the next family road trip!  

Recommended Reading:

The Everything Kids' Travel Activity Book: Games to Play, Songs to Sing, Fun Stuff to Do - Guaranteed to Keep You Busy the Whole Ride!*

Girl Scout Travel Tips

Our 50 States*

Girl Scout's Powder Puff Pinewood Derby: Girls get to Make a Car and Race too!

Why Can't Girl Scouts Enter a Pinewood Derby? 

Our local scouts learned a lesson in sharing when the Boy Scouts loaned our troop their Pinewood Derby Track. This got us thinking, why can't the girls and boy enter the same Pinewood Derby? Oh well, at least we have the Powder Puff Derby. Enjoy!

Girl Scout's Pinewood Derby: Powder Puff Derby.

Ally got to participate in her First Pinewood Derby with the local area chapter of Girl Scouts. A local Boy Scout Troop let the organizers borrow their track so this could take place. Yes, Girl Scouts now do this event too!

Not sure if it was just this chapter or for all Girl Scouts, but it was the Second Annual event. It was a wonderful chance for daughter and dad to do something together, and I am not sure who had more fun. Although she didn't win, she did get a few Seconds and other places (each girl got to race eight times).  

Lining up her car for the Powder Puff Pinewood Derby.

Girl Scouts: A Celebration of 100 Trailblazing Years*

                  Talking strategy with Dad.

Recommended:

Be Prepared

What and When  is National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend?

Learning How to be a Community Leader with Girl Scouts

A Craft for Daisy Scouts

Girl Scouts: A Celebration of 100 Trailblazing Years*

Introducing Tracey and her Tempo

Tracey's Tempo

His, Mine, and Ours 

Our Life as a Big Blended Family   

Every parent knows that raising a family of any size and structure is a challenge. Every child has their own personality and the bigger the family,the more of a Master Schedule/Juggler you become.Then there are mixed families; couples that marry, or remarry, partners that have children from a previous marriage or relationship. This is the case for our family. In fact, in our case, things are even a little more complicated.


When I was introduced to my (now) husband, Mark, I had two young children, a five year-old son, Garrett, from a previous relationship (one of those short-lived “what was I thinking” relationships that change the course of everything), and a three year-old daughter, Ainsley, from a previous marriage.


Mark also had two children of his own, eight year-old daughter, Emma, and six year-old son, Alex, both from a previous marriage. Almost six years later, we now have a four year-old daughter, Olivia, and one more on the way, due in late September.


As you can imagine, schedules often overlap and clash and it is just something we have to work through. Sometimes it is asking for help from one of the kids other parents, sometimes it is Mark leaving work early to help, and sometimes we just have to let something slip through the cracks, which is always a disappointment but sometimes just needs to be done.

Meet our Mommy Bloggers

Welcome to Kid's Creative Chaos, a resource for Classroom curriculum, Mommy ideas, and Fun activities. We post crafts, activities, recipes, and our musings on life. We post the mishaps, the fails, and the messes. No Fancy Nancy here. Think of it as a Test Kitchen for Kiddie Crafts, Home Chefs, and Mommy Chaos. We want our readers to say, 'Hey, I can do that!' or 'That looks fun!' or  'Do you have any advice?'
If you are an aspiring writer or a novelist chat with us here or on Facebook or Blog Frog or join our group Historical Fiction Books to interact with fellow writers.

Meet our Mommy Bloggers:

Lora Langston, Marketing Director at The Play Connection, Inc. and Owner of Kids Creative Chaos blog.

Contact info: lora@theplayconnection.com

In the real world, Lora teaches art, sensory play, and drama classes to kids age 18 months to 18 years old at area parks, schools, and special events. The kids present programs to retirement villages and schools. She also writes YA Fiction. And, of course, Lora loves to CREATE.   Lora is now a full-time freelance blogger and social media marketing manager! A lot can happen in a year :)

In another life, Lora studied Architecture and Theatre at Ball State University where she also did the (Tri Sigma) sorority thing. Currently, she is a SAHM with two elementary age children, one  two indoor cat (s), one cockatiel, one box turtle, a tank load of two fish, and two inherited outdoor cats. 

Our Turtle got blessed at Church.

Recently, her family purchased a new home (she plans to name it Redbud Ranch) taken right out of the movie "Funny Farm" with Chevy Chase. Here, she will write from the window overlooking a Dogwood Tree, a row of Redbuds (her favorite tree), and a little pond full of fish while daydreaming of becoming an Andy Farmer-style, Martha Stewart. (Too young for the reference? Go watch the movie!) She also recommends the movie, "Stranger than Fiction", but only if you are a writing geek.

Angela Whitmire write recipes and Angie's Corner. She blogs about the active life of her outdoor and recreation loving family.

In the real world, Angie has two elementary age children, a couple of indoor cats, and keeps bunnies outdoors for 4H.

Tracey Thomas writes Tracey's Tempo. She blogs about her life with a large, blended-family, her passion for helping those in need through Santa's Elves of Indy, and fun activities for kids. Tracey has four children of her own and two step children.

In the real world, Tracey heads up Santa's Elves (a non-profit providing Christmas gifts to children in need), holds a Realtor's license, is an experienced photographer, and taxis her brood to sports and club activities.  http://www.santaselves.us/ In a past life, she headed up a Girl Scout Troop and ran an in-home Child-care. Tracey spends her spare time daydreaming of finding the time and resources for everything she needs to accomplish.

Life is crazy! Need some ideas to relax?  Grab a cup of coffee (okay, a soda) and stay awhile. We are always surfing for new crafty ideas that make life fun. And we love comments!  We'll check out your blog so be sure to leave a linky. Don't miss our updates be sure to subscribe to our posts on the right sidebar.


Tweet

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss - Daisy-Head Mayzie Activities and Craft

Daisy Head Mayzie Crafts and Activities

Today's Companion Craft and Story is themed on Dr. Seuss' book, Daisy-Head Mayzie not Maisy. We have lots of Dr. Seuss activities. You might Also like Dr. Seuss's Sue Snue and a fake cake messy play craft to celebrate his birthday! This is a fun project to do with Daisy Girl Scouts. Enjoy!

Saint Patrick Day Recipes with Leprechauns

Here are a few Saint Patrick Day Recipes I'm going to try- they look so yummy! Wondering when is St Patrick Day? It is March 17.

Gingebread Leprechauns
How about these Lucky Leprechaun Cookies from TasteofHome.com? 










Here's an original idea - Leprechaun Fortune Cookies from Gourmet Cookie Bouquets.

Here's a green cookie those of you who like Girl Scout Thin Mints can sink your teeth into.

Green, Mint, Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Betty Crocker.

Tweet

Be Prepared the Boy Scout Motto and My Musings on the Universe Talking to You.

The universe is talking to you.  Are you listening? Be Prepared.

Be Prepared - My Musings on the Universe talking to you.

A few weeks ago my son watched 'Hoodwinked' over and over again.  He loves the goat.  For days he sang, "Be Prepared" and chuckled to himself.

Over the weekend, we attended The Boy Scout's Blue and Gold Banquet.  I was surprised to hear that the Boy Scout motto is "Be Prepared." 

We watched a bridge ceremony presented by a high school scout troop. They wore full indian regalia and passed on their wisdom to inspire the new recruits.  It was surprisingly touching and thought provoking.

For various reasons, we hadn't made it to church in awhile.  On Sunday the lesson was Matthew 6:24-34.

Whether you are a Christian or not, I think you'll find Jesus', "Bobby McFerrin",  philosophy thought provoking in this passage.

24 'No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.


25 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, "What will we eat?" or "What will we drink?" or "What will we wear?" 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.


34 'So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today.

The Reverend then spoke about the difference between worry and preparation. Basically, she said, 'Don't worry, be happy, but plan well.'  

To me it all translates to "Be prepared"!

When the universe hits me in the head with a brick, I try to listen.  Have you noticed similar patterns in your life?

More About the good things Scout's do:

Scout's and Community Service