Month: December 2020

Family volunteering ideas can help the whole family connect and do some good. Most of the time it is adults that volunteer, but that does not mean the kids cannot join in and help out. Volunteering your time and getting the kids involved comes with some added benefits like getting to spend time together doing something good.

There is a reason that people volunteer their time to good causes that goes beyond the need to feel like we are contributing. It feels really good to volunteer. You can share the wealth of good feelings by using some of these family volunteering ideas.

Getting the Family Involved Delivers Great Benefits to You

Requiring all hands on deck to take advantage of these family volunteering ideas of course means that your family can help out a favorite cause, but there are benefits that your family will experience as well. It can be hard in this digital age to get the kids to break away from their screens and connect with the rest of the family. Getting out there and dedicating some time to a good cause means they have to unplug for a while and focus on something else.

Connecting over some good deeds is a great way to make some memories while you help you’re your children will get to see another side of you and ultimately will feel more connected. Teaching children that it is important to look out for the greater good and get involved helps to create thoughtful adults that are empathetic. There is no better way to teach than to model the behavior yourself. Taking kids along to volunteering opportunities is a wonderful way to remind them that there is a greater community that they are responsible for.

Family volunteering ideas are wonderful “teaching moment opportunities”. Volunteering can open up engaging dialogue with even the youngest children. It gives children something to think about and can help them to develop their own interests in making changes in their community.

These family volunteering ideas can open up a whole new bonding portal for you and your family.

Some Ground Rules

The first rule is safety. Even though you may want to jump right in and let the kids help build that house with Habitat for Humanity, avoiding child injuries has to be a priority. In other words, there are some family volunteering ideas that are better suited for older kids.

There is a reason construction companies have such strict safety rules. Construction sites are dangerous and no place for the under 14 crew. Construction sites are chockful of dangerous equipment that younger kids may just not be able to stay away from. From roll off bins to heavy earth moving equipment, there is danger everywhere on a construction site. When you are considering which family volunteering ideas are right for your family, consider the following:

• The age of your children
• The safety of your children
• How well your children can follow directions

A child as young as three may be able to participate in garbage collection at your local park, but it may not be the best idea to have them participate in an “adopt a highway” program and pick up trash on the side of the road. You get the idea. You know your children better than anyone. You want to make sure that they can participate safely in the family volunteering ideas before you make a commitment.

Older kids from the age of 12 and up can effectively roll up their sleeves and do some modified adult volunteer work. For example, one of the great family volunteering ideas is helping to build a community playground. A 12-year-old may not be able to lug the stone masonry supplies for the playground, but they certainly can carry bags of grass seed, soil, mulch, and more.

Preteens and young teens can easily manage landscaping material, while older teens can deal with the heavier loads. Just use your judgment to ensure that your kids stay safe while working hard towards the goal.

Look In Your Own Backyard for Opportunities

If you are stumped for family volunteering ideas all you have to do is look around your community. You do not have to limit your family to big projects connected to well-established charity organizations. You and your family can make a difference on your own.

Here are some family volunteering ideas that you can institute as a family project:

• Become voluntary landscapers for your local park. Contact the municipal authorities about planting some flowers, trees, or providing some upkeep for a local park. Commit to a monthly visit. With budgets stretched as tight as they are for many municipalities, it will be a welcome offer.

• Not the outdoorsy type? How about offering some residential cleaning services to a neighbor in need? You can also partner with local companies to see if they can do it for a discount. Helping a senior get the house cleaned up or a neighbor who is a single parent manage some deep cleaning is a great way to help out.
• Painting, fence repair, community center clean up, and more. Take a look around your neighborhood and consider what is needed, then volunteer to do it.

Some family volunteering ideas can be simple gestures that make life better for your neighbors. Offer to clear snow from driveways for your elderly neighbors. Make food baskets for neighbors that are struggling. Make sandwiches and hand them out. There are plenty of ways you and your family can make a difference right in your own backyard.

One family in Ohio was instrumental in turning a vacant lot into a playground for the kids. They lobbied the city to match community donations and convinced neighbors to put in some sweat equity. Your family volunteering ideas can get the ball rolling on a community project.

Working With Local Charities

Not ready to branch out on your own quite yet? That is okay. There are plenty of family volunteering ideas that fall under the direction of local charities. You may have to put in a little leg work to find the right opportunity.

Some charities have strict age requirements for their volunteers because they want to be sure that everyone stays safe. You may have to call around a little bit to find a charity that encourages the participation of children.

Here are some family volunteering ideas with charity organizations that are likely to encourage participation by children:

• Your local food pantry. Little kids can stock cans on shelves, and pack bags with supervision. Your local food pantry is a great place to find a family volunteering opportunity.
• Your local animal shelter. While the kids may not be able to get in the pens and clean them up, they can do other jobs. You can as a family pack up blankets and donate them.
• Race for a cause. Consider doing a family walkathon for a good cause. Get friends and family to pledge money to a special cause for your family’s walkathon, marathon, or some other activity.

Summer camps are always looking for volunteers. If you have a local summer camp consider asking if they need some help getting ready for the season. Of course, if you have a skill set that you can share, offer to share your skillset and bring the kids along.

You can even make your family’s favorite private campgrounds the focus of your family volunteering. Give back. Offer to spend half a day cleaning up park areas that you enjoy.

Other groups that always are willing to take some help and can make great family volunteering ideas include libraries, museums, retirement homes, and even the Red Cross. Sometimes you have to dig around to find a group that welcomes kids, but it is well worth the effort.

Charity Begins At Home

Some family volunteering ideas is more of a lifestyle than an activity. For example, set up a family recycling plan, then get outside and pick up some trash around the neighborhood, and recycle what you can. Start a “used book” charity at home. Collect all the books that everyone has read, and donate them to your local library, bring the kids with you to make the donation.

If your family loves to craft together, make some crafts for your local nursing home residents, then distribute them together. Get the kids involved in a “toy drive” right in their own toy box. Gently used toys that the kids have outgrown can be rehomed through the Salvation Army thrift stores, a collection point, or even given away to a child in need in your own community. Sharing is caring, and it helps you keep the clutter down. Be sure that you are willing to donate some of your own stuff to set a good example.

Not all the family volunteering ideas require you and yours to roll up your sleeves and do some work. Sometimes family volunteering ideas are focused on what you and your family are willing to give up to help someone. Gathering clothes that do not fit, toys that are not played with, and other items that are just sitting there and donating them is a great way to “volunteer”. Of course, you want to be sure that the kids come with you to dole out the collections so they can see who they are helping.

A Visit Can Make a Difference

Seniors love kids. They enjoy spending time with them and sharing their stories. It is not only good for the seniors to get a visit from children but it is good for the children as well. ‘One of the best family volunteering ideas is to go visit a local nursing home and hang out with the residents for a while.

Make small treat baskets with things like magazines, coloring books and crayons, word puzzles, and small food items, and let the kids distribute them and sit and visit for a little while. Of course, COVID 19 has put the kibosh on this for right now, but restrictions will be lifted and seniors will be so ready to have some visitors.

Visit your local VA hospital and bring a little sunshine to veterans. It is the same idea as visiting a senior home but a different setting. Veterans deserve all the honor and respect that we can give. Having the children visit and convey that they are grateful for their service can make a difference in a veteran’s life.

Of course, before you visit a nursing home or veterans’ home be sure that you touch base with the administration to get permission and find out what the caveats are for visitors. If any of your kids play an instrument, offer to provide some entertainment while you are there.

Connect with the senior citizen group in your community and ask what you and your family can do to help. Is there a meal on wheels program in your community? If there is offer to deliver meals and take the kids with you. Sit and visit for a little while when you deliver the meals. If there is not a program in your community, consider starting one. You can be the catalyst for change in your own community.

A visit can make all the difference in the world to someone that feels isolated. Kids are great ice breakers and can provide the company that so many people are yearning for.

Giving Back Feels Good

It is hard for kids to think beyond themselves. We are all born a little selfish. Getting them involved and teaching them to give back is easier when you have a family project that is based on giving. It feels good when the family comes together and accomplishes a giving opportunity together.

If none of the family volunteering ideas appeal to you and your family consider what will. What is your family interested in? What causes pique your interest? How can you help? Create your own family volunteering ideas by asking yourself those questions. Once you have your answer, get on out there and start making a difference. It will bring you and your kids closer, and help to shape the adults they will someday become.

For many months, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected and continues to affect every aspect of our lives. It affects how we work, where we eat, how we shop, where we might be able to travel, and how we interact with family and friends.

There seems to be no part of life that COVID-19 has not affected, and that includes families who are wanting to adopt children. Many families have been waiting for years to adopt and the pandemic has presented all sorts of challenges. Adopting a child can be a rewarding and emotional experience for families in the best of times, but a pandemic with stay-at-home orders, school closings, and even travel bans has made the last several months stressful for families wanting to adopt.

It’s estimated that there are well over 400,000 children in the U.S. foster care system, who are looking to be loved. For those families wanting to adopt, even during the pandemic, there are many helpful adoption resources for parents and helpful tips to make the adoption process much easier:

Take Steps To Control Anxiety

For parents of newly adopted children in a pandemic, it’s important to remember that there are lots of ways that you and your child might feel anxious. After all, with so much changing all the time, it’s sometimes hard to know what to expect from one day to one day to the next.

As a parent, it’s important to remember that a child’s reaction to a pandemic can vary. With the normal structure of going to school or seeing familiar faces like teachers, kids can grow irritable or clingy. They may have trouble developing routines at home too. The best thing you can do is to be patient and to show empathy.

But it’s easy for parents to become overwhelmed too and thankfully there are many adoption resources for parents available. Helpful resources can give you tips for staying calm, such as limiting media exposure, and reducing your risk of anxiety by washing your hands, and getting enough sleep.

Get Your Home In Order

As a parent of a newly adopted child, there are any number of things you can do to make the most of the time you have a home with your little one.

If you’re welcoming a child into your home, there’s never been a better time to throw yourself into some home improvement projects. You don’t have to renovate your entire home, but with a little bit of know-how and elbow grease, you can transform your home into a welcome one where your new member of the family feels loved and comfortable.

So what do you need to do? It might be a good idea to have local home builders come by and do a home inspection. They can look at everything from your roof, to your foundation, to your basement, just to make sure you’re providing a comfortable home for your child.

It might also be a good idea to prepare your child his or her own room and bedroom. Depending on your ideas for bedroom design, there are many kinds of adjustable beds available to buy that will give your child a cozy place to lay their head at night. If your child’s room has a bathroom attached, you can do some easy bathroom renovation by painting the walls, updating the décor, or letting your child pick a theme to decorate the bathroom.

Allow For Social Interaction

During the pandemic we’ve all becoming familiar with terms like social distancing. But social distancing doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t mean, social isolation. Even if you and your newly adopted child are spending a lot of time together at home because of the pandemic, you should take steps to allow them chances to interact.

Children of all ages crave interaction and attention. If you’re looking for ways for your child to interact with other people, there are lots of helpful adoption resources for parents that can offer ways of doing just that. Your child can meet members of your extended family by writing letters, sending emails, and even doing online video chats on apps like Zoom.

If you have a young child and they’re tech-savvy, one way to keep them connected to family is through social media apps. Programs like Zoom are great for longer video chats, but apps like Facebook Messenger, Tik Tok, and even Snapchat are great ways to send fun, short messages back and forth.

Keep in mind too that interaction isn’t limited to just social interaction either. If you’re looking for ways to keep your child entertained and educated during the pandemic, there are a great many adoption resources for parents that allow for some creative interactions. Many museums around the world for example, offer virtual tours that offer a fun way for your child to learn about history and art. There are also many interactive learning sites that allow children to master basic concepts in math, reading, and science among other subjects.

Don’t Neglect Wellness Appointments

Trying to make and keep any kind of wellness appointments during the pandemic has proven challenging for some people. But if you’ve got a newly adopted child in the family, especially a younger child, it’s important that you try to make appointments for them and keep them.

Everyone wants to make sure their child is healthy and if you make wellness appointments, take the necessary steps to keep yourself and your child safe. Carry sanitizer with you and always remember to wear a mask. If you as the parent lead by example and wear a mask, your youngster will eager to follow your lead.

If you’re wondering where to start with wellness appointments, get your child into see a pediatrician for general wellness, and in to see a specialist in pediatric dentistry, to make sure your child’s teeth are clean. If you’re not feeling great about taking your child out in public for check-ups and appointments, you can always try telemedicine appointments. Still another option is to use adoption resources for parents to track their child’s health progress. You may not be a doctor, but these resources can give you tips on home remedies for sickness and signs to watch for if your child isn’t feeling well.

If you’re going to be scheduling wellness appointments, you need to make sure you have good health insurance. If that’s on your to-do list, check around your local area and talk to different health insurance brokers. Ultimately, you want a plan that works for you and your family, and ensures that your child can get the care they need when they need it. Health insurance brokers can present you with different plans, so that you can pick the one that works best for you.

Create Routines

One of the best ways that adoption resources for parents can come in handy is setting a routine for your child during the pandemic. With so much going on, especially if you’ve recently adopted a child, it can be hard to find a routine that works for everyone in the home. The best thing you can do is create a home environment that relies on routine, regulation, and reassurance.

No matter what age your child is, you need to reassure them that their new home is a safe, comfortable, place of love. By creating a routine—regular mealtimes, regular bedtimes, time each day for learning, and time each day for play—your child will become used to their new environment, and their trust in you will grow stronger. Children thrive on routine, so if you give them a regular routine, you’ll help stimulate their physical and mental growth.

Get Creative

As any parent will tell you, there’s no handbook that tells you about the perfect way to parent a child. That’s true of both biological and adopted children, and it’s especially true during a pandemic. The last several months have thrown countless families for a loop, and parents everywhere have had to adjust to having their kids at home for extended periods of time.

With so many helpful adoption resources for parents, one of the best things parents can do with their adopted child at home is to get creative. If you’re looking for ways to educate your child, look into online resources that teach your children all the essential subjects in fun and interactive ways. If you’re looking to get them away from the computer for a bit, try to find real world ways to apply the things they might be learning about in school.

Getting creative also means finding new and fun things to do outside of school work. It’s easy to plop down and play video games and watch Netflix with your child, but that can sometimes get old. So what can you do? Let your imagination go to work. If you have a young child, dress up in costumes and make up characters for yourselves. If you’re looking for bonding experiences, try building puzzles or playing board games. If you want your child to learn of their new extended family, pull out some photo albums and regale them with stories from your childhood, and about your relatives.

Any parent knows it’s hard to keep a child focused at times, and entertained at others. But if you’ve got a creative mind, there’s never been a better time to get the juices flowing.

Seek Legal Help

Of all the adoption resources for parents, one of the most helpful if you’re looking to adopt is an adoption attorney. From start to finish, the adoption process is guided by all kinds of regulations and guidelines, and everything must be done the right way.

It sounds stressful, but that’s what adoption attorneys are for. If adoption is something you’ve always wanted to do, an experienced attorney can guide you through the entire legal process. For all the complicated stuff, a family law attorney is there to help. If you’re looking to simplify the adoption process, some family lawyers can guide the entire process from start to finish. In this way, this is almost an independent adoption.

What else can an adoption attorney do? Since they’re well-versed in family law, they can almost be thought of as child custody attorneys when it comes to adoption. Many law firms that deal with adoption cases specialize in both independent adoptions as well as traditional adoptions by relatives. These attorneys can sometimes also provide services such as overseeing living expenses and helping a family locate a child’s birth parents. At the end of it, an adoption attorney will make sure no step is overlooked, and that custody of a child is firmly established by the adoption.

Don’t Be Afraid To Seek Help

If you’re considering adopting through an adoption service, one of the best adoption resources for parents are friends or acquaintances who have gone through the adoption process. They’ll be able to offer plenty of good advice and helpful tips you can use as you navigate the adoption process.

Even with so many adoption resources for parents, particularly online, you also should not be afraid to ask for help if you’re the parent of a newly adopted child. Pandemic or no pandemic, it can sometimes be difficult for a child to adjust to their new normal. If you notice that your child shows a pattern of emotional or behavioral concerns, don’t be afraid to seek out the services of a mental health professional. In most cases, you can do telehealth appointments, so that professionals can help you and your child become more comfortable and trusting.

Take It One Day At A Time

Adoption can be one of the most rewarding events in life that a family and a child experiences. While there isn’t a handbook with all the perfect answers, there are plenty of adoption resources for parents as they grow their new families.

By consulting with family lawyers through the adoption process, you’ll be sure that no stone goes unturned as you adopt your child. Once all the I’s have been dotted, you can take time to make changes to your home to accommodate a child and do all that you can to make them comfortable, loved, and excited to begin the next phase of life.

Sixteen-year-old Ayden Hector knows better than anyone what it’s like to be homeless. The Lynnwood resident was couch surfing after being kicked out of a homeless shelter when he was younger. Today, he lives in a duplex with his mother, Marta Orona, his 10-year-old brother, Ruben, and a dog named Riley. Hector said his mom puts on her new clothes and – be it Polo shirts, jeans, or even makeup – before going to work as a nanny, which means that he, at least, gets clean clothes. He still sleeps on a blanket and often has to dig through the couch cushions for leftovers. The Eastside Catholic Academy sophomore said he got interested in helping the homeless when he was in the fourth grade. He remembers once breaking into a homeless shelter and emptying out “two garbage bags full of stuff that was thrown away.” “I was kind of overwhelmed by it,” he said. “I just really learned that just everything we have could be taken away.”

Hector doesn’t know where his goal came from. But helping homeless youth that may be forgotten by society every day has become a point of pride. And it’s something Hector wants to do. About 18 months ago, he, Ayden, and two classmates, Matthew Franke and Paul Taylor, started the Madison Avenue Youth and Family Center, an organization they started through Holy Rosary parish in Everett to provide homeless youth on the Eastside with basic necessities, like food, clothes, showers, and basic education. Their goal, they said, is to achieve some form of self-sufficiency. Hector said that he doesn’t know how long it will take to accomplish, but that it will probably be a couple of years. He said they hope to eventually provide work, housing, school, hygiene products, and a variety of other resources for youth living without stability. They reached that goal in the summer of 2016.

There are still a lot of steps to take before they’re in a position to provide more services. Even in the year prior to Bbox, student leaders such as Hector said it’s more than just finding the best private schools around to attend, being placed in one, learning the curriculum, and developing a backpack full of clothes. Some students face more danger, like drugs, than others. Some have parents that can’t afford education, some live with extended family members that simply don’t provide stable living situations. They’re simply unable to provide simple necessities. Hector said that by taking part in Bbox, he’s able to remember that “hard labor doesn’t pay a lot of money, and it’s important to get your education.”

Bbox’s long-term goal is for students like Hector to move out of their mom’s house, or even get their own apartments. The leadership group members maintain their educational goals and are diligently trying to stay away from drugs and alcohol. Hector and the other students helped launch Bbox with the first sale of boxes at the beginning of their freshman year. He said he and the other students who helped run Bbox with him went to their jobs with pride and were rewarded by being able to give back to their communities. “We really pride ourselves on giving back,” he said.