Project 5

GIVING BACK

Project sumbitted by the Goldblum family ---Florida

What We Did:
A nearby arts museum has a children's library which hosts story-times, cooking classes and crafting lessons. In addition to the well stocked book shelves, the library has set out an assortment of toys and puzzles to entertain\educate the smaller children. We made a thank you card for the staff and donated some new educational toys for their collection.

How Long it Took:
Shopping (30 minutes), Assembly (15 minutes). Delivery (we gave the gift to the librarians while attending story time)

How Much it Cost:
$20

Would We Do It Again?
Yes...Our 3 and 4 year olds are very fond of this particular library and the kind, enthusiastic librarians. They did grasp that they were giving a gift of appreciation and support.

Next Time:
The library would, I'm sure, also appreciate gifts of new children's books or dvds.

References:
Find a local library at IES National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/librarysearch)

Project 4

COILED CATERPILLAR CRAFT FOR KIDS

What We Did:
We assembled little individual craft projects for children at our local Women's Shelter. We bought a couple of boxes of pencils and a few bags of multi-colored pipe-cleaners. We layed out the pencils (15 at a time) and then added to each pencil one of every colored pipe-cleaner. We bundled the kits together by bending the pipe-cleaners in half and attaching them to the pencil with one small (hair-tie) rubber band. We attached a copy of the instructions (I'll get the instructions attached soon) to each bundle. Then we dropped the kits off at the shelter's main office (the locations of the shelter are kept confidential).

How Long it Took:

Shopping (15 minutes), Assembly (30 minutes). The Drop off depends on how far you live from a shelter. The kits are pretty light weight and would be fairly inexpensive to mail.

How Much it Cost:

$8 for 50 kits

Would We Do It Again?
Yes...Our 3 and 5 yr. old really had fun counting the pencils and sorting the pipe-cleaners. Educational :) I was surprised by our 5 yr old's ability to bundle and rubber-band the kits together.

Next Time:

I'd like to try this with another craft. Please let me know if know of a craft that could be assembled into individual kits. Maybe a Holiday Decoration craft?

References:

Just type in your zip-code and "women's shelter" into your favorite search engine to find a shelter in your area.

Project 3

SHOEBOX DONATION BOX

What We Did:

We made Kid's School Days donation boxes for KID'S STUFF USA. How it works: you get a shoe box --or a boot box -- and then fill it with school supplies that a pre-k/school aged child would need for school. We went to a local shoe store where they gave us 2 extra boot boxes (perfect for 8.5" x 11"). We purchased some supplies from the suggested "stuff to put in box list" and went home to wrap and decorate the boxes. The kids helped with selecting the supplies and also wrapping, decorating, and filling the boxes. We left the trip to the post office for Dad to do solo because . . . well you know how trips to the post office go with little kids.

How Long it Took:

About 1hr. Shopping (30 min), wrapping the packages (30 min), filling the boxes (5 min), getting them in the mail (I cheated, and had Scott mail them).

How Much it Cost:

You can really spend as much or as little as you want on this project. Since I get so frustrated with crappy school supplies we went to a traditional store for supplies and saved the trip to the dollar store to find little toys and extras. We spent about $30 on each box; additionally, they ask you to enclose a $5 check with each box to cover shipping to the child.

Would We Do It Again?

Yes.

Next Time:
Go to the dollarstore first because they do have a few good supplies there for less money than I spent at the traditional store.

References:

http://www.feedthechildren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=org_kids_stuff_USA

A very user-friendly, concise, step-by-step webpage! This link contains all the intructions you will need on what to include in the box, any regulations, and where to send the box. There are two other types of boxes that can be assembled.

Future Project

HEADS UP FOR HALLOWEEN
I got a great idea from my friend Rebecca that we are going to do for Halloween. It requires a little advanced planning and the post won't show up until after Halloween. Incase your looking for a fun Halloween service project, we are going to get together with some friends and do a Halloween parade at a local assisted-living/retirement home.

Project 2

AS A MATTER OF FACT, WE DO HAVE SOME SPARE CHANGE

What We Did:
You know those coins you are always picking up off the floor, finding in the laundry, or gathering off the floor of your minivan? We decided to find and decorate a home for that "spare change." I told the kids they could donate the money to whomever they wanted, and of course Mackie choose ANIMALS. So here is our "spare change jar" for the local animal shelter. We'll update this post when the jar gets full of coins and the kids get to deliver their donation to the shelter.

How Long it Took:
Coloring, cutting, and pasting took about 40 minutes. I'm not sure how long it will take to fill the jar. We'll see. So far, the kids have been pretty vigilant about rounding up spare change for it.

How Much it Cost:
We just used stuff we had around the house to make the jar. As for the money, we are looking at it as how much we are "collecting" instead of how much it's costing, but we won't know how much that'll be until the project is done.

Would We Do It Again?
So far.