Teach Them to Seve {#9 ~ Books for the Dentist}

NOTE: This post was originally posted on my sister blog, Faith for the Littles. It was written by me. I'm copying it here for ease of reading moving forward. I can't believe we're almost to the end of this series! You will definitely want to subscribe so you don't miss next week's finale! Today's act of service is a win-win for everyone! We're cleaning out those bedrooms, letting your little one donate books, and blessing a dentist's office and the kiddos in the waiting room! Sounds good, right?   As we closed down the end of a school year, we thought it would be the perfect time to do a deep cleaning of the bedrooms and our homeschool room.  While I love picture books, we tend to end up with way more than we need.  I actually found duplicates of several!  Oops!  I pulled out all of our books and then let Little Man select 5-10 that he might want to donate to the dentist's office.  He chose several.  However, some of them were just a little too "loved" to donate.  Note to self:  We really need to have more conversations with Baby Boy about how we treat books.     Somewhat funny story... I tried calling our dentist (very last minute) to ask if they were even interested in having us donate books.  One of the main streets in our city that has really terrible cell service.  The receptionist kept saying she could barely hear me because I was cutting out.  We showed up with the books and I think they were slightly confused.  All in all, they appreciated what he was doing, which made him feel good about it.     We've actually done this activity twice.  I'd say both times went well.  We donated a set last year to his pediatrician during our Fruits of the Spirit study.  He gets so excited to see one of "his" books in the office.  I'd do this act of service again.  I think we should all donate books to doctors and dentists across our communities!  Let's promote some early literacy while we're stuck in those waiting rooms!  :)   Follow us on Bloglovin and make sure you are here for our final post in the Teach Them to Serve series!      

Teach Them to Serve {#8 ~ Popsicles at the Pool}

Happy Friday!  Yikes!  I'm a little late in posting today!  And since we're being honest... the title of this post doesn't exactly match the content.  Oops!

So here's the deal... the activity was SUPPOSED to be done with popsicles.  We had grand plans to go to the pool loaded with a box of popsicles and give them all out to kids before we starting swimming.  Well, it's summer and I'm finally getting around to some of those organizing projects I've been putting off all year.  As I was going through my office, I found a bag of sunglasses we bought for Little Man's birthday party last year.  Sunglasses... pool... decluttering... I'll take it!  

I forgot to take a picture of the bag before Little Man started passing them out.  We had a few left in the pool bag, so I asked the Mister to snap a quick picture.  They were just party favor sunglasses.  For his party, we popped out the lenses and used them as mad scientist glasses.  

Little Man gave them to other kids who were also at the pool.  They LOVED it!  

So... if you were to do this, or if we were to do it again, we could use popsicles.  Or those silly band rubber band bracelets, or stickers, or anything really... The idea was that I wanted him to do something kind for the other kids before jumping into the pool himself.  We will definitely do this again with popsicles... maybe at the park?  Popsicles at the park?  Sounds good to me!  :)

Have you followed us on Bloglovin yet?  We've got a new series coming up next that you won't want to miss!

Teach Them to Serve {#7 ~ Clean Up the Neighborhood}

Happy Friday!  Yesterday we actually finished our last project for this series.  I can't wait for you to see them!  

In our neighborhood, trash day is on Wednesday.  After the trucks come through the neighborhood, there is usually a bunch of trash that has flown out of the bins.  So, Little Man and I took the opportunity to get outside, get some sun, and serve our neighbors at the same time!  We grabbed the stroller, a scooter, and a trash bag and hit the road!

This project was super simple, but gave us a great chance to chat and get some exercise.  One thing we didn't take into consideration... the weather!  It was HOT!  We only made it through two streets before we were dripping!  We'll have to go back out next week and pick a time earlier in the day!

It did open up the chance for some discussion though.  Sometimes we serve to simply serve.  It's not always the most fun or perfect situation.  Sometimes we serve by doing the tasks that someone else doesn't want to do... like picking up trash in the heat.   

The weather encouraged us to quickly jump to our next act of kindness... one that was perfect for a hot, Texas summer day!  Make sure to stop by the blog next week to hear all about that one!

Never miss a post!  Subscribe here by email or here for Bloglovin!

Teach Them to Serve {#6 ~ Movie Night... On Us!}

The weekend is upon us!  I have a perfect way to incorporate another act of kindness while you are out and about today!  Treat a family to a movie and snacks! 

Let's have another moment of honesty.  I'm actually not a huge movie person.  If we're going to have a family night, I'd rather spend it playing a board game or working on a Kiwi Crate.  I tend to fall asleep within the first few minutes of a movie.  With that said, Little Man loves to watch movies during family nights.  We received a Redbox code, so he naturally wanted to go pick out a movie.  I had something different in mind.

We have Netflix, Vudu, Hulu, DVDs... plenty.  I talked to Little Man about how Jesus tells us to give our extras to those in need.  I know that a movie isn't exactly a need, and probably not what Jesus had in mind, but the situation lent itself very easily to a discussion about giving.  We didn't need the movie code.  It was an extra for us.  So we can give it to someone who doesn't have one.  Ideally, after enough of these conversations, he'll start to see the value in giving more than just our "extras."

We wrote out the code and attached it to a package of popcorn.  I asked him what he wanted to write and he said, "Have a great night!"  Works for me.

Then we taped it to a Redbox kiosk down the street.

We had dinner, and as we drove home, he was excited to see that someone had taken it.  Hopefully they were blessed by it and enjoyed a movie night on us!  

I've also seen variations of this activity like taping coins to a vending machine or leaving a dollar in the toy aisle at a dollar store. 

Have you ever tried leaving something like this for someone?  Have you ever been on the receiving end?  Tell us about it in the comments!

Teach Them to Serve {#5 ~ Shopping Cart Shuffle}

Happy Friday!  Was this your first week of summer?  Was it fabulous?  I so enjoyed the down time to rest and just hang out with my boys.

Today I've got an easy one for you.  This a no-prep act of service that can be done while you're out running your errands this weekend!  

Exodus 17 tells the story of Aaron holding up Moses' arms during battle when he grew weary.  Summer is starting and it is HOT.  While most of us are not in battle the way the Israelites were, people who have to work outside definitely grow weary!  I wanted to take a moment to share with Little Man that we can think about that need and do something to help them.

It's the shopping cart shuffle!  After we finished our weekly grocery shopping, I noticed a few stray carts over on the next aisle.  I told Little Man that we were going to be super helpful to the people who have to go collect all of those stray carts... we would do it for them!  We walked around for a few minutes and returned any carts we found.  

He took it one step further and organized the carts in the corral.  Some of them were overflowing, so he did a little "shuffle" and organized them into neat rows.  

Now, as we run errands, we glance around for any stray carts.  We talked about why it's probably frustrating for someone to have to walk around and collect all of them.  We talked about what would happen if one of those stray carts started rolling.  

We didn't talk to anyone or leave a note.  We just moved carts. It's small, but I hope it blesses the boy working at the grocery store that day and that our few moments of work allowed him a few more minutes inside the air-conditioned store instead of in the heat!

What is your favorite act of service with your little ones?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

Have you subscribed to our emails yet?  You won't want to miss next week's Teach Them to Serve activity!

Teach Them to Serve {#4 ~ Praying for Others}

Hi friends!  Today I'm sharing one of my favorite "service" activities so far!  And it's one we'll continue from now on!  This week, I not only got to talk to my boys about being aware of the needs of others, but about actually praying over those needs.  

It's confession time.  I thoroughly enjoyed this activity, but I completely forgot to take a picture!  Oops!  You'll have to use those visualizing skills today!

Little Man and I have been using the monthly planning packs from Multitaskin' Mom for the latter part of this school year.  Love them!  He's been using the prayer lists loosely, but this week we were able to be a little more intentional with them.  First, go grab your copy of the planning packs from Multitaskin' Mom!  She has TONS to choose from!  

Ok, so now that you have your own super cute planing pack, let's talk prayer for a minute.  Little Man has typically prayed for things like his toys, the dogs, our family members, sick people, etc.  These are all fantastic.  However, it's usually a matter of "Thank You for Charlie even though he steals Mommy's pillow at night."  (Charlie is the dog).  Do your little ones pray like this?

Well I wanted to take it slightly deeper.  Bring in the grandparents!  I arranged a Skype night and we called and chatted.  Little Man got to show them all the new fun things we found at the homeschool convention a few weeks ago.  Baby Boy got to show off his new tricks (that may have involved screaming at the top of his lungs).  I got to make some plans for our annual shrimp dinner.  Yippee!

Prayer.  I talked to Little Man before we called them about specifically asking them how he could pray for them.  He used his planning pack prayer list and diligently wrote down their requests.  Then, every day, he selected one to pray over while writing in his prayer journal.  He added a few other things as they popped up throughout the month.  

It's officially June now, so we're ready to start our June prayer list.  I'll have him call back and ask for an update on May's prayers and for new requests for this month.  I've loved watching him be intentional with his prayer!

How do you teach your little ones to pray?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Never miss a post!  Be sure to follow us on Bloglovin!

Teach Them to Serve {#3 ~ Encouraging Words}

This post contains affiliate links.

Happy Friday, friends!  It's a beautiful sunshiney day here in North Texas!  It's been rainy and COLD, so our street needed a little something to brighten our days.  I challenged Little Man to go outside and leave some encouraging notes for our neighbors on the sidewalk!

There's really nothing super special about this activity, but I hope those seeing the notes felt a little bit of the sunshine we wanted to give them!  Little Man grabbed the chalk and Baby Boy and I plopped ourselves into the grass.  

I'd say he enjoyed himself!

At first Little Man wasn't quite sure what to write.  I prompted him to think of the things he would want to hear if he was having a bad day.

"God loves you!"

"Have a great day!"  Complete with smiley faces, hearts, and a cross!

"You are cool!"  "Thank you!"

I cut off the picture trying to get the words he wrote.  He also wanted to draw a special Captain America just for Daddy!

Overall, I'd say it was a fun afternoon outside!  I loved that Little Man had to stop and think about what someone else might want to hear after a bad day.  Hopefully he'll be able to carry that into other parts of his life!

"Great is His faithfulness; His mercies are new every morning!"

Lamentations 3:23

What is the best thing you've ever heard after a bad day?

Teach Them to Serve {#2 ~ Lemonade Stand for a Cause}

Good morning! I am seriously excited about this post.  Little Man just blew me away with his excitement for this project!  First, I should give you a little back story.  Our church partners with several compassion ministries.  Both the children's program and the women's ministry held collection drives for one of them.  Normally, I would just take the boys and we'd go fill up a shopping bag with whatever is needed.  This time, we did something a little different.  

Little Man wanted to bring in a few other people for this project.  He's had lemonade stands in the past, so he thought he'd try one again... a lemonade stand with a purpose!  Our neighborhood hosts a community garage sale about twice each year.  We planned to have our lemonade stand on the same day.  I posted about it in our neighborhood Facebook group and on my personal page.  I was OVERWHELMED with the generosity of our community!  

We originally thought it would just be a lemonade stand, and then possibly a bake sale.  The garage sale was so early in the day, we decided on a breakfast bar!  We had cinnamon rolls, donuts, fruit, and a few different drinks.  Even Baby Boy couldn't contain his excitement!  

Our neighborhood was seriously beyond generous!  Little Man loved going to pick out all the toiletries to donate to the collection.  He was so careful to make sure he had some for boys, some for girls, matching sets, yummy smells... love it!

On the day we took everything up to the church, Little Man wanted to take a picture to say THANK YOU to our friends and family who came to support him in this project!  Your donations helped supply City House with 75 new shampoos, conditioners, body washes, deodorants, and razors!  You are amazing!

If you are in the Dallas area, please take a moment to stop by their website and consider helping this absolutely amazing organization!

City House is an organization that supports homeless children and teenagers.  It was founded by two local teachers who were stunned to realize some of their own students were living out of lockers.  Through the support of the community, it has grown and has been helping homeless teens for over 27 years!  Wow!

Teach Them to Serve {#1 ~ Treats for the Mailman}

Hello, hello!  I'm so excited to bring you a new series today!  We're talking about putting feet to our faith and doing stuff!  

James 1:22 tells us to not just read the Word, but do do what it says.  We're commanded to get out there and DO STUFF!!!  And it starts at home.  How are our little ones going to learn the joy of serving others in His name if they never see us doing it ourselves?  So... let's teach them to serve!

As a kick off to this project, we went with one of Little Man's biggest interests right now.  He is all about the mail system!  He was super excited to serve our mail carrier this week!  

At our weekly Trader Joe's run (seriously love that place), he picked out a few treats to put together.  He chose a specialty water, a chocolate bar and a protein bar.  I told him to write a note to the mail carrier to say thanks for delivering our mail every day.  Little Man took it so much further and my Mommy heart was just bursting!  "Dear Mailman, Thank you for bringing our mail.  Remember that you are special because God made you special."  LOVE it!  

And done!  We put it in the mailbox and Little Man couldn't help but run to the front window every few minutes to see if he was coming yet.  He eventually heard the mail truck, so I told him to run outside and hand him the treats personally.  He suddenly decided he was shy (ha!).  We did open the garage door and Little Man watched the mail carrier pull the treats out of the mailbox.  Our amazing mail carrier waved at him and shouted a "thanks!"  When we went to check the mail later, we found that he had actually written a personal note to thank him for the treats!  So sweet!

Since putting the treats in the mailbox, Little Man LOVES to go catch the mail truck outside.  It's sweet to see that they have their own little bond now.  I wasn't expecting that!  What a great way for Little Man to shine His light!

Stay tuned for more fun, easy ways to DO STUFF and serve those around us!  Subscribe here so you don't miss a single post!