Five Ways to Get Your Kids Involved in the Community

It's widely understood that kids are selfish. It's through no fault of their own, it's normal. However, teaching kids to be a part of the community is vital to ensuring they grow into mature and understanding adults. Helping the city is a great way for your child to experience what it's like to belong to a group. In addition, it gives them a chance to understand how to be helpful rather than selfish. Today, we're going to talk about how you can get your child involved in the community at any age.

Volunteering

Volunteering is the perfect way to get your child involved in the community. Children who volunteer will be exposed to many different parts of life and many kinds of people that live together. For example, taking your kid to volunteer each weekend at the local animal shelter can give them an understanding of what it's like to care for something else. Also, it will allow them to see what people do for the community each day.

Starting small is the best way to ensure a strong passion for volunteering. Young children might only be able to help pass out medals at a 5K while older children could spend the whole day planting trees. If you're starting with a new organization, it's best to call ahead to see their policies on volunteering children. In many cases, they will have an age limit as well as requirements, for example, that you come along. 

Recreational Sports

Many towns have recreational sports teams that can help your child socialize with people that they may not see at school. Also, recreational sports often have events that bring in more of the community. This could be a fundraiser like a car wash or a tournament like Little League. As a bonus, if you choose to go with this option, there's a high chance that you will have to go with the first as well. Many recreational sports teams have a volunteer portion of being a part of the team. This could be cleaning the park or helping with a local, related event.

Related: Sports Classes

If you don't have or want to take part in any sports teams, why not try a sports class. Bodies in Motion offers karate classes for children all over Boise. This is a great way to get children meeting other kids and people from around the community. However, the advantage here is a professional teacher and lessons that any child could use from mindset and meditation to self-defence and fitness.

Start a Business

While children can't operate a business in the same way as an adult, they can get their entrepreneurial feet wet. Think about getting your child interested in making a little money by interacting with the community. Age-appropriate business activities can be harder to come by for younger children, but as they age, the options become endless. Some things to think about are dog walking, house sitting, lemonade stand, paracord bracelets, or drawings at local craft fairs. Who knows, maybe they'll find their passion early in life.

Join a Friends of the Park/Friends of the Library Day

Many parks and other publicly funded locations will have a friends day. This is a day where everyone comes out to the site to clean, volunteer, help, and improve the facility or park. Some parks will create new trails or enhance old ones. Libraries will often sort old books and sell them for discounted prices. These programs can be harder to find, but a google search or an ask around could get you the information you're looking for.


Involving your child in the community will enable them to see what's it's like to be part of something. It's important that the younger a child is, the more self-centred they are. It's a byproduct of being the center of everyone's world as a baby! However, children are also great at helping others. Teaching them young will allow for a life of involvement and kindness.


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