How many of you have wanted to teach your kids this lesson?  A hard lesson to learn, granted, but one that hopefully will be mastered by adulthood. 

We live in a very generous community.  Grand Rapids historically has seen high levels of charitable giving, both in terms of time and money.  But how do we teach our littlest citizens about this part of life?  My personal thought on the issue: Daily live out what you want your children to model and they will eventually catch on...but many grkids.com readers have asked me to address that question in depth, so here goes:

• Volunteer at Kids Food Basket with your kids.  They will let kids as young as 5 help out, and I personally have make PB & J's with a child in a Kelty backpack.  Or, volunteer to drive the meals or do an off-site project (they always need donations, etc)
  
• Find a local elderly or shut-in person that would enjoy a visit from you and your child(ren).  Bring along books, songs, or crafts that you can do together (snacks are good, too!) and just spend time with this person.  Many local churches have a list of such people, so if you don't know who to visit, that is a good place to start.
• Wear disposable gloves and go on a "trash walk" to help beautify your neighborhood.
• Have your kids go through their toys and donate some to a local homeless shelter or ICCF.  ICCF needs help in all sorts of areas, some of which you can do at home, like prepare mailings.  What kid doesn't like to lick envelopes? :)  Another need they have is for on-site childcare.  You can come (with your kids) and play with the kids of parents who are taking a class on parenting, home-ownership, job-finding, etc.  I've done this a few times before and the kids are always happy to see you.  We've even made spaghetti for the families a few times.  Anything you do is much needed and much appreciated.

I am sure that you have many other ways that we can connect and help with the community.  Please share them in the comments section!