At Kid Ventures, the word of the week is SERVICE.  While it’s easy to find ways to help out during the holidays, kids can learn and grow by serving others all year round.  Here are 4 ways to encourage your kids to serve in the new year.

1. Serve as a Family

Kids, especially younger ones, learn best from example.  If you want your children to understand the importance of looking beyond themselves and to help others, the best way to start is to build serving others into your daily routine.  Whether that’s picking up someone’s dropped keys in the parking lot, or spending a Saturday morning tutoring, kids will learn the importance of serving from your actions

2. Tap Into Your Kids’ Passions

Do your children clamor to check out the new puppies at the pet store?  Does your 8 year-old love to play chef in the kitchen?  Try out a variety of service projects, from helping at an animal shelter to working in a food bank, a few times and then and let your kids choose which one that they get most excited about.

3. Get Friends Involved

Have a play date scheduled for Saturday afternoon?  Turn it into a serving date!  Having their friends join them not only makes serving more fun, it gets more people involved in making a difference.  Better yet, invite their parents and make it an all-family activity.

4. Generate Gratefulness through Generosity

Closets and toy boxes getting bloated after the holiday season?  For every new item that your child received, encourage them to donate an old one.  Not only will closets get a much-needed slim down, connecting getting a gift to giving one away will help encourage a thankfulness for what they do have instead of playing the comparison game with their friends.

This is just the start!

How does your family serve? Comment below!