When my son asked, we found that the Washington Animal Rescue organization allows kids to volunteer at 12.

Yard work like raking leaves for elderly neighbors. If they are like 4th & 5th grade, they can do reading with younger kids.

What about using the "charity starts at home" approach, and have them reach out to elderly neighbors by doing yard work, raking leaves, shovelling snow, etc for free?

Hmmmm, I would start with "model the behavior I would like to see" and do some charitable activity with them on weekends.

If you are in MoCo, look up the Montgomery County Volunteer Center; it has listings for both adult and child volunteer opportunities. If your children are middle schoolers or older, you can also find the activities they can earn SSL hours for.

What age?

In late elementary school, my child enjoyed helping walk the dog and socialize the puppies through the dog rescue where we got our dog (K9 lifesavers). He also went to the soup kitchen with his Grandma and her church group.

For middle school, there's a group at the Zoo called "Zoo Crew" that's part of Roots and Shoots http://www.rootsandshoots.org/. I also know kids this age who have made connections with nursing homes, visiting the elderly.

Check these places out:

http://www.our-kids.com/public/t/?f=5&s=133

They usually have an age minimum.

I would also check with your kids' schools. Many schools do can drives, etc.

I don't have any recommendations, but am interested in seeing others' responses because I'm in a similar situation. I'm trying to find volunteering that would be appropriate for my 5th grader.

I would like my kids to learn to think of others. Is there a group they can join or a group that we can join together? TIA!