Take your 3yo to the grocery store. Explain that some mommies and daddies don’t have enough money to get enough food for their kids. You need a kid’s help to pick out the food to take to the people who will get it to kids. Help them go through starch, protein, vegetable and fruit. It’s helping them learn about nutrition while teaching them to help others.

Take them to Walmart and have them carry packages of socks and underwear for kids their age. Explain that some mommies and daddies need help getting clothes for their kids, and most people donate shirts and pants.

Talk to an animal rescue about fostering weaned kittens or puppies, maybe 1-2 young adult dog/cat, but only if you actually have time to teach your child how/when to interact with an animal.

Get a set of grabbers to pick up trash. Your 3yo will be fascinated by the button/lever in the handle, and if they put the trash in the bag that you hold, there’s no danger of needle sticks.

Get gloves and cord with your 3yo. Attach the gloves to the cord, then either tie in areas where people who congregate may need them, or take them to your local ES (where kids are always losing at least one!).

Have your child make pictures for kids, elderly, military, first responders, hospital personnel who can’t be at home this Christmas. Pictures for military overseas should be mailed ASAP, the rest could wait til next week or even Christmas Day for anyone working in a hospital or as a first responder.

Take your child thrift shopping for bedding, towels, etc. Find a domestic abuse shelter or homeless shelter who would be happy to have them. Do NOT take your child along for delivery.

Take your child shopping for toiletries for kids. Explain that some mommies and daddies get help getting food, but they don’t get help with toothpaste and shampoo. Have them pick out things for kids and take them to a food bank.

Have your child pick out backpacks and/or small suitcases at thrift stores. Donate them to foster kids, who otherwise move their things in black plastic bags. Some foster kids get very upset when their things are put into garbage bags.

Purge your old blankets and towels. Donate them to a rescue or animal shelter.

Look for clearance pet food and donate it to rescues (3yo have a blast looking for red/orange tags!). Sometimes you can find 2-4 cases of a single flavor of wet food when it was being discontinued. Big bags with tiny tears work well for large kennels. If you have enough you can’t transport, you can sometimes arrange for the rescue to pick up from the pet store the following day.

Go to Walmart, buy large packages of tissues, Clorox wipes, individually wrapped snacks (goldfish, etc), boxes of crayons/markers/pencils, and Expo markers. Drop them off at your local ES the week after New Years.

Anonymous wrote:https://greaterdcdiaperbank.org/volunteer/

Haven’t been but heard this is kid friendly

we have done this with our 4 year old. they are renovating so not sure if they are ready for kid volunteers at themoment

NO volunteer ops are appropriate for 3 year olds. Many can kids under 12 because they’re a risk and liability. Again, if op “prioritized service all year” she would know that. We all know this is a one off “let my toddler feed the poor so I can feel good” thing. They come up EVERY year on DCUM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here--warm thanks to those with actual suggestions. Please keep them coming. I certainly understand that many obvious volunteer opportunities are not a fit for a 3-year old, which is why I was looking for creative ideas. It is important to us to instill in him now that it is important for him to contribute to the world around him even as a little guy.

To those that felt the need to respond with incredibly negative, snarky, and flat out mean posts--please stop. We make service and giving a priority year-round (including as our careers) and certainly don't view others that need help as a side-show. I often find this community to be helpful and encouraging and am disappointed in the flurry of folks looking for something/someone to attack.

If you made service a priority year round you wouldn’t be asking for opportunities 2 weeks before Christmas. You’d already have them because you’d have been working at them during the rest of the year.

I'm not even sure why I'm bothering here, but there are some logical flaws in this argument.

1) Both volunteer orgs that I used to work with are closed over the holidays (one was a tutoring program for foster kids; the other was teaching language to adult English learners).
2) Neither one of those orgs would have been appropriate to bring my kids along with anyway.

A holiday-specific volunteering opp suitable for kids is a different thing entirely.

At this point I'm just irritated by the lack of critical thinking by whomever keeps posting this.

Call a local assistive living, or your rabbi or pastor and ask if they have any elderly people who would like a holiday visit. Have your kid make a plate of cookies or a loaf of challah and maybe sing a little song. And then continue to visit that person once a month all year.

Anonymous wrote:Impromptu adopt a spot trash pick up, and if it’s possible sort for recycling. You could use a wagon and set up compartments for sorting. Have everyone wear gloves.

Schools have stopped this because of needle sticks no way I would teach my kid to pick up things they find on the playground.

Anonymous wrote:OP here--warm thanks to those with actual suggestions. Please keep them coming. I certainly understand that many obvious volunteer opportunities are not a fit for a 3-year old, which is why I was looking for creative ideas. It is important to us to instill in him now that it is important for him to contribute to the world around him even as a little guy.

To those that felt the need to respond with incredibly negative, snarky, and flat out mean posts--please stop. We make service and giving a priority year-round (including as our careers) and certainly don't view others that need help as a side-show. I often find this community to be helpful and encouraging and am disappointed in the flurry of folks looking for something/someone to attack.

If you made service a priority year round you wouldn’t be asking for opportunities 2 weeks before Christmas. You’d already have them because you’d have been working at them during the rest of the year.

Anonymous wrote:We are stay-cationing from Christmas to New Years and would like to spend at least one of the days volunteering as a family. We have a curious 3 year old. Can anyone recommend organizations that have volunteer opportunities for us all to participate in? We are particularly interested in opportunities related to helping other people (versus animals, environment clean-up, etc.). We live in DC but are willing to drive up to 30 minutes. Many thanks in advance for your suggestions!

NO! Please do not pass on your phony photo-op-charity to your child. If you had any interest in volunteering with your child, you have the entire year to do it. Establish a relationship with a charity and volunteer once a week.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to all of the reasonable and helpful posters!

You are welcome! Wasn't easy on an unreasonable question.

PP here. You can read this guide on things you can do for meals on wheels with kids:

https://www.doinggoodtogether.org/bhf/blog/six-ways-to-help-meals-on-wheels

I second the meals on wheels recommendation. They especially need delivery drivers in winter and it also serves as a health and welfare check on seniors. Your child can visit the seniors with you.

This was mentioned on the other thread:

Buy socks from walmart or cosco or amazon.

Make bagged lunches to pass out. You can keep this
on the cheap with pp&j, banana etc.

Have 3 year old do art on bag or in bag.

Drive to areas the homeless hang out in droves and
pass out socks and bagged lunch.

Most unhomed folks have children. They would love
to see a 3 year old. You, socks and lunch will be
well received.

My boyfriend does this a lot.

Thanks to all of the reasonable and helpful posters!

At that age, my son liked to buy things for other kids -- we found a foster care group that had a giving tree. We picked names off the tree and went shopping. LOTS of talking about it, but at that age, left out the "why" kids are in foster care details. Just "some kids can't be with their families this Christmas, let's help Santa get them some jammies and toys!" Or just "this family needs more than Santa can give this year -- let's help him out!"

My son is 9 now and every year we pull tags off a giving tree. Also throughout the year -- donate time (vs money, which we have little off TBH) to organizations that need help. We up it every year and it is beautiful to see how he's grown in this area of caring for our community.