Season of Service Week 5: Bond

by Mom It Forward on December 6th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Week 5's Season of Service challenge, sponsored by Park City Mountain Resort, is to bond with your family in meaningful ways. This is a special time of year, a time of preparation, of giving, of spending time with family. Your goal should be to focus on opportunities for service that forge links between you and your family members.

The list below identifies 10 bite-size ways to bond with family through service.

Put a clear jar out labeled "The Giving Jar." Encourage family members to drop in their spare change. When it's filled, decide together which charity to take it to, then go together to drop it off, maybe picking up some ice cream for yourselves on the way back.
Put a Giving Box (or Laundry Basket or Bag) in a corner of your kids' closets or playrooms and encourage them to decorate it and drop in any toys or clothes they no longer use. Take your kids with you when you donate them to a local charity.
If you and a sister like to scrapbook, go together to a ScrapbookRoyalty.org crop. Your registration fees and raffle ticket purchases go to charity.
Make Christmas cards with your kids (see my post on making cards here for tips) then send them to children with life-threatening illnesses through HugsandHope.org or MakeaChildSmile.org.
Throw a Friday night Family Game Night. Turn off the phones and turn on the multi-player, cooperative game play video games, or bring out (gasp!) the board games.
Have each family member decorate an envelope and stick it to their bedroom door. For a week, encourage family members to write anonymous compliments and put them in each others' envelopes surreptitiously.
A week or so prior to an extended family Christmas gathering, help your child put together a surprise spotlight on a cousin, aunt, uncle, or grandparent to be shared at that gathering by that child.
Carol with extended family at the home of an elderly neighbor.
If you're Christian, start a "Gift to Jesus" tradition on Christmas Eve. Have each family member, young and old, share an idea for a service project they will do in the coming year.
If you celebrate Kwanzaa, start a tradition based on Ujima, the value of collective work and responsibility, of "making our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems." Have each family member share an idea for a service project they will do in the coming year.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

What other ideas do you have for bonding with family through service?
How has forging links with family made a meaningful difference for you this week?
How have others forged links with you this week and what difference has that made in your life?

How Else Can You Make a Difference This Season?

Make a meaningful difference this season by taking the Season of Service (SOS) Challenge. Here's how you can participate:

Commit to do one act of service based on the week's challenge.
Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week's challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
Enter to win each week's giveaway. Check out this week's prizes from Park City Mountain Resort by clicking here.
Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.