This kit comes from the "Superfly Organization of Active Recruits," which aims to "get kids to use their imaginations and learn about helping others through fun games and exciting missions."  It consists of a "top secret assignment from mission control," mission stickers, superpower playing cards, superhero activity sheets and other superhero gear, like capes. It is designed to inculcate social responsibility through fun, hands-on activities.

And, since National Superhero Day is this Sunday, it seems an opportune time to get one of these kits and put it to use. This month's "top secret" mission is to interview 3 people about what they think makes someone a real-life superhero. Use that to help you create your own superhero identify and write about it on the provided card.

Now, the mission itself isn't entirely unique; you may find similar goals in the Boy Scout handbook or Girl Scout Guide. But it's complemented with a comic book telling the story of SOAR, a trading card, an album with which to keep track of each month's mission, and of course, the cape. How fun is that?

Unfortunately, my nine-year-old son isn't easy to motivate with the prospect of interviews. What motivates him more is finding and collecting things, like geocaching trinkets and Pokemon cards. So I'm going to make his search for a superhero into a scavenger hunt that

• starts in our family library, with a book called "Heroes for my Son," which provides excellent, succinctly-described examples of people from history that have done amazing things, then
• heads to our closest library, where he can look up books about current people who are doing amazing things, and then
• ends at our nearest Redbox location, where he can check out a movie or two about superheroes he likes and then we can discuss the qualities they exhibit that he could incorporate into his daily life.

Then we'll record that on the mission card, and put it, along with photos of our hunt, in the SOAR album. And what better time to do it than on National Superhero Day, this weekend?

Sound ambitious? Maybe. But it's nothing in comparison to the benefit to be gained from making such a point of defining what it means to be a superhero, and talking about ways to actually do it. I very much believe that charity is found as much in everyday interactions as it is in grandiose donations, and that if I don't take the trouble to define charity for my kids and incorporate it into our family life now, they have little chance of incorporating it into their adult lives down the road.

The post Developing Imagination in Children Through Superheroes appeared first on Mom it Forward.

For our September book club, we will be reading the book On My Honor by Shannon Henry Kleiber. Shannon spent many years researching and writing about Juliette Gordon Low, aka Daisy, the founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA. Shannon relates the story of Daisy's life with different aspects of the Girl Scout program, and then relates those aspects to important life lessons the girls of today are able to learn in Girl Scouts. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scout Program. I can't think of a better way to celebrate this wonderful organization than to have a book chat about how important it is to teach children values and life skills.

Book Club Details

• What: Join us for an online live chat about teaching children values. We’ll be discussing the book On My Honor. We are also excited to have the author, Shannon Henry Kleiber, join our book chat.
• When: Wednesday, September 26 from 2-3 p.m. EST (1 p.m. CT, 12 p.m. MT, & 11 a.m. PT).
• Where: Party with us in our very own Mom It Forward Chat Room. (Click here to go to the MomItForward Chat Room.)
• RSVP: Email jillgreenlaw@momitforward.com to receive a free copy of the book. We only have a few to give away and they are on a first come first serve basis.

Top photo courtesy of Flickr

The post September Book Club Chat: On My Honor appeared first on Mom it Forward.

I’ve spent the past few years researching and writing about Juliette Gordon Low, aka Daisy, the founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA for my book, while leading a third-grade troop. I have been awed by how relevant Daisy’s advice is for us, even 100 years after she founded the group in 1912.

Girls from different generations have embraced these teachings of leadership, sisterhood and service. These timeless lessons, including being outdoors, loving animals and other living things, and simply having fun, make sense for us, especially in our high-tech society. We’re over-connected in some ways, yet disconnected in others.

As a young girl, Daisy found she had an innate desire to give to others, and as a teenager, she set up a club that would sew and give clothes to needy neighbors, called “The Helpful Hands.” Unfortunately, Daisy was not a particularly skilled sewer, and as those clothes fell off the children, her club became known as the “Helpless Hands.” She laughed at the failure but rose up to not only continue to help those children, but to instill a sense of giving into an entire organization when she launched the Girl Scouts.

This summer, as you’re planning what to do with your children, think about “doing a good turn.” It doesn’t have to be daily, or be a big service project. Walk around your community to see what needs to be done. Maybe an elderly neighbor could use some gardening help. Or you could bring supplies to a food pantry, volunteer at the Humane Society, bring chicken soup to a sick friend or send letters to military overseas.

Talk to your kids about why we try to do good things for other people, and how it makes your child feel to do them. Tell them how you feel—thankful, proud, inspired—when you help others. Once kids have that feeling, they are more likely to want to recreate it and share it with others.

How to you teach your children to be charitable and service-oriented?

Featured image courtesy of Flickr.

Shannon Henry Kleiber is the author of the new book “On My Honor: Real Life Lessons From America’s First Girl Scout.” She is a former Washington Post staff writer, and is an editorial board member for Edible Madison magazine. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband and two daughters, and is a Girl Scout troop leader for her older daughter’s troop. You can find out more about Shannon at www.shannonhenrykleiber.com.

The post Girl Scouts: Do a Good Turn Daily appeared first on Mom it Forward.

Daisy was, by all accounts, an imaginative, resourceful, somewhat eccentric woman. She was from an affluent, Savannahian family. She married William Mackay Low in 1886, but they had no children even after 15 years of marriage, and the relationship dissolved when her husband began drinking and openly carrying on an affair. During this time, she became partially deaf due to a grain of rice becoming lodged in her ear at her wedding, and a botched ear operation. She and her husband divorced in 1905, but he passed away shortly before it was finalized. She found herself alone in an era when society didn't know what to do with women like her, and neither did she. But she frequently attended teas, balls, and other social gatherings, and it was at one of those gatherings that she met Sir Robert Bayden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts of America. It was in him that she gained a life-long friend, the inspiration and wherewithal to start the Girl Scouts of America, and a direction for her life.

Shannon's book, On My Honor: Real Life Lessons from America's First Girl Scout, while thorough enough to relate the above details about Daisy's life, along with related stories and information found during Shannon's research, is not an extensive biography; many of those have already been published. Instead, it loosely relates the story of her life with different aspects of the Girl Scout program, and then relates those aspects to important life lessons the girls of today are able to learn in Girl Scouts. Each of the book's 10 chapters starts with an anecdote from Daisy's life, beginning with her early youth, continuing more or less chronologically until her death, then discusses what life lesson her actions demonstrated, and then ends with Shannon sharing specific ways in which those life lessons are being taught or learned by the girls in her Madison, Wisconsin troop. In Chapter Seven, for example, we hear this example of Daisy's resilience and spirit despite her hearing loss:

"One...time she was walking in Scotland near an overflowing stream. She had stopped along the way at a log she would need to use to cross over. Just then, a peddler came up, and she instantly prevailed upon him to help her across as she could not hear well. She insisted he start ahead of her with her following and holding onto his shoulder. The peddler tried to object, but Daisy would not respond to his pleas. When they had crossed to the other side, she thanked him and asked finally what he was trying to sell her. He replied that he was simply attempting to say...he was blind."

Her physical challenges gave Daisy a good position to argue for equality and inclusivity among the Girl Scouts. Of course, this lesson is still very relevant today, as are the other lessons shared in Shannon's valuable book. It is a book told in an occasionally casual but genuinely passionate voice, and it is in that voice that the book gains its uniqueness. And it is in using Daisy as the "main character," with the current-day Girl Scouts of Shannon's troop as "supporting characters," that the book gains its compelling nature. Just as Shannon writes she didn't want Daisy to die, I found that neither did I, nor did I want Shannon's book to end.

Featured image courtesy of Flickr.

The post Book Review: On My Honor, a Girl Scout Treat appeared first on Mom it Forward.

10 Bite-Size Ideas for Serving Actively

1.  Walk instead of drive next time you have an errand within a half-mile of your house, easing the burden on our environment a little and helping your body a lot.
2. Dedicate your participation in an athletic endurance event to the American Cancer Society through their DetermiNation program. Visit this link for details or to find a sponsored event near you.
3. Take this quiz of the American Heart Association so that they can give you a personalized walking plan.
4. Subscribe to the RSS feed of the National Wildlife Federation's Be Out There program, to get ideas for outdoor activities.
5. Think about what it'd be like to have breast cancer, then request an information brochure about an upcoming Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.
6. Take a busy neighbor's dog for a walk.
7. Contact your local Girl Scout council about doing a one-time tutorial event for a troop on skiing, geocaching, in-line skating, or another outdoor activity.
8. See how many doors you can open for someone else in one day.
9. Crumple up some pieces of paper, break out some hula hoops, and get together an indoor snowball fight with your kids.
10. Have a Just Dance, Wii Fit, or Dance Central with your kids or hubby.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• What other ideas do you have for serving others by being active?
• How has being active made a meaningful difference for you or others this week?
• How have others given to 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 kindness/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 Curious George and PBS Kids by clicking here.
• Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.

The post Service Ideas: 10 Ways to Be Active and Give to Others appeared first on Mom it Forward.

1. Contact your local Girl Scout council about being a one-time program aide at a Forever Green event. Forever Green is the Girl Scouts' national annual community action project, and the events help them accomplish their mission of "being at the forefront of environmental sustainability by leading schools and communities in using resources wisely."
2. Take an idea like this one from one of the Girl Scout manuals for an environmental or engineering activity and see if your daughter (or son) would like to get together a group of friends and lead them in doing the activity.
3. Ask your son or daughter if they know of anyone at their school, or would be willing to put up a poster at their school to find someone interested in being the lead organizer for a Martin Luther King Day January 2012 event. If so, they could be eligible for a $4,000 grant through Youth Service America.
4. Make a $5 donation to Youth Service America, an organization that improves communities by increasing the number and the diversity of young people, ages 5-25, serving in service and leadership roles. YSA works to engage youth in service, learning, leadership, and achievement efforts through their "Global Youth Service Day," "Semester of Service," and "Get Your Good On" campaigns.
5. Take the lead in assembling an e-mail and street address list of your extended family members on both sides so that you can stay in touch. Start by asking your parents for their sibling's info.
6. Take the lead in assembling a phone tree of your neighborhood, so that everyone's status can quickly be ascertained during an emergency or natural disaster.
7.  Help your family lead a more service-oriented life by taking just one of the ideas in this or any other Season of Service post, doing it, then posting about it on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.
8. Identify a community leader you are inspired by, find their web page, and follow them.
9. Lead a discussion about your favorite social issue or political figure at your next book club meeting or get-together with friends.
10. Read this article on how doing service can reduce stress and thus reduce things that lead to arteriosclerosis (no one wants that!).

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• What other ideas do you have for giving to others by going leading?
• How has leading made a meaningful difference for you this week?
• How have others given to 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 kindness/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 Together Counts by clicking here.
• Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.

The post Service Ideas: Tips to Help Your Children Lead Charitable Lives appeared first on Mom it Forward.

When I was 25, before I became a mom, I started working for a local nonprofit called The Children's Center, whose mission is to help infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with emotional and behavioral problems. I helped with fundraising for the treatment of these very young, troubled children. This work lit a fire in me that led me to get a Masters degree in Nonprofit Administration and to pursue a career in nonprofits for over 10 years, raising money and running programs for the arts, education, Girl Scouts, and others.

X
Fast forward a few years. While I am fully embroiled in the homemaker line of work, with young children, giving back is still a passion of mine. And because of that, I want my kids to be involved in charitable work as well. The challenge? I have struggled to teach them to be charitable when their concept of the world around them barely extends past the ends of their noses.

Tips for Raising Giving Children

My solution? To start small in these three ways by teaching them to:

1. Be aware. Teaching children to be aware of others is a simple matter of pointing out other children when you are grocery shopping, playing at public places, or when you're at church. Getting your children used to the idea that other children exist is the first step.
2. Reach out. Providing your kids with opportunities to reach out to others involves actions as simple as sharing (an item or a task, like story time), throwing a ball to a friend, passing something back and forth, or anything to introduce the concept of giving.
3. Make a difference. Help them focus on the importance of making a difference in others' lives. This is a harder concept for young children to grasp, but not impossible. If a friend gets hurt, encourage your child to blow a kiss. If a sibling asks for help, find a way for your young child to help along side of you. Whenever possible, assign your little one a task or chore and reward him or her profusely for helping.

After all, children do not learn to read all at once; they learn the letter names first, then their sounds, then how to put them together. Why would it be any different with them learning to be charitable.

What are small and simple ways you are teaching your children the concepts of giving and charity?

This post was written as part of the Cheerios Bloggers Circle in support of Cheerios initiative to help nourish the bodies and minds of children.

The post Three Tips for Teaching Young Children to Be Charitable appeared first on Mom it Forward.