Do you try to get your kids to do community service?

I think community service isn't something that should be forced. You can point out the WHYs of doing it but the choice should always be left open to your kids. And if you really want them to do it, you have to set a good example yourself.:P

First I just want to say Thank you for volunteering with the MS society...that one hits close to my heat.

Second I am not sure if this is really consider community service but I do take my daughter to her room and have a bag with us and ask her to pick out toys she no longer plays with and donate it to other kids that do not have any toys. She is usually happy to do it..but then there is times where she is like no way I want that toy. I think she just does not fully understand yet. She will be 4 in Sept.

First off let me say I am very hapy to hear that you volunteer your time ..that is awesome ...Here where I live the kids must do some many hours of communioty service before they can graduate form high school ..This is such a great way to give back to the community ...many of the kids have volunteered to help Habitat For hunmanity Home Builderw which is a hands on learning experience ...teaches them that they want to go to college and not do manual labor ...LOL thats a joke ...My fdaughter is volunteering for Hopsice ...and that has been a very eye opening experience for her ...

Yup, I sure do! My children's high school does as well. Community service is a part of the Honor Society criteria. A student is selected based on a target grade point average, but to stay in the society once selected requires community service hours as well as maintaining the grade point average. I think this is a great method to encourage community service. SAdly, that only hits about 1/10 of the student body. I think all children should have community service taught at home and at school, I would actually like to see it placed into the required curriculum in some manner.

My kids walk ever year in the MS walk as I have MS and they have seen the benefits of the program locally. They also used to volunteer with me every year during each holiday, even the smallest of holidays (St. Pattys, Valentines, etc.) as we'd go to a local shelter that housed families and bake cookies with the kids. For many of them the idea of baking was something totally new! Can you imagine being 8 or 9 and never even knowing what it's like to bake cookies and laugh in the kitchen decorating them with your family? My kids couldn't believe that there were kids out there that lived like that. So for many, many years we volunteered at the house to do this. It was our own "program" so to speak and while we were asked to do a special feature in the local paper I declined. I didn't want special attention for doing something that should be second nature to us and I didn't want my kids thinking that they should be rewarded by any way other then seeing the excitement of these kids and the laughter they experienced with them.

Unfortunately since my cancer we haven't done it again but we will eventually get back to it I'm sure.

My son is only 3, but when he gets older, I will be talking to him about doing community service. I have never done it myself, so I plan on doing it sometime in the near future. I think it's great to help people, and I want to show my son that it can be very rewarding to help others in need. I want him to be a good person and always be willing to help those less fortunate. Too many kids grow up not being willing to help others, and I have known several kids who were raised to look down on people who didn't have as much money as them, or nice clothes. I don't know why some parents want to raise their children that way, but believe me, MY son will NOT be that way.