Motherhood Moment: Fun Freetime: Volunteer Journaling Printables for the Family

Volunteering more as a family is a great new year’s resolution to work towards. You and your kids can spend time giving back, learn new skills and even learn more about yourselves in the process. Volunteering can especially benefits kids in many ways since it helps them foster empathy, encourages civic responsibility and gives them a chance to develop a sense of self-efficacy.

Volunteering also doesn’t need to be a thing that happens during the holidays or during tough times like these. Giving back in big and small ways are things you can encourage your child to give at any time of the year. They can spend time making cards for other kids in hospitals, put together snack baskets for isolated neighbors, and even say thank you more often to essential workers we see every day.

On top of finding more volunteering moments, it’s also crucial to find ways for your kids to reflect on their experiences. It’s sometimes easy to go through the motions (even as a child!) without stopping to ask yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing and how it’s making an impact.

Take a look at these volunteer journal printables from FloridaPanhandle.com to get an idea of how you can help your kids take their volunteer experience one step further.

Kids’ Reflection

If it’s your first time asking your child to reflect on any sort of experience, they may not know what to say or how to articulate their thoughts. You can use this journaling activity to get them to think deeper about their volunteering, how everyone benefited and how they can potentially continue to help.

Graphic courtesy of FloridaPanhandle.com

Reflect as Family

Instead of asking your child to reflect on their own first, you can do this activity as a family! You can designate your child as the note taker and have them take the lead on asking everyone the questions on the sheet. Then, you can have them recap and you can ask any follow up questions if you see any opportunities to dive deeper.

Graphic courtesy of FloridaPanhandle.com

Graphic courtesy of FloridaPanhandle.com

Reflect on Your Own

Lastly, you can also take some time to reflect for yourself. How does volunteering as a family impact you as a parent? Spouse? Individual? This can be your opportunity to evaluate the things you individually take away from your experience and how you want to grow from it.