As a family we have been trying to focus on giving to others lately (and trying to avoid "consuming" so much ourselves!) One way we decided to do this pre-Christmas time was to make some Operation Christmas Child boxes with our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group.
During allowance time the kids got to choose how much they wanted to donate towards making an Operation Christmas Child box and then we (mom & dad) matched their funds - a lesson in doubling your money.
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| 6 year old donating $6 |
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| My almost 3 year old "counting" out her $, she ended up donating $3 |
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| My compassionate 8 year old donating $10 (I had told them this was the highest amount I would match!) |
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| At the Dollar Tree |
Once we had our money set - their funds plus the doubling left us with $40, we set out to the Dollar Tree to buy goods for two boxes, we decided to let the boys shop for a boy box (for a boy ages 5-9) and the girls shop for a girl box (for a girl age 5-9). Each "team" of kiddos got to choose 18 items for their box - they choose to work together on some items too - for example one team purchased a pack of toothbrushes and the other team purchased a pack of soap.
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| The boy box pile |
Once we were home we separated out all of the goodies to pack in the boxes. We decided to remove all the packaging that we could so that our boxes would fit more items into them.
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| Packed up boy box |
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| Girl box goodies, getting ready to pack it up! |
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| Packed up girl box |
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| Filling out our "paperwork" |
On Operation Christmas Child's webpage you can print out an "All About Me" form designed to be filled out by your child and sent with your box - you can choose to share as much or as little info as you'd like, including an address - we might even get a letter back!
Here is the link for the All About Me form - you can download it as a PDF:
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Graphic_Resources/
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| More paperwork |
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| Complete Girl Box |
We decided to also put a family picture in our boxes - so glad I printed out plenty last time I ordered :)
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| Complete Boy Box |
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| Final touches on the envelope that the "All About Me" papers went into - unsealed! |
Something new to me this year was the "track your box" option on the OCC website. We were able to make our shipping donation for each box (they recommend $7 per box) and then printed off a label to put on each box, these labels also include the boy / girl option and ages to check off (so that they know who your box is designed for!), and now we will be able to find out where our boxes end up!
Track you box link:
It was a fun project and interesting to shop with the kids - for our kids it is important to talk about 3 things before we get into a project like this:
- Why we are doing this (some kids don't get ANY Christmas gifts, while we have PLENTY of everything)
- When we go shopping we will NOT be spending any money on ourselves (I have found that as long as I remember to talk about this ahead of time it really cuts down on the whining about wanting this toy and that toy - not all the whining, but most of it!)
- And finally to have fun imagining what you would like to receive if you were a boy or girl living in poverty. Giving with joy can be tough for kids, but a little perspective setting can go a long way.
What about you - do you have a project you like to do with your family for others during this season?
Have you packed a box for OCC? What did you include?
