Craftibilities: animal shelter

Rice socks are an easy way to help the animal shelters.

I'm doing a series of ways kids can get involved with giving back. These are all crafts we've done at home or with a large group.

Here are my five categories we'll be involved with this month and I'll post ideas for each one.

ENVIRONMENT
ANIMALS
RETIREMENT RESIDENTS
FIRST RESPONDERS
HOMELESS

Easy for little kids to do and great way to help the shelter.

WHY DO THIS?

Rice socks are used at animal shelters as heating pads. They warm them in the microwave and use to sooth after spay/neuter surgery or placed with baby kittens or puppies for warmth.

Socks

Plain rice

Scoopers

Fabric markers (optional but fun)

Simply fill the sock with rice and tie.

Have fun decorating them with fabric markers! My son made the cat :)

We had a big group and made 45!!!

Plus you might get to play with some of the animals when you drop them off.

Other ways to help animal shelters:

Make cat toys with fleece, string, and straws.

Make dog toys by braiding fleece.

Our animal shelter has an area for cats with Feline Leukemia. Most are nearing the end and sadly they don't get to leave. The boys go in and read to them.

Not only do the boys get practice reading but the kitties get some company.

Please share other ideas!

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Sorry I've been gone for so long. :( I like to take the summer off from the computer as much as possible while the kids are out of school. That means no blogging, very little email checking, and other social media. I posted ONE photo all summer long on fbook! ONE photo!!! That's hard since I'm such a shutterbug.

Anyway, I thought I would start my first post back with a summer review. We didn't take any glamorous vacation or hit any beaches this year but we did do something amazing......VOLUNTEERED! I know, sounds like work and you are right. Hard work and my boys loved every minute. I found out they actually love manual labor. Who knew!? Any free time outside of my job I took them all over the place and most days they wanted to know if we were volunteering. {{sniffle}} They are so sweet!

SUMMER OF GIVING BACK - 2014

Working in a garden that benefits the homeless

Making 4th of July decorations for the ER halls at the children's hospital

Removing graffiti

Sorting formula for the CPS workers

Animal shelter

Food bank

Fitting kids with two sets of new clothes and a backpack with school supplies

Handing out toiletries to the homeless

Garden that benefits the homeless

VERY hands on food pantry

Library EVERY week all summer except one

Reading to the Feline Leukemia kitties

Food bank

AND I'M STILL MISSING A FEW ACTIVITIES...whew!

I was asked once why I like to volunteer with my children and I said, "We are giving back to our community, they are learning valuable lessons like hard work, caring, compassion, selflessness, empathy, generosity, gratitude, etc. I think parents would want to instill these values in their children. Plus, I get to spend quality time with them. It's the ideal activity!"

We also had other fun around town.