Project 53: Busy Books for the Children’s Hospital

It has been just over a year since we completed our official “year of service.”  During the past year, we have done several projects (mostly repeats), but we have admittedly slowed down.   This summer, my husband and I noticed an increase in the sense of entitlement at our house and a decrease in gratitude.  Not good.  So, this weekend we officially kicked off Phase 2 of Teaching to Give!  I have been reminded just how important it is to keep service at the top of the priority list, even as school, soccer games, Girl Scouts, etc. etc. etc. start to fill up the calendar.  We are going to commit to doing at least one project per month for the school year.  We’ll add each new project to our project list to see how many different projects we can find!

This weekend we tackled Project 53 – Busy Books for the children’s hospital.  I found this idea on a similar blog – Pennies In Time.  (Go check them out!)  It’s a simple and inexpensive project that is perfect for little ones.  Abby is almost six and has just started kindergarten.  Jake is three and was able to take on an active role in this project.  First, I picked up about $10 worth of supplies…

Next, the kids put crayons into baggies.  I told them to put four crayons into each baggie and to try and include a variety of colors.  This was a great project for a three year old – counting and colors!

I love how seriously Jake took his job 🙂  He did refuse to abide by the “four different colors” rule at one point.  His favorite color is orange, and he just insisted that some little boy would want all the orange crayons!

We ended up with 30 baggies of crayons.  I ripped out the pages from the coloring books, and the kids separated them into 4 page books.  Abby enjoyed stapling the books together with the crayons.

We ended up with 30 “busy books.”  This afternoon we took them to the local children’s hospital.  Hopefully they will provide some joy – or at least help pass the time – for some kiddos!

It really felt good to get back to our “special projects!”  If you have any suggestions for new and different projects, please leave a comment.  We love trying new things!  I challenge you to make your own commitment to service for this school year.  Can you find the time to do one project per month with your children?