The aftermath of the Haiti earthquake is on all of our minds this past couple of weeks. The earthquake exacerbated the already poor country's ills beyond our limited ability to comprehend! Jennifer wrote about their family response to the tragedy. What a great learning experience for children to participate in the relief efforts.

But poverty in the world is not limited to those areas that are experiencing natural disasters. They do get a lot of our attention, but we need to remain aware that poverty is a world problem - all the time! After the Vietnam War we were part of a church group that sponsored several Mien refugee families from Laos. At the time we signed up, we had just added our third child to our already- busy family and I wasn't sure we would be able to be involved deeply. How would we juggle the many balls we already had in the air and add this new commitment?

What I wasn't prepared for was the impact this involvement would have on our family. Over the years we became friends with many Laotians - first in teaching them the ways of the U.S. - then eating in their homes, loving their children and extended families, helping them find jobs, and expanding our own view of the world. Rather than taking time away from family to "serve," our entire family was a part of the team.

My husband and I have just returned from a trip to El Salvador. This was my 4th trip to the village in El Salvador that we support through our church's involvement with Agros International. It's called "Journey with a Village" and our team spent time working alongside the people, playing games, laughing, eating, sharing Veggie Tales movies, holding babies, and witnessing a signing ceremony as two more village families gain ownership of the land they have worked hard to own! It was an amazing experience. Check out this slide show of one of our trips!

This relationship with El Salvador has come about after our children have all grown. We would love to have shared this kind of trip as a family, but that wasn't possible for us at the time we were raising our children. If it is a possibility for you, do consider taking your school-aged or older children along on this kind of adventure! What an amazing experience it would be for them and what a great way for your family to talk about the world and its problems. It also helps children gain more perspective on material possessions and our place in the global economy.

Have you, or anyone you know, undertaken such an adventure? If so, please let us know! I'm very curious to hear how a family with older children who could volunteer alongside their parents found such an experience as a family and as individuals.

If a family trip isn't possible for you, please do consider other ways that your family can get involved locally. Don't look on "serving" as something you do without your family - find a way to involve everyone.

Terry McNichols is a Marriage and Family Therapist who also blogs at Grace and Gravity and Are We There Yet?

Like most of the rest of the world, we've been watching the news of the earthquake in Haiti and its aftermath with a mixture of sadness and concern and an urge to do something to help. I've been trying to think of ways to help the situation in Haiti and to make our response meaningful to the mind of our five-year-old daughter, Zella. First and foremost, of course, we wanted to help - but in doing so, we wanted to help in a way that she could comprehend and appreciate, to prepare her for responses of her own.

We considered donating money, but because she wouldn't be personally involved in providing the assistance, it probably wouldn't mean much to her. Then an email came through one of my local homeschooling lists about a group, local to us, that was collecting new clothes to send to Haiti. Jeremiah and I talked about it and decided that we'd take Z with us to Target to pick out some children's clothes to send to Haiti. Target always has a lot of clothing on clearance and we figured it was a good way to get the most out of our clothes-buying dollars.

We don't watch TV news in our household, so all of the news Z gets comes from NPR or from topics we bring up with her in conversation. On the way to Target, I explained what happened in Haiti, a combination of plate tectonics 101 (a lesson we've given half a dozen times) and how the plates shook and the buildings fell down and people - including many children - were without food or water or clothes to wear. (Poverty makes sense to a five-year-old; the tragic death toll we will leave aside for much later.) Z's gut reaction was to send them food but of course, that's much more difficult to do.

Z and I hit the sales rack at Target and managed to get twenty or so items of clothing to donate, including pants, shirts, dresses, and onesies in lots of different sizes. Most of them were 75% off.

Z helped me pick out the clothes, counting how many we'd put in our basket and proudly declaring that we were "superheros today" for helping the children. She had a high level of excitement and an obvious sense of pride. We've donated our ZRecs review products for years, and have done our best to make a big deal about it around the holidays so she understands that the toys we are passing on are going to kids whose parents don't have the money to buy them toys at Christmas. But this time she was excited, I could feel that she understood what we were doing to help people who are in desperate need. Whether it's an age thing or because she was directly involved in helping to pick out the items to give, I'm not sure, but we're going to do this again.

What forms of charitable giving or of helping others have proven the most meaningful for your children? How do you make it more "real" for them?

If you are like many parents in America, Halloween can be a dreaded time of year for one reason: excessive amounts of sugar! We can recognize that your average trick-or-treater is not going to bring home a "moderate" amount of candy. Rather, most kids will bring home an INSANE amount! According to a Kids' Health website survey of about 1200 kids, "Most kids said they get at least 50 pieces of candy, with over 44% saying they get more than 100 pieces." If this number frightens you (not to mention your dentist), consider donating your candy to help support the troops this year.

There is a non-profit charitable organization called Boatsie’s Boxes whose staff gather and ship supplies and packages to soldiers. They have not been able to send chocolate since May because of the extreme heat temperatures, so this is a perfect time of year to gather your Halloween chocolate, spare your teeth a bit and pass along!

My brother, 1LT Christopher Moskoff, is a Colorado National Guard helicopter pilot. He spent a year at Balad Air Base in Iraq in 2007, and reminded me of the value of sending packages to our soldiers. "It was the highlight of the week to get a care package. We have very few luxuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, but getting a care package was the best reminder that your family and friends still miss, love and support you," he said. You can find the mailing address for sending donations to Boatsie's Boxes here.

If you want to avoid the cost of shipping your candy, look for a local dentist who might be taking donations. We have a dentist in Boulder, Colorado who is accepting donations and PAYING $1 per each pound of donated candy! He will then pay the shipping costs to send the candy to U.S. troops.

For younger kids (under 4), they might not even notice the candy contents had diminished. But for older children, it can be a great learning experience about sharing with others, donating to charities and eating sweets in moderation.

And if you are still looking for another way to disperse your Halloween candy, consider starting an unlimited sweets drawer experiment like we did. (And be sure to let us know how it worked.)

And whatever you choose to do this year, we hope you have a very happy, healthy and safe celebration!