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?