For Mentor Volunteers

We appreciate our Mentors and we want to help make your volunteer experience a good one!  Here is a list of ideas for activities you can do with your "Little," whether you are a community-based volunteer or a site-based volunteer.  If you have other ideas you would like to share, please let us know and we'll add them to the list.  Wishing you fun and friendship...

106 FREE AND LOW COST ACTIVITIES

Local Activities for you and your Little Brother or Sister

  1. Visit a Museum
  2. Write a letter to congress or your local representative, sharing your feelings about local issues- positive or otherwise.
  3. Roast marshmallows with toothpicks over the flame of a candle.
  4. Participate in a neighborhood clean-up day.
  5. Go for a drive with your Little where you only stop or turn when you encounter a pre-determined area or event, such as a garage sale sign or a street that starts with the letter M.
  6. Check out a theatre production at the Imagination Theatre.
  7. Visit the Folsom Zoo.
  8. Go to Farmer's Market. See if you can identify the different types of fruits and vegetables. For more of a challenge, try to identify the different types of flowers.
  9. Go to shopping. Let each person have $5 and see who can buy the best item for it.
  10. Have a competition to design a protective package for an un-boiled egg. You cannot spend more than $1 on supplies. Then see whose egg can be dropped from a pre-determined height without breaking.
  11. Take an architectural tour of a nearby city. Spend a few minutes researching the buildings online and then stake 'em out. You may have passed by cool sites you have never even noticed.
  12. Make up short stories and remove random nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Ask your Little to fill in the blanks, then read the story aloud.
  13. Hold a movie marathon. Show movies that you enjoyed when you were younger.
  14. Finger paint with chocolate, strawberry, or lemon pudding.
  15. Visit the Apple Hill.
  16. Play croquet with a twist (in the wintertime or at night with flashlights.)
  17. Go to the Library.
  18. Learn to skate at a local skate park. Talk to your Little about why it's important to wear safety gear.
  19. Take a trip to a discount clothing store. Let your Little design a new look for you.
  20. Get a free make up demonstration at the mall.
  21. Paint nails.
  22. Write a letter to one of your Little's favorite celebrities.
  23. Play Frisbee at the park.
  24. Go to Lions park in Placerville and check out the new playground.
  25. Visit El Dorado National Forrest, have a picnic.
  26. Take a bike ride around Union Valley Reservoir.
  27. Learn a magic trick.
  28. Have an ice cream sculpting contest. Use a block of ice cream, spoons, knives, and toppings. See who can build the best house, boat, car, etc.
  29. Take a bike ride on a local trail.
  30. Volunteer yourselves as models for a beauty school at Ponderosa High School.
  31. Walk a dog.
  32. Rent a kayak and go out on Folsom or Sly Park Lakes.
  33. Look at old photos and try to guess their career, lifestyle, and make up a story about that person.
  34. Work on a “garage project”.
  35. Bake and frost cut out cookies or a cake.
  36. Get a couple of disposable cameras and go some place to take pictures. Then once the pictures are developed, compare how different they are.
  37. Roll up and make paper balls. Hold an indoor snowball fight or shoot hoops into a waste paper basket.
  38. Take a walk together with a memento bag and collect interesting leaves, rocks, junk.
  39. With your Little's birthday money, open a savings account for him/her at a local bank.
  40. Take your Little to a volleyball or basketball game at the high school he/she will attend.
  41. Skip rocks on the water.
  42. Take turns playing advice columnist and help seeker. Take turns to see who can come up with the worst problem and the best advice. Then try coming up with some of society's most challenging problems, with your ideas for real solutions.
  43. Visit a second hand store. Buy and design old t-shirts for each other.
  44. Have a water balloon fight.
  45. Teach your Little how to bargain shop and find treasures at a flea market or garage sale.
  46. Research famous individuals that have lived in El Dorado County.
  47. Cheer on your favorite racecar at the Placerville Speedway.
  48. Plan an outing around a book checked out from the library (i.e., astronomy, origami, French cooking, etc.)
  49. Challenge each other to a contest. Anything works, and the sillier the better! Try sand castle building, hop scotch, name that tune, marbles, or kite flying.
  50. Go for a hike.
  51. Visit Coloma.
  52. Go to a Rivercat’s Game or a Kings Game.
  53. Visit a farm and milk a cow or a goat. Have your Little taste fresh milk.
  54. Use a Frisbee to knock down 2 liter plastic soda bottles, set up like bowling pins. Score the game the same as bowling.
  55. Go swimming at the local pool.
  56. Visit a local coffee shop to sip hot chocolate or soda while playing chess, checkers, or backgammon.
  57. Create a time capsule and bury it. Open the capsule on your one year match anniversary.
  58. Take a tour of City Hall or attend a City Council meeting to find out how your local government works.
  59. Make a garden at the mentor’s house.
  60. Make up a non-sense word and come up with a creative definition. Add the word on Wikipedia.
  61. Read through the Guinness Book of World Records together. Look for a record you and your Little could potentially beat.
  62. Get active with a local intramural sports team.
  63. Have a BBQ.
  64. Cerate your own nature or shopping mall scavenger hunt and use a camera to capture items. Example: something from each color of the rainbow, something living, something dead,, something non-natural, something that begins with "X."
  65. Go out to breakfast before school.
  66. Walk around a local car show.
  67. Raise money for future outings by collecting recyclable bottles and cans, holding a lemonade stand, or ice cream stand.
  68. Get manicures/pedicures at a local beauty college.
  69. Buy a glow in the dark Frisbee and two glow sticks. Each person holds a glow stick so the other knows where to aim.
  70. Have a sock war- five minutes and 20 pairs of socks.
  71. Have a bonfire and invite friends.
  72. Learn a new trick. It could be a day of learning card tricks, learning how to juggle or learning to make bird calls.
  73. Do something crafty. Make a scrapbook for each other.
  74. Volunteer together at a local non-profit or charity during the holidays.
  75. Go to the airport for lunch and watch planes take off and land.
  76. Taste some fresh apple cider from Apple Hill.
  77. Rent a paddle boat.
  78. Go to the mall. Discuss body image and how certain clothes affect body image.
  79. Go to Fairytale town and the Sacramento Zoo.
  80. Hold a thematic dinner for your friends or family (e.g. beach, 50's, jungle, superhero, etc.) Pick foods, decor, invitations that reflect the theme, and ask everyone to dress up.
  81. Learn how to play a musical instrument with your Little. Form a band-choose a name for your band and make a music video.
  82. Get a book of animal's tracks and explore a pond or trail together to see what animals live in the area.
  83. Go bowling.
  84. Go play golf.
  85. Help preserve our local trails. Volunteer for trail cleanup.
  86. Use pre-made pizza dough or pie crust and make pretzels or cinnamon snacks.
  87. Develop a list of 30 questions: odd and unusual facts you would like to know about each other. Fill them out and read them to each other.
  88. Make a calendar of the major events of his/her year.
  89. Go puddle hunting on a rainy day and make a BIG splash.
  90. Collect leaves and safe plants on a hike. Make plant rubbings or press the leaves between wax paper and hang in your window. Watch how the plants glow.
  91. Create an "International Night." Decorate the home with an international theme, dress up, prepare ethnic foods, listen to appropriate music, and watch a foreign film on DVD.
  92. Take him/her to a photo darkroom to see how negatives and prints are made.
  93. Build a sand-structure. Use colored sand and the things you find in the surroundings to enhance your creation.
  94. Open the hood of a car and learn about the different parts of an engine. Teach your Little how to change the oil in your car.
  95. Grow fruits and vegetables. When it comes time to eat your creations, discuss how much sweeter your foods are.
  96. Take a Ranger-led hike. Learn about the city through a personal tour.
  97. Sit on a bench and watch people. Take turns guessing where you think people are going.
  98. Go star gazing at the community observatory: http://www.communityobservatory.com/
  99. Do a craft related to the time of year it is.
  100. Go to the movies.
  101. Bring your Little some ice cream.
  102. Play a board game.
  103. Invent a new meal. Put outrageous ingredients together and dare each other to eat it.
  104. Make each other a bracelet.
  105. Go fishing at High Hill Apple Ranch.
  106. Hold your own Olympic games. Create your own teams, flags, colors, ect.