I had my youngest son shovel next door one year. It was a elderly couple. That was all it took. He made sure after that one time, that he got up on his own each time it snowed so he could get out there early and start shoveling. He didn't want them to know who was doing it for them. Volunteering never hurts. And when it goes un-noticed, it tastes even better. A lesson he learned on his own.
Thats great when you see your child take initiative to help someone else. I have 2 sons close in age so they always have a helper, our neighbors are all pretty self sufficient and far away from us, its a walk just to get to the neighbors house, lol.
We do a lot of houses outside the neighborhood, we do our church {that takes the longest} and most of the houses we do with the exception of maybe 3 that are a lot of work {long driveways, walkways, and sidewalks} are pretty easy. We have it down to a science, I plow in the driveway, they hop out, grab the shovels, and start shoveling to the door, then if they have oil or propane heat they shovel a path to the fuel fills, by then I usually have the driveway all plowed and cleaned, so I hop out grab my shovel and do the mail box while they are either warming up in the truck or starting on the sidewalk, if their is a sidewalk I help them finish it off then we leave and go to the next house on the list...
Its more than just helping people, I get to spend time with them with no tv or video game distractions, we goof around all day, throwing snowballs and tackling each other into snow piles, I know the older people get a kick out of watching the kids play while working.
One women was snapping pictures from inside her house and then my wife seen pics of our kids making snow angels in a strangers yard on facebook, it said something like "my shoveling angels"...
We have one women who is in her late 70's that has my sons come and do her yard work, my wife drops them off in the morning and she has all the tools in her shed, she pays them once the first time they go there, she gives them $1000 in cash each and they go back there every single week all summer and landscape her yard. I have to say they do a great job, better than at my house, they sweep her porches, my oldest cleaned her gutters this year, my wife asked him where he learned how to clean gutters and he said "I'm self taught, its not as hard as it looks"...
Anyway I told her that she could hire a professional to landscape her yard for that much money and she said she enjoys having them around and watching them play while they work so much she doesn't care what it costs, and she wanted to give them more, lol.. She even makes them lunch and drinks while they are there! She is also very well off her late husband and her did very very well and they have no children...