$500 to invest, where should I put it besides Savings or CD(s)?

I get $500 from someone every year as a gift. My kids also get $75 a year from the same person. Instead of the money just sitting there in a CD or Checking Account not earning much interest, I would like to take a moderate risk with the money and reap larger dividends. I'd like to at least try to learn how to do invest in some form or fashion to show my kids how to do it. I know it's not alot of money but really the money is given to us as a gift to do whatever we want with so we'd like to at least learn how to invest in something or other. Foreign Currency Exchange sounds interesting but don't know how to go about it. If anything it would be a neat family to watch the investment change in value I think.

Thoughts?

Thank you.

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