GenParenting

Parenting resources for all who love and care for children

Family Community Service

Family Community Service

Children thrive when they have important roles and responsibilities in their home, school, and community. The holiday season is a perfect opportunity for children to create or support a program that serves the needs of various cultural communities around the world. Kids can develop empathy and respect for diverse cultural communities while supporting their schools and communities with their families. Many schools sponsor clothing drives, gift collections, food collections, and emergency support programs for those affected from natural disasters. As part of their learning, students can learn about another country and culture as they participate in a cultural experience of community service. [Read more…]

Helping Our Children Become Problem-Solvers and School Leaders

Helping our Children Become Problem-Solvers and School Leaders

When I consider my son’s first year experiences attending college away from home, I must adjust my administrative guidance for the teachers working with college bound middle and high school students. I am learning that helping our students develop life skills is even more important for college survival than added academic skill development. [Read more…]

The Value of Community Service

The Value of Community Service

Over the years, my kids and I have participated in a number of community service opportunities as a family. Whether it be collecting canned goods for the local food pantry, cleaning up a local school, or raising money for animal conservation, there are a number of excellent activities suited for children. The experience of serving others and the world at large have given my children a perspective about their place in the world, namely that even though they are young, children can still make a difference.

How to Serve Others

  1. Serving others gives children a sense of connectedness to people. It’s very easy for children to get caught up in the routines of the everyday – the same class, the same grocery store, the same friends, the same teachers. For many reasons, structure is needed to help create a sense of safety for children. However, when we provide opportunities for children to see the needs of others, it shows them we all live and interact with one another in community. Being a good neighbor has to start with us teaching our children how to cultivate healthy connections with others. Community service appropriate for cultivating connectedness include singing songs at a convalescent hospital, making get-well-soon cards for sick children in a local hospital, or even cleaning up a local school or park for the enjoyment of neighbors.
  2. Community service projects help develop empathy. When you’re collecting canned goods for the local food pantry or bringing jackets and socks to be distributed at a local homeless shelter, children will ask the inevitable question of why people will need such basic necessities. This gives us parents the perfect opportunity to teach our children to be thankful for their possessions, but more importantly, to see others’ struggles. When children are able to see the needs of others, it will inspire them to respond in care and address others’ needs with compassion.
  3. Preparing for community service gives a broader perspective of the world. If children are passionate about recycling, have them read information that will inform them about the impact of plastic dumped in landfills. If children are passionate about endangered animals, have them research information about the animals’ country of origin and how their habitat have been affected. Whatever it is that drives children to care, use that opportunity to enable them to respond responsibly and make things right in the world.

[Read more…]

Preschoolers and Natural Disasters

Preschoolers and Natural Disasters

California and several other states have struggled with significant natural disasters during the last two months. Preschoolers can become very fearful when hearing about these disasters. A parents’ responsibility to preschoolers is to assure them that their parents are going to work towards keeping them safe and secure. Parents in the midst of disasters typically try to reassure their children and move them to safety. Ideally, parents can provide their children with daily routines that establish a secure and stable environment.

Help Others

During and after disasters, parents can help their preschoolers learn how to support others less fortunate. Strategies parents can use to help their preschoolers give back to others include:

  1. Children can give their extra toys, clothes, and art supplies to a collection bin for survivors who have lost everything.
  2. Children can learn how to collect for a cause when trick or treating or as part of a Thanksgiving Drive.
  3. Preschoolers can attend a service day at a local school where students organize supplies for families who have lost basic needs.
  4. Preschoolers can meet families who have lost their homes by sharing a meal in their home or a picnic in the park with a new friend.
  5. If a family has an extra vacation home or space on their property, they can offer that home or space as a respite to a family in need.
  6. If a family lives between two houses, one house can be rented cheaply to a family who has lost their home.
  7. Your child’s preschool or church can sponsor a fundraising event to buy new backpacks filled with school supplies, craft projects, and gift cards for necessities that can be given to the school’s children who have lost their homes.
  8. Schools can highlight the culture of giving by organizing culturally sensitive assemblies with local agencies and churches. The preschoolers can participate by helping with the distribution of donated gifts to the school’s families in need.
  9. The children can create cards and write messages of appreciation and gratitude to families receiving gifts and the first responders.
  10. Preschoolers can increase their empathy for each other by teaching them how to help a child that has fallen off a swing or hurts himself while playing on the playground.

[Read more…]

Community Service with Our Children

Our Children’s Community Service

I just participated in a community service day at my grandchildren’s school. It was an evening of fun that included the following activities for children and their families:

  • Making cards for seniors
  • Creating dog toys
  • Decorating blankets
  • Making community garden decorations
  • Collecting clothes, books, and toys

[Read more…]