Fortunately I was able to visit the Boys & Girls Club twice this week. On Monday, I spent the entire two and a half hours that I was there helping the kids with homework. The first hour during Power Hour was good because I was helping multiple kids but then the last hour or so was rough. It was rough because I was helping one kid the whole time and he didn’t want to do his homework even though he had a lot of it. Thursday was much more interesting. I was only able to be there for Power Hour. I was the only one there for the first thirty to forty-five minutes and it was crazy. There were fifteen kids all screaming for me to help them and I couldn’t get to all them at one time so it got pretty chaotic. Things got even crazier after the two girls and boy next to me started competing for my undivided attention. One of the girls decided she wanted me to be her sister so she started calling me “sister” then naturally the other girl had to do the same thing. One of the other volunteers came over to sit with us and one of the girls pronounced that we would make a beautiful couple. It was funny and laughable until I looked up to see his girlfriend standing two feet away looking at us, awkward. He took the two girls to the gym after that. Power Hour ended a little bit early so I got to do Triple Play for a little while. Today’s game was pop tart tag, which was quite interesting considering I had two girls pulling me in two different directions. When I had to leave at 4 I had to pry the girls off because they didn’t want me to leave. My crazy day ended appropriately with me getting hit on by two thugs as I walked out.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
will work for...a little relaxation
Due to the local schools being on Fall Break Monday and Tuesday and my new practice schedule for crew I was only able to volunteer for an hour this week. Despite the small amount of time I was able to give this week I still feel like I accomplished a lot. Almost all of the children had at least one page of homework they needed to do. They have begun grouping the children at different tables in the homework room by their class so one person can help multiple kids at the same time with the same assignment.
The first table I helped was a group of three 4th grade boys with their Reading and Vocabulary worksheet. None of the boys knew the meanings of any of the vocabulary words even words like humble and vain. I help seven more kids with the same worksheet throughout the rest of Power Hour and not one of the ten kids knew what the Constitution was which I find to be a very frightening and concerning situation.
Another thing I noticed was many of the boys are trying to act gangster or thug. This is a really bad thing because several of them come from places where there are versions of gangs and I really don’t want them to get mixed up in that. The boys are really sweet when they aren’t trying to act all bad and tough. I hope that it is just acting because the club is supposed to prevent the kids from getting messed up in that.
It really helped brighten my day when my little buddy smiled and came running up to me when she saw me. It is such a nice feeling to know that I have made enough difference in some of the kids’ lives that they are happy to see me.
We played an inside game, since it was raining, called Mr. Wolf that involved a lot of running. Despite all the running involved in the game my little buddy and several of my other buddies insisted on holding my hands the entire time we played the game. We weren’t very good at the game but they had fun anyway.
Volunteering was a bright spot in my very stressful week and I hope I will be able to go more next week.
Until next time…
XOXO Service Girl
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