Volunteering in the Classroom

Ice-Cream Making with Preschoolers 
This week I brought all the equipment and ingredients to make homemade ice cream into M's preschool class. Her classmates were abuzz with the excitement of a parent there with a new activity. They all gathered around a table and guessed the ingredients in ice cream (revealing they had not had much experience making it in the past). Each had a turn whisking the milk and sugar together. The teacher got them counting in unison as they whisked, "1, 2, 3, 4, ...." all the way to 20 and then they passed the bowl along and repeated this process. Everyone wanted to smell the open bottle of vanilla extract when I offered. Two kids shared the job of pouring in the heavy cream. M was at my left elbow and dashed to fetch or throw away things for me as needed. I got out the ice cream bowl with its thick-walled frozen sides and they all felt it and said "Brrr!" Then we poured the mixture in, turned the maker on, and let it spin for twenty minutes.

W had come along with me for this morning helping out in preschool, and so while we all waited for the ice cream to be ready, he got in on the volunteering too. He was so excited to read the class some ice-cream-themed picture books: Curious George Goes to an Ice Cream Shop, the story "Ice Cream" in Frog and Toad All Year, and the Elephant and Piggy classic Should I Share My Ice Cream? He had practiced reading these aloud ahead of time at home, in particular the trick of how to physically hold the books so the kids could see the pictures while he read because, as he said, "I always hated when teachers didn't show the pictures until after they read the words." He was funny and expressive and did a great job. M was feeling extra excited that both her mom and brother were there, and took a proud spot next to this big guest reader the whole time. Her preschool classmates were a wonderful audience. W got compliments from his former preschool teachers. It felt like a good use of time for us all.

I did another bit of preschool classroom volunteering earlier this year:

Drawing Lessons with Preschoolers
We like Young Rembrandts drawing lessons on YouTube-- one- to five-minute videos demonstrating how to draw... a kitten/an elephant/Santa/a snowman/fish/a butterfly, etc. The videos are perfect for the stage my almost-5-year-old is at, though plenty of them would be good for older kids as well. We like to draw as we watch, pausing the video after each step to draw that portion on our own papers, and then tapping "play" again. "Can we do a drawing lesson?" is a regular thing M asks to do at home. She loves them. (They've helped her grow as an artist too. She drew a bunch of hot air balloons in a picture for her grandparents a couple of months ago. I asked what the little square on each one was and she said "That's where the light is reflecting!")

So after running this by the teacher who was all for it, I brought the iPad and some of these bookmarked drawing videos to share with her classmates. They joined me at a table a few at a time to have their turn. (M of course stated she wanted to stay with me the whole time, and the teachers were great about that.) The experience was a great reminder of the vast developmental differences among three-, four-, and five-year-olds within the preschool spectrum, not to mention individual differences. Some gripped the marker with their whole first rather than their fingers, and some finished drawings were more identifiable than others. But we had a great time and a lot of cute drawings went home. Here's some of M's creations from those drawing lessons: 

Thoughts on Volunteering
I've always tried to participate in my children's classrooms at least once each school year. Like most working parents, this took effort and planning. I set aside at least one of my three annual personal days so I could join in on a field trip whenever the opportunity arose during the year. I often asked if I could help out with something in the classroom on the day before Thanksgiving, since that was one day I could count on having off while my kids were in school. I found ways to get into school over February break when my break was a different week than my kids'.

It meant so much to me to get a better sense of the tone of their room, and to be able to picture them where they spent their days. It's always been so rewarding to see how excited they feel about Mom or Dad helping out for a day. To this end, over the past several years, I've taught preschoolers how to make gnocchi and how to string Cheerio necklaces on licorice strings, I've helped kindergartners plant seeds (with M a year old in the Ergo baby carrier on my hip), I've assisted second graders with a tricky sewing craft, and I brought our pug in for third-grade show and tell. My husband has helped work on hiking trails and run a holiday gift-making station-- at which he felt a little overwhelmed but still had fun!

This year, one of the joys of my more flexible homeschooling schedule is that it's easier to be more a part of M's preschool world...It's definitely easier this year, BUT-- I've always done it. And if I could get into my kids' classrooms when I had a teacher's schedule, I bet most parents can make it happen, and I recommend it! (One thing I've found-- and I speak as both a parent and a teacher-- is that it helps for the parent to just reach out to the teacher to suggest a time frame they are available, or an activity they would be willing to share, rather than waiting for an invitation from the teacher.) It's all about connection. It made me feel I knew teachers and peers better, I was better able to ask my kids questions about school, and more able to visualize the few stories I got from them about school, after I'd spent an hour or so there with them during school hours myself.

Animal Intelligence

I have a kid who has always been riveted by a story of a squirrel on a birdfeeder, wanting to hear it again with better details; he relishes stories about his grandmother's pug's latest escapades. He has a relationship with every dog and cat he knows and they all feature highly in his mind. He kisses our dog goodnight ritually, and the two of them share many, many cuddles every day. Whenever we are near a certain shop in town, he has to go in to see if the owner's black pug is in, because he happened to meet him once. I like animals, but W loves them.

But besides the definite interest he has in animals, I've come to really admire the manner he has with them. He has this sixth sense, a sort of animal intelligence. He knows every cat and dog has its own personality and he approaches gently, letting them come to him. He reads their signals and is really responsive to animals. He wants to be close to them and he gets as close as he respectfully can. He took seriously the quick video we watched on the New England Aquarium web site before a visit there last summer about how to be a ray "whisperer" at the ray touch tank-- and he really was. He touched a lot of rays that day, even the biggest ones that don't come close for long. When he was three and a half, we visited a petting zoo at an apple orchard. It was an intense scene, with a slew of animals-- chickens everywhere, a peacock screeching, goats poking at us. There were lots of people, and the rabbits darted quickly whenever anyone moved toward them. W was intent on holding a rabbit, which I did not think was going to happen. I was proved wrong; after he patiently sat still for a long time with palm upturned, they eventually sniffed him, and stayed near and let him pet them. He was so pleased with himself. The rabbits were the important thing from that day-- not the apples or wagon ride or pumpkins.

I can count on him to be attentive and responsible with our dog. At 14, our Brunsy frequently needs to be carried up and down stairs or lifted on and off the couch and W is always the first one there to do these things. Over the summer it surprised me when I realized I trusted him to carry the dog. He asks me if he can feed the dog each night, whereas I'm the one reminding him about almost everything else. In life in general, love him as I do, W he can be impulsive, forgetful, distractible. In certain day-to-day respects-- how he reacts to his sister, carrying a glass of milk to the table-- he needs support and reminders. With animals, it's different. He is so engaged and attuned, he does not have the same challenges when it comes to critters. He doesn't forget, he doesn't do anything precarious, he never displays poor judgement. It's fascinating.

Retro pics:

Since one of the benefits of homeschooling is the chance to follow personal interests, one thing I knew all along I should help W learn more about or have more experiences with was animals in some capacity. We first set up a visit with our nearest humane society. They didn't offer any programs or opportunities for kids to help out, but they were nice enough to offer us a little tour and we got to meet all the animals and give some treats. We got to learn about how they do things. It occurred to me that W had never been to a humane society before, and barely knew what one was, so I felt we did a good deed in introducing an animal nurturer to that aspect of the animal world. During our visit he was so interested in everything from the information on the walls about the number of pets that had been adopted that month, to the way the two chinchillas moved around each other in order to both fit in a very snug way under the little plastic dome house in their crate. He was completely calm and collected walking by the dog kennels and trying to get a treat to each of them through their chain link walls as they barked up a storm and the echo made it incredibly loud. (And here was my affirmation that I was correct in my decision to not bring my daughter along on this particular field trip.) He understood the dogs were excited and he was careful to watch out for his fingers but he wasn't scared. He didn't ask that many questions on our tour, but he asked some, and I could tell he was soaking up every word and was super engaged with the animals themselves. Even the littlest detail shared with us, he remembered-- such as the advice during our tour to just briefly pet a certain cat then give her her space. He remembered, including the cat's name, and which one it was, when we had the chance to go back and visit the cats on our own before we left. I never had to remind him to have a calm body around the animals or worry about him doing something that would make the staff nervous. It was a 45-minute visit with a 45-minute drive on either side of it, but it was well worth it to hear how it was the best day and to get so many thank yous for doing it.

 
Because of the success at the first humane society, I spoke with another one only a little bit farther away after that. They were happy to have W come volunteer as long as an adult was accompanying him. We went last month for the morning and we went again this week. I feel good that I am getting him out to do some volunteering, period. But the fact that he is doing something he cares so much about makes it more than worth the "lost" academic time and the drive there (even though cleaning litter boxes would not be my first choice if I was volunteering on my own).

Some special highlights from our visits have been:
Along with sweeping and mopping the cat rooms, we were asked to change out all the blankets and cozy poofs and toys as part of their weekly room rotation schedule. W was fully engrossed in choosing the coziest blankets and deliberating over where to put them, not to mention the toys. After shopping for a couple handfuls of fresh ones in the supply area, he then thought hard about where to put them in the cats' room, and played with the toys long enough that he enticed the cat that hadn't moved the whole time we were cleaning the room to get up and attack it. He was so rewarded.

They let us take two Husky puppies for a walk around the field. I had forgotten the roly poly, tug-of-war experience that is walking a puppy who isn't yet leash trained (not to mention two) and W had never experienced this. He put his all into it as we strategized how to leave the right distance between us to not stress the dogs but also keep them from getting tangled up with each other. W was so happy to find they both had been adopted the second time we visited. 

W needs to visit each cat room while we're there, of course, not just the ones we clean. The great thing is that the staff seems to expect and want this from volunteers-- just hanging out with and petting the animals for long periods of time. W reads each cat's name and age and bio on the door (and remembers it). One cat kept licking him on the back of to head while he was sprawled on the floor in the room, which he loved. He can't get over the question of who would give up this animal, or why, when it says "surrender" in their information. He'd adopt them all if he could.

There are less exciting jobs we help with, too, like folding the constant vast pile of clean laundry there. But even with that, he feels that he is doing something for the animals and therefore enjoys it even though I don't think he's ever folded a towel at home. Plus, he likes to overhear conversations about the animals as we fold, and ask staff questions about particular cats and dogs.

He comes home each time, telling our dog about these animals we've seen as Brunsy smells the evidence all over him.

Some pics of our two visits so far (he apparently wore the same shirt both visits):