Sue Patterson

<<Letting kids decide to "do nothing" (though I don't think it's "nothing")
isn't good unschooling. Providing more choices for them, and more input and
more opportunity is the duty of anyone who wants to say "I'm unschooling."
It truly does need to be a "doing," an action, a life lived purposefully
and richly, not just a hiding-out from school. It SHOULD be so rich that
anyone who
hears stories is impressed and understands it.>>


Back in the fall, my kids wanted to start doing more community service. I
found stories on the internet about kids doing wonderful things, and it
appealed to them. They wanted to really DO something useful/helpful/etc.
So, together, we came up with monthly ideas and tried to figure out who'd
do it with us. (And we also chose things that if no one joined us, we'd be
ok with that). Initially, we plugged them into the 4H calendar for the year
(they were thrilled to have someone take the ball and run with it - and,
later I discovered that saying we're *with* 4H, opens a lot of doors for
donations around here...)

After we planned out some stuff, we discovered a national group of
homeschoolers doing community services: HEARTS. And we started coordinating
our efforts with them - and even started our own little North Texas HEARTS
group. (It's blended with the 4H-ers, but it's all kids interested in
community service.)
Here's the link to the HEARTS group - if you think you'd like to get
involved with that:
http://www.h-e-a-r-t-s.org

But the things my kids have done so far:
September- Habitat for Humanity
October - Teens Make a Difference Day
November - Highway Cleanup & Hats for the Homeless
December - Salvation Army handouts for Christmas (Toys for Tots, etc.)
January - Soup Kitchen at the shelter on New Year's Eve
February - Valentines for nursing home
March - Project Linus (blanket making)
Rivers & Streams...trail maintenance
April (anticipated) - Special Olympics
National Trash Off Day - highway cleanup
May (anticipated) - Relay for Life...all-night team relay walk for
cancer awareness

My point in listing all this out is that *for us* this is how our kids are
involved in the community. Not just bystander or audience stuff...which
they do plenty of. But ACTIVE involvement. Kids want to make a difference -
adults do too (if they're not too tired <g>) It's so rewarding when you
have some project and 17 kids of multiple ages show up simply because they
want to help. It's rewarding to me as a parent, and it's rewarding to the
kids to know that they CAN make a difference.

So... less focus on schoolish subjects, more focus on the kids having the
same thing as what makes a full rich adult life.

Just something that's working for us....

~Sue

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
National Home Education Network
http://www.NHEN.org
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

nancy sebastian

hi i have a child who does not want to do anything but
play video games and play on the computer all day.
does anyone have any suggestions on how i can get him
motivated into doing something else. i have a daughter
who wants to do 4h but can't seem to get them to work
with us. and have anouther son who wants to do charity
work but can't seem to find anything in our area. i
live in illinois in jersey county. if anyone has any
suggestions or answers. please help. thankyou nancy
--- Sue Patterson <Patterson5@...> wrote:


God Bless You
Nancy

Sue Patterson

Just wanted to mention one more thing about this, because I really think
it's a great starting place. This month's HEARTS project is to make
blankets for the needy through an organization called Project Linus. You
can easily find a contact in your community by going to their website:
http://www.projectlinus.org/chapter.htm

You don't even have to have sewing skills to make these blankets. The only
requirement is that they're handmade and that they're new. We've made
crib-sized polarfleece blankets (about a yard of fabric) by simply sitting
on the couch, fringing and knotting the edges. Peaceful. Calm. And still
actively helping others.

In case you're thinking of a way to get more involved.... :-)

~Sue

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
National Home Education Network
http://www.NHEN.org
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

> Here's the link to the HEARTS group - if you think you'd like to get
involved with that:
> http://www.h-e-a-r-t-s.org
>
> March - Project Linus (blanket making)
> Rivers & Streams...trail maintenance

[email protected]

In a message dated 3/8/2005 11:01:02 AM Mountain Standard Time,
Patterson5@... writes:

So... less focus on schoolish subjects, more focus on the kids having the
same thing as what makes a full rich adult life.



-----------


Living like PEOPLE live, not living a kid-life.

Sandra


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Sue Patterson

nancy sebastian <squirlygirl1970@y...> wrote:
<<who does not want to do anything but play video games and play on
the computer all day.does anyone have any suggestions on how i can
get him motivated into doing something else.>>

- Don't ban the video games/computer... involve yourself with them
- Engage the child in a conversation about what he'd like to learn.
Then help him find it.
- Look for interesting options in your community
- Set up a movie marathon that might be interesting to both you and
your son
- Ask for help in the garden, or whatever your Spring hobby might be


<<i have a daughter who wants to do 4h but can't seem to get them
to work with us. >>

A chronic problem in 4H is lack of 4H project leaders. Leaders are
just parents that want to take on a particular topic (usually their
child is interested in that particular one) and then opens it up to
others. Here's what I'd do to connect with 4H:

- Ask to be on their mailing list...you'll get a monthly newsletter
- Ask when/where the local community clubs meet. (Community clubs
aren't centered around a particular project, but instead do a
variety of things together)
- Go to visit each of the clubs whose time/dates/locations work for
you.
- When you sign up (it's free), look at the list of projects
available. Many are specific to times of the year. A few are year
round. Your county newsletter should have a calendar in the
newsletter. Call and go over it with your Extension Agent. Just tell
them that you're trying to figure this all out.


<<and have anouther son who wants to do charity work but can't seem
to find anything in our area. i live in illinois in jersey county. >>

You might have to set something up yourself. How old is your son?
What interests him?
If he likes dogs... offer to walk them at the Humane Society
If he likes books... offer to help shelve books at the library
If he likes to get outside... offer to help at the local nature
center
Go the HEARTS website and talk to others on their list about doing
more community service. Play around on the website and see what's
going on that might work for you:
http://www.h-e-a-r-t-s.org/index.html

I hope some of this helps.
~Sue

Angela S

I just wanted to point out that helping a neighbor in need is also a service
to the community. Sometimes this gets overlooked, but it can be very
rewarding to help a neighbor and get to know them a little better.



I used to read stories of homeschoolers who were doing all these wonderful
volunteer things and I'd kind of feel bad because as much as I wanted to do
something similar, nothing seemed to fit for us. My kids don't enjoy
meeting lots of new people and we work best when we aren't on a schedule.



But helping a neighbor is very flexible and the kids didn't find it
stressful because they already knew the person. The neighbor we help is a
single woman who owns a horse farm. There is always work to be done and
she's always in need of some kind of help, no matter when we go there. We
started helping her out over a year ago and although we didn't do it to get
something out of it, it worked out that when we decided to get a horse, she
was more than willing to barter our services for board for our horse because
she already knew we could do the work.



So, if anyone is looking to do volunteer work but nothing is working out,
sometimes there is someone right in your neighborhood that could use the
help. Maybe someone's house needs painting or their dog needs walking or
they could use some home cooked food now and then.



Angela

game-enthusiast@....



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 3/10/2005 9:56:24 AM Central Standard Time,
game-enthusiast@... writes:


I just wanted to point out that helping a neighbor in need is also a service
to the community. Sometimes this gets overlooked, but it can be very
rewarding to help a neighbor and get to know them a little better.



~~~

My stinkin' husband. Not really, I do love him, and he can see things my way
a lot. :) But sometimes...

We lived next to this really old couple, retired preacher who was always
inviting us to church. Sweet as anything. The man slipped on ice and hit his
head and eventually died. His wife was bent over from osteoporosis and could
still drive but I knew it was a strain to get her trash can up to the top of
her long sloping driveway every week. We hardly ever spoke with her before
he died, but I took to knocking every once in a while during his
hospitalization, which started January 1st, to see how they were doing. I spoke to her so
seldom that I didn't even know until way after Christmas that he had passed
on my son's birthday in November.

But I had begun, right after he fell, to take her trash can to the curb for
her when I was taking mine, and then I would remind my husband or my son to
take her's down when they were bringing ours in. The first time I did that my
husband was astonished that I would presume to do such a thing! He refused
to do it that first time, so I did it and then had a week to argue with him
about why it should be done without even being asked by her to do it.

She didn't know for months that I was the one who had been doing it,
although I think she assumed so. She rarely spent time in the front of her house so
she never saw me doing it. But when we did chance to speak on occasion, she
thanked me. Will was too little to pull the full one up the driveway, so he
became in charge of rolling it empty back down. He didn't need convincing.
Occasionally Charles would do it if he thought about it, but he was never
comfortable.

Then we sold the house and moved away. The people who bought the house had
2 teenage sons and so I told them about the trash can and the situation, and
I hope they did it for her, too, without being asked.

It was such a simple, convenient good thing to do for someone else. It
didn't take anything at all from my life, and it gave Will a sense of thinking of
others, too. It was very rewarding for both of us. I'm still a little oh,
I dunno, peeved is too strong a word--but peeved at my husband for not being
instantly willing to help someone in need with such a small, small thing.

Karen


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]