CPS Daycare

I have done volunteer work in the past but I had never really thought about my influence on the society that I had volunteered in. Being introduced to this service project was new to me and was something that I will take with me forever. I loved the over all thought of the service project, working with kids makes me happy as it is, and if I am able to show and help them in different ways it makes me feel good. As an assistant teacher I was a bit of an influence on the children, and it was nice to know that some of those kids looked up to me. It was easy to see that when I walked in the room with a huge smile on my face more children looked my way and wanted to play with me. I noticed this because there were some adults that did not always smile as much as me and I could tell that the children noticed this as well. Of course the children would rather be with the smiling teacher. I feel that showing the kids that I can be happy every time they see me is good for them because than they feel like they can be happy and silly with me as well. This is definitely a positive thing and it makes me more positive on my out looks at life with children. This project has made me realize things in myself that I would not have realized had I not spent this time at a daycare. There were many days were the kids were very well behaved and good listeners, but then there were the days where they all felt like they needed attention and needed to get into some trouble. It was days like the troubled ones, that kept me on my feet and concentrating on my patience. As they say, patience is a virtue, this is something that does not come when you are born, and is something that is hard to do at times. Working with children has helped me to pay more attention to my patience, not just with the children, but even my friends at times. I really enjoyed this opportunity for all of us to get involved with the community; I feel that it was good for the community as well as ourselves. Coming into college and being on our own it is projects like this that help us develop great habits on our own like helping out the community. The pictures that I added are of the children petting a dog that came in for their last week of classes. They loved the golden retriever named Steve, it was so great to see the smile on their faces.

good times at the childrens museun

i wasnt particularly excited about this whole project and working with kids to start out with really. i wasnt sure that i wanted to work with obnoxious kids for hours and try and make them pay attention to something when they could be out doing other things. but after the first time going to the childrens museum i found that it was actually a pretty good time. i really enjoyed working with the kids and teaching them things about animals, and hearing about what they already knew about them. some of the kids were just so excited to learn and talk to us about animals, i was a little surprised by this as i expected them to shy and afraid of a group of older kids. working with all of the kids kinda reminded me of what i was like when i was a kid and how i was interested to learn about things. there were a lot of projects that looked like they would be. it feels pretty good to know that i could teach a handfull of kids about animals and just answer any of their questions that they had. it really reinforced my interest in becoming a teacher by showing me how fun and interesting it can be to teach kids. you can go to classes all day about teaching and you never really get a good feel about what its like to teach a kid but to actually get to do it really helps in making the decision to become one. my favorite moment of this whole project was probably the first day of the project. the three of us went into the childrens museum not knowing wut to expect or anything only with our supplies. after a little while of waiting and planning kids started to come over and we were no longer afraid or unsure, we were now the fun teachers and helpers. i think that this project definately helped me out in life. i feel that i am more confident in having the ability to help and teach others as well as having a little more confidence in myself. we kinda just found this option by chance,we saw a vounteering tab and we clicked on it and happened to find it by chance. if i had to do this all over again i definately would pick to do the same thing again with out a doubt.

Final Children's Museum

A few weeks ago, I was completely hesitant going into this project. I just wanted it to be over and done with and to get a good grade for it. Little did I know that, this week I would be looking back at it and missing all the fun times we had with the kids. Service learning has changed me in a healthier sense. I feel as though I'm a happier person. Each week I looked forward to doing child-like activities on friday's. I'm glad that we chose to work with the kids over at the museum and Tonya our coordinator couldn't have been more helpful and kind. Although none of our projects were ever too difficult, it was the simplicity involved that kept it interesting. We tried not to get too stuck with specifics for our projects and we usually just went out on a limb once we got there.

I would have to say my favorite project was being able to help out with Autism Night. Going into it we weren't sure what to expect. I had never met a child with autism and I wasn't sure if we would be doing activities. That night I learned a severe lesson in life: the ability to listen. We sat and listened to parents pour their hearts out about their unique children. I have forever been changed by their words of wisdom and hopefully by talking about it in our blogs, someone has read them and taken something away from it. In my opinion, the service learning portion of this class was a vital part of the curriculum. There is only so much that lectures and labs can teach us. I thought it was cool that we were all able to come up with our own project. It was important that we were never really given alot of specific examples of previously done projects because it forced us to think and be unique. By working in groups I was able to learn the value of cooperation and teamwork, and I also made new friends. Through our service learning project I realized how we can't always assume that kids know even the most basic things in life, they usually learn from casual conversations. They were generally intimidated by us when we came to visit because we were the "big kids", but I hope we proved them wrong by creatively teaching them new leasons about animals without them even knowing it. My hope is that we managed to educate these kids while still having a good time. I hope that they look back on their experiences with us and are just as happy as they have made us.

Autism Night

The Children's Museum of Stevens Point holds autism night on the first Monday of every month. A young mom was there with her four-year-old son, Austin. He was a very happy little boy with enough energy to run a marathon. When Austin was born he appeared to be a normal healthy little boy, but when he turned two his development hit a standstill and almost everything he learned dissappeared. With the help of specialists he is learning to talk again, although is speech is limited. Being the mom of a child with autism is without a doubt a full-time job. Austin eat's anything. He will literally eat his clothing. He also has a problem with running away. He's a master escape artist (they live on 40 acres of land with alot of water). He also has no concept of pain. She hasn't taken him to a grocery store in over 3 months. The last time she took him to a grocery store, he cracked his head open. His whole body is almost insensitive, except for his head. His mom has a hard time brushing his teeth and he's already had to have surgery to remove some of his teeth because of decay that led to his gums. Something that is unique to his form of Autism is that he does "edging". He has rituals that he does to calm himself down in exciting situations. When new people walk past him he swings his arms in excitement and hops up and down in order to take-in new information. He also lines up his hot-wheel cars. He lines them up every time in a specific order. If he turns his head for a second, after he lined up the cars, his mom will move one just a slight bit. When he turns around and looks back at the cars, he is quick to realize it.

The other family that came in had a son named Logan. Logan was very passive, but he was very verbal. He even came over by us to talk and asked us a few questions. Logan, has a lower form of autism on the "spectrum" as his mom called it. His parents knew that Logan was autistic from when he was only a baby. He was always behind on development. Logan only goes to a school for kids with special needs for half a day. He hates loud noises. The Children's Museum has a train that the kids can play on and he was scared to even walk into that half of the building because he doesn't like the noise. He doesn't handle busy areas or stressful situations very well. The difference between the two boys shows the variations of autism.

Service Learning Day 2 - YMCA

First off, I need to clarify a few things. In my last post I said that kids ages 3-12 can use the exercise equipment. I misspoke. There is two rooms at Family Prime Time, the “weight room” and the play room. The play room is open to kids in grades kindergarten to sixth. The weight room is open to kids ages 7-12, which is much safer and makes sense. I am sorry for the wrong information. The Body Motion machines that the kids use were donated by Ministry Health Care. According to Ashley, the person working in the weight room, these machines are rare, not many places have them. The machines have five settings, they progressively get heavier by utilizing more of the person's body weight. The maximum that the kids can use is three quarters of their wight, which is a safe amount and will not stunt growth or have other side effects. There are 10 stations using legs, back, chest, shoulders, and abs. The kids are told to do around 15 reps and they do one circuit. They have to warm up by running on the treadmill of bike for a few minutes then stretch after the workout. Also, the kids can only work out three times a week so their body has time to heal. When someone new wants to work out, they have to go three orientations. The first and second orientations the kids have to do the exercises as the instructor tells them and the third orientation is in front of their parents and instructor to show the parents that they can do the exercises. I also found out the date of the earth day activities, but still don't really know what I will be doing there.

Autism Night

This evening my group took a trip over to the children's museum and spent a few hours there for autism night. It was a great learning experience, even though only two autistic children came in. The first boy's name was Austen and he was four years old. He was diagnosed with autism when he was two years old. He was very hyper, and very rarely stayed in one place for more than 15-20 seconds. He is always on the move, and he loves to dance around and climb on anything possible. While we were watching him play, his mother was anxious to talk about him and his condition and she was willing to answer any questions we had. She mentioned that Austen has a very high pain tolerance and never cries. When he hits his head hard she said that he just lets out a death scream. A little later Logan came in with his parents and little brother. Logan was also four years old and knows Austen from school. Logan was different than Austen in that he was much more calm and was not running around and climbing on things all the time. He could speak much better than Austen and had a much longer attention span. Logan's mother and father were also very much willing to talk about his condition and were happy to answer the questions we had. Neither of these two boys were completely potty trained, which makes it very hard for their teachers when they go to school. Later we went and painted and drew on the chalkboard with the children. I know it has got to be hard for their parents and could not imagine what a handful it must be. I really enjoyed playing with these boys even though they were a handful. It was great talking to the boys' parents and I could tell they enjoyed telling us anything we wanted to know.

fun at the childrens museum

Today my group which includes tyler nigon and amy simmons went down to the childrens museum and worked with the kids and talked to them about birds. we had a fun project for them which was making bird feeders with pinecones, peanut butter, and bird seed. most of the kids came and went which we didnt expect so much. we planned on talking to a group and then letting them build the feeders but this didnt happen. instead we each talked to the kids about birds as they built there own feeders. it was really interesting to hear what they knew about birds wether it was true or not. we talked to them about where they lived and wuth kinds of birds they knew. we also talked about some of the more common types of birds like ducks and geese and morning doves. i was aslo suprised as to how much they wanted to learn by asking questions. it was a lot of fun to do, even the parents thought it was fun. they thought it was a great project for the kids especially since we talked to them about birds. it was a big mess playing with the peanut butter and seed. peanut butter got all over, my hands were coverd with it and seed and looked like a bird feeder themselves. it was also pretty funny cause a couple of the younger kids one boy in particular keep trying to eat the peanut butter off of the pine cones while they were putting it on.

Children's Museum

Today at the children's museum, my group and I went in to talk to the children about birds. We did not have an organized presentation like we expected, but instead the children came in at their leisure. When the kids came in we talked about migration habits of different species of birds like robins and Canadian geese. The kids had a fun time talking about the birds and their different habits while we worked on the project. For the project we had pine cones that the children covered with peanut butter and bird seed that they made and could take home to hang on a tree. We told them to watch their feeders and see how many different species of birds they could get to come eat off of it. They were very excited to make their feeders, but the peanut butter was a huge mess! We all had a great time, and I had more fun teaching the kids about birds and helping them make bird feeders than I originally thought I would. Amy took some pictures of us and the kids while we were working with them that she has posted under her blog.

Children's Museum

Today we went to the Children's Museum and our subject was birds. We were hoping that the kids would come all at one time and we could do a short presentation and then we could do our project, but the kids came and went so instead we did the project and while we were working on it we talked to them about birds. They were eager to tell us about the birds that they have in their backyards and the many colors and sizes that they have seen.

We didn't get many action shots with the kids because it was a flat out mess. We took pine cones and had them cover them in peanut butter and then they poured bird seed on the peanut butter. We also had attached strings to the pine cones so that they can hang them from trees in their yards to feed the birds. We literally had peanut butter up to our elbows while trying to help them. It was messy, but definitely fun.

I was surpised that alot of parents had never seen this type of bird feeder before. They were really excited that they finally had a purpose for all of the pine cones in their yards and they thought it was a great idea to get their kids interested in birds.

We also had books about birds that we rented out from the library for the kids to look at before or after they did their projects. I had alot more fun than I originally thought I would. Next week we're going to an Autism Night that is held by the Children's Museum.

Service Learning - Day 1

Monday I started my service learning project at the YMCA in Stevens Point. I got to help kids ages 3-12 use weight lifting equipment. I thought this was dangerous, as I had always been taught that lifting before puberty was detrimental to growth and could make people permanently short. Marissa, the person in charge of the Family Prime Time fitness section, showed me that the kids cannot lift more than their own body weight. The machines are designed to convert the weight of the kids to a certain level of resistance so the kids cannot strain of otherwise injure themselves. Some of the kids are pretty new to the machines, so Marissa had to take them through every machine and show them how to do the exercise correctly. This actually took quite a long time. I had to try it, as it looked like it would be really easy. It wasn't. It is actually a good workout. I also learned that the YMCA has a large family event planned for Earth Day and I will be able to work with them during the entire activity, so I am pretty excited. I really enjoyed my couple of hours in the Y and am looking forward to doing it again next week.

Volunteer with Children

On Friday April 11th I finally got the chance to go to the daycare in the CPS building. It was so cool to walk into the classroom/daycare. It is set up like a classroom but is like a daycare. I walked in an immediately talked to the head teacher who is Lorrie Richardson. My title is assistant teacher but I basically just play with the kids and help them go to each little area. There is play time at first when the children arrive and then there are many different areas for them to go to and you just walk with them and work in the area with them. It is so nice to see the children get amazed by the smallest things, it really makes me smile. Right when I began to play with all of the little children two little girls got connected to me right away. This was a great way to start off volunteering there. I cant wait for the next time.

Central Wisconsin Children's Museum

The Central Wisconsin Children's Museum, is located within the Stevens Point "Mall". Together with Tyler Nigon and Adam Schultz we will be going each week to inform young children of different types of animals. Basically what we will be doing is having a short (30 mins. at most) presentation of something relating to animals. We will then follow up the presentation with an activity of some sort. Our first week we were thinking of discussing the migration of birds or something relating to birds. Then for our activity will be making pine cone bird feeder for them to hang outside in spring. Our main objective is to let the kids have fun, while still learning interesting facts. I am especially excited to work with children because I am hoping to be in the dentistry field working with kids someday.

Teaching at the Children’s Museum

For my service-learning project, I will be volunteering at the Central Wisconsin Children’s Museum with Amy Simmons and Adam Schultz. We will be using our time to teach the children about basic animal concepts such as the things different animals eat and where they like to live. Since they are younger children, we are also planning several short activities we could do with them such as different arts and crafts projects. Personally, I think I will get a lot out of this volunteer work because when I help others in the community, I usually get a great feeling of gratification. I believe this experience will especially help me after I graduate, because it will give me a different perspective on how I talk to younger children to maybe get them interested in the profession I am pursuing. I am definitely looking forward to working with these children, and I think it will be a great experience for everyone in our group, and most of all I think that the children will really like it.

Fun at the childrens museum

For my service learning project i will be going to the childrens museum in downtown Stevens Point with amy simmons and tyler nigon. we will be going there to teach the children about animals in a fun ways. i think that this will be a fun project getting to work with kids and all. this will really help out in my career choice as well. i want to become a teacher after college so working with kids in this project will look really good on an application. we plan on teaching the kids about various animals from birds to cows and we will have projects for them to keep them excited and interested.

Volunteer with Children

My service project is not for sure yet because I am waiting to hear back from the hospitals, and I may have to call a few daycares. I would love to work with children and volunteer reading books or playing games with them at hospitals. I would like to do this because in my future career I would like to work as a physical therapist that specializes in pediatrics. Growing up children have always been a part of my life and I would like to keep it that way. I plan on going to a hospital or even a daycare at least once a week and just playing with the children. I hope that this helps me figure out that this is what I really what I would like to do in the future. I am really excited to start volunteering where ever that may be.

Service-learning project

For my service-learning project, I am going to be going to an elementary school in my hometown and teach them about the different kingdoms. I am going to have a lesson plan each time that deals with a different topic under kingdoms and have the students be able to interact with me and do some pretty fun things. I chose this as my service-learning project because I work at a daycare and have been working there for about 5 years now. I already know what it is like to teach children and what they think is fun. I know I will be dealing with older children than what I have dealt with before and I expect it to be different than what I have done in the past. I plan on going to the elementary school in my hometown on Fridays and teach for about two hours or more. I will go back a few times and be able to get to know the students. What I hope to get out of this experience is a better understanding of how to teach younger children. Learn to know what they like and what they do not like about what I am teaching them.

YMCA service learning

For my service learning project I am volunteering at the Stevens Point YMCA in their youth sports. I am going to help them plan and carry out what they are doing with the children to celebrate Earth day. Also, I will help coach and referee some athletic activities. I played many sports, but all the skills I learned came from someone else. I hope to be that person for some of these kids. I also hope to gain skills that will help me relate to children better and be able to communicate with parents as someday I want to work at Children's Hospital of Milwaukee. I m going to volunteer because I have been to a few sports camps were the people who instructed volunteered. They cared more because it was their time and they weren't getting paid so there were there for the love of the game and to make other people better. I am excited to start because I like playing sports and working with kids. This will help me in my field of study too.