One of the benefits of having more time and space to learn what you’d like is that your child has the opportunity to pursue volunteer and service projects that interest her. At work, I’m always inundated with phone calls from prospective volunteers during the summer months, but there are so many service opportunities that occur year round. Whether it’s service with your church as a family, membership in a club, or an independent service project, volunteer work gives your child the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution in an area of personal interest.
The other day I asked my daughter what she would like to learn this year. That’s always an interesting question to ask a five-year-old. She had quite an elaborate scenario in mind. She described to me how she would like to help rescue birds.
She told me that she wanted to find birds with broken wings or sore feet. She would put them in boxes with air holes, and she would feed them and help them until they were healthy again. She is quite keen about the boxes part.
While this seems like a cute idea from a five-year-old, she has mentioned it a number of times over a couple of years and I think that it is something that we are going to pursue more closely. However, five-year-olds can’t volunteer at our local animal rescue centers, no matter how well-connected their mothers are in the animal community. It’s a matter of skill and liability.
We went to our local bird sanctuary, where we met with one of the founders. He used to manage the nature center where I work. He said that they always need bird houses for chickadees and tree swallows. Then I realized that my workplace has a stash of old bird house pieces that could be salvaged and reformatted into bird houses to donate. Since my daughter has frequently listed construction or “banging nails” on her list of interests as well, I think that we have our service project.
Have your children pursued volunteer work during the year?
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