Service Learning Project. (Post 2 of 3)

As a part of one of my classes this semester, I have a service learning project I have to do. This project consists of the class helping with an after-school program in a not-so-great neighborhood; it's literally the projects. The kids from the neighborhood come to the facility and they get help with their homework and then break off in to age groups for activities. Today was my first day helping with the program. (Three of my sorority sisters are in my class, and they come on Wednesdays too. My grand-big sis works the same shift as me from 3-5 pm. The other two work the 4-6 pm shift.)

Anyway, I worked with two kids today; a girl about six years old and a boy about seven years old. The girl finished her homework in about 15 minutes with basically no help from me. She knew what she needed to do so she could go play.

The boy was the most entertaining child I've worked with in a long time. He sat with me from 3:30 until I left at 5. His favorite color is pink. His favorite Disney princess is Aurora/Sleeping Beauty. He had to color three pictures that started with the letter "r" for his homework: a rainbow, a ring, and a rabbit. His rainbow was all shades of red and pink. His ring was purple and gold for LSU, as per my grand-big's suggestion. And his rabbit, well his rabbit was green, and I mean crayon green. He had another paper of pictures to color, cut, and glue to another piece of paper. It took him 45 minutes because he decided that my handout from the program was more fun to color. He also colored one of my sister's fingernails. Once he was finished with his homework, we put together two puzzles; one was Disney princesses and the other was superheroes. We never finished the princesses because it was difficult, and I'm pretty sure we were missing a piece or two. The superhero one, on the other hand, was done in ten minutes. I left thinking if I could work with this little boy every week during this project, I would have no complaints.

I love this program already. I know it was only the first day. I know so much can happen in the coming weeks, but the look on that little boy's face when my grand-big and I had to leave made me never want to leave.

So be ready for more posts about this project because if it continues to go like today went, there will be many more stories to come. :)

Amber Marie

P.S. If you didn't get the memo, there will be one more post tonight! Stay tuned! :)