Service Learning Part 1

     For the first part of my service learning I wanted to describe my time with the youth. The youth that ages ranges anywhere from six year olds to teenagers. During the last couple of months, when I had to go back to Billings over the weekend, I helped out in Billings Heights youth sports and Sunday school at the family church for a total of six hours. Now, the thing pops out to me the most about kids is that they are like a owl a night, always watching. Then like a chameleon they change and copy the person they are watching. So to me leading kids was a difficult challenge because I had to work on what I was doing not just what I said. Kids don't really listen they pick up what they want to hear, I know from myself as a kid and now with interacting with other children. So in order to get them to do something I couldn't just say it in a positive tone and just going through the motions of the project. But had to inspire through my body language to them that it was interesting and enjoyable. This gave me a chance to work on leading without speaking because the children followed the "monkey see, monkey do" saying. It was about setting a good example for them the follow. Another important thing I noticed is that kids are social. Being social is a good thing but sometimes the kids didn't always focus. To get there focus I found that the best thing was to use positive encouragement by tapering off their conversations then using subtle transitions to lead on to the next topic. Asking them a lot of questions so that they feel more comfortable around me, so that in a way it showed them I'm not a teacher but a helper, just a guide for them to use. To be able to get children to focus, I found that it was best to relate to each individual. Each child was different from the next and when trying to get them do a task I had to take each ones perspective. Some (if not all the younger kids) wanted to be rewarded with something of monetary value from them to use (or eat) like candy. The older kids though focused more on the quality of the task. They wanted to do something of entertaining value. So in a way as a helper, I took it upon myself to persuade the children into during certain activities. Because like I said earlier each kid has a different perspective. Kids wanted to enjoy what they were doing because they just wanted to have fun. For me I thought it was best to encourage that spirit of having fun. Example would be instead of having the kids just run like the coach was telling them I told them to try and catch me (some of them were pretty fast too). It was a way of accomplishing the same thing but by different means. My entire time with the children they kept surprising and as I'm sure will continue to do so in the future.