Blended Families
la79al
member
Slightly odd question
la79al
member
DSD (11) has to do service hours for school. Technically she doesn't need to do any while she is here, she has until she graduates to get them but at the same time, BM is not doing anything to get her any. So I was thinking about trying to get her some while she is here this summer. The problem is, our summer schedule is wacky in that it's random weeks throughout the summer, not eoweek or eomonth. I am having problems finding things that she can do with a random schedule and also things that she can do by herself or I can help her do with 2 little ones. It has to be something she doesn't get paid for, can't be at a for-profit business, can't be religious education related and can't be tasks for family members. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? I'm not trying to make her work her entire summer but she would like to start next year with a few more.
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Re: Slightly odd question
At her school do the service hours include, the time spend collecting items? With Girl Scouts, their service hours also come from prepping events or collecting or distributing. Collecting items for a homeless or woman's shelter, collecting items for a food drive, collecting items for an animal shelter.
Also, there are homemade items you can make for animal shelters. She could have a drive or ask others to donate the materials and then she could make them.
Look at Operation Happy Sock: https://ohappysock.blogspot.com/ or scratch pads made out of old cardboard boxes https://www.designsponge.com/2009/01/diy-project-recycled-cardboard-kitty-pad.html Our scouts have done both of these. They made the scratch pads on a smaller scale than this website shows though.
Any hours collecting the materials, creating or distributing the items counted in our service hours.
~~ Food Pantries or Soup Kitchens.
~~ Check with your local City Hall, she could volunteer to do a "park cleanup" one day and they would likely sign off on the "hours" of community service.
~~ Volunteer at a local nursing home (check with the activities therapists or recreational/activities department). She could volunteer to come in and paint nails, or do "makeovers" or read to the elderly, or just visit with them.
~~ local hospitals/children's hospitals: Volunteer to be a "candy striper" (not what they are called now, i'm sure) to pass out magazines, or puzzles or snacks to patients (when my daughter broke her arm, the Children's Hospital ER had volunteers coming around to read stories to the kids in the ER and to do games and puzzles with them, it was VERY cool!).
~~Local Animal Shelter: Volunteer to walk dogs or clean cages or whatever.
~~ Local Library: Volunteer to re-shelve books.
~~ Local Senior Center: Volunteer to do tasks for local seniors (i.e. mow lawn, clean a house, etc).
When I did my hours back in high school, I did cleaning for an elderly neighbour. Your SD could maybe cut grass, or weed a garden if she doesn't want to be inside a stranger's house.
Wouldn't we all give anything for one more care free summer? Don't cut hers short unnecessarily!
Check your local churches for their Vacation Bible School dates. They ALWAYS need assistants.
Sure, its a week of religion, but its religion for little ones, so lots of songs and color pages.
Good luck! I volunteered for years at my local animal shelter growing up, and it changed my life and taught me so much.
Phantom, it's part of the high school graduation requirements. At least, where I went to school it was.
I had to accrue 25 hours of community service before graduating. I could do all my hours when I was 12, or I could spread them out and do a few every year until I graduated. I think the hours have since increased, but that's the idea.
Eta: I think I misread your comment. Yeah, a care free summer for SD would be nice. She may have to do a certain number of hours every year though. Depends on how they're organizing it.