One important way to help your children in school,
is to volunteer at your school.
Benefits of volunteering at the school:
- get to know teachers, administrators, other parents, and your children's friends. This is your chance to branch out from just knowing people from church, and get to know your community.
- Understand classroom dynamics, observe behavior of what your child is like in the classroom.
- Let's your child know you care about their school, and they should too.
- Teaches you how to teach. We don't all have degrees in teaching, but we are all called to be teachers. Reading parenting books is great, but observing and learning first hand from others what works and what does not will help you at home too.
- Gives you valuable experience and something to put on a job resume for those wishing to re-enter the workforce after the kids are out of the house. (Volunteering is a job, you just don't get paid for it... but then we don't need to get paid for every little thing we do.)
- It is good PR for the church if the community sees us volunteering.
Ways to volunteer:
Read the emails and weekly news of your school, get on the school webpage, and look at the different clubs and groups that are there. Find something that is interesting to you, matches your schedule, and then just start emailing whoever is in charge. You can also just email the teachers, tell them you would like to help out, what days/times you are available, and chances are they will be overjoyed to have you come in.
Things that make it hard to volunteer:
- Smaller siblings at home who are not in school yet, and you would have to find a babysitter for them. If you can find another mom who also volunteers, set up a babysitting swap - it's worth it. Don't let kids who are still at home, keep you trapped at home! They need friends and outside activities just like you do!
- Time. We are all busy, it's just part of living in the latter days. Being anxiously engaged might mean being "anxious" at times, but being involved in good causes gives us all purpose, meaning, and joy in life. At first anything is hard, but if you stick with it long enough to get used to it, you'll find it isn't really as big of a deal as at first it seems like.
Advice from someone who got involved with the PTA:
It's worth it!!! I love that so many of the kids, teachers, and others at the school know who I am, and who our family is because of the work I've done there. I think my kids behave better at school because they never know when I might happen to be there peeking in at them. I get more info from their teachers, and I think they get more attention in class, because I am there. Yes, hopefully I've actually helped someone with something - but the lessons I have learned, and the help we've received, make me feel like I'm on the recieving end more than on the giving end of it all. It's a lot of work, there were days with stress, but looking back, I'm sooo glad I got involved!
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