#4 October 21,2009

This week at the Landing Community center was parents week. Because Halloween is right around the corner it had a Halloween theme designed to it. When i first arrived to the Landing I decorated the place with decorations and crafts that the kids had previously made. Then we did activities as we would do each week only shortening them. There was play time, snack, appreciation, and then only broke off into one group.

I went with the "Get Go" group this week which is a group designated for the kids to finish their homework and get help with it. During this time i had helped a few kids and was surprised by myself to have to actually think about some of their homework. A girl named Olivia who is a 2nd grader had a homework assignment to unscrabble words. When i was helping her i noticed i was trying to make it harder than it actually was. Then there was a boy named Kyle who is a 5th grader that had math homework. He was doing fractions and relating fractions to the measurements on a ruler, and i found myself struggling with it more then he did. It's astonishing to see things i remember and don't remember from elementary school. One day i remember asking a few of the kids if they were learning a second language. And all the 5th graders or 6th graders said they were learning a little bit of Spanish. Which i think is very smart for the kids considering i didn't learn a second language until i reached high school.

After the group meetings the parents slowly started showing up. I was nervous at first to have to interact with the parents of these kids i have grown to know. I was mainly responsible for making sure everyone had a Halloween cupcake to make, apple cider, a game to play, and taking pictures throughout the rest of the night. One of the dads asked me what child was mine, and i awkwardly responded saying i was a volunteer from Boise State. He actually turned out to be in the athletic department of Boise State and we talked about my involvement on the dance team. So this definitely made for an interesting conversation. The rest of family night was very fun being introduced to the kids parents and playing games with them, taking pictures of and with them, and just enjoying myself. It was interesting to see the kids parents and how they interact with each other. Some of the kids parents didn't come for family night because of work or something, and i thought those kids would be disappointed all night, but they were actually fine and interacted with everyone.