Read–With-Me At HGS

Location: House Of The Good Shepherd

Date: Tuesday, May 26, 2015; 6:30-7:45 pm

On my way to the project, I had stopped at ‘Barnes and Noble’ to pick up a book, but ended up also getting 2 ‘Pink Floyd LPs’, meaning I arrived at HGS with some seriously trippy music! Our Volunteer leader Emily was there with a few other volunteers, but all of them were supposed to be with younger kids.  Soon some of our volunteers arrived and couple of them were first timers.  There was no sign of the regulars like Marvin and Wilson, though there was Chicago Cares representative on site.  We went down and the kids were hiding as usual, with general commotion ensuing once they saw us.  I took down the crates of books as Emily was gathering the kids for the introductions.  One of the kids decided that this would be a perfect time to come punch me.  Quite hard too!

There was a box of ‘Pringles’ chips in the closet and the kids were asking us to let them have it.  They said that Wilson had left it there and speaking of the devil, he arrived as well.  The “ice breaker” was our favorite game, and the kids were enthusiastic to play that.  One started by saying that it was “volleyball” and then proceeded to list so many that Emily had to stop her.  We had other choices such as “hide and seek”, “basketball”, even “monopoly”. I said that I liked games where everyone can participate, like “charades”.  Next, was time to pick partners and once again I was left behind.  Kids were picking newcomers or even pairing up with other kids.  Plus, they wanted Emily even though she said she was leading and told them that they should pair with me.  The led to one girl being so upset that she went and sulked in a corner.  I just hung back and decided not to force the issue with anyone.  The objective of the project is clear, give kids a good time while educating.  If that can be done by others so be it.

I was trying to find the hidden pictures

I went and sat with Wilson and his kid, who was reading a book - and quite well too - on “Deep Sea Creatures”.  It looked like a collection of some ugly and scary looking things, and I told Wilson that this did not seem age appropriate; but the kid seemed to enjoy it.  I said that if a meteor were to hit us, these creatures would probably take over the world!  In the meanwhile, I was trying to focus on one of those “3-D” books where you have to stare at a pattern for a long time in order to spot the image “underneath it”.  This is a definite way to get a headache, though I was able to spot a few things.  Two older girls, who usually read by themselves, were with a volunteer who was playing a spelling game with them.  I have never seen them interacting with anyone, so kudos to this volunteer for engaging these girls in something educational.

For today’s activity we were going outside since it was very pleasant.  Kids were running around, playing on the slides and swings and some of the older ones were playing with either a basketball or football.  Two girls were throwing a football and I joined them.  One of them said that she would catch and then give me the ball to throw.  For the next 20 minutes we did that and it was a lot of fun.  Some of the younger kids joined in and they were more intent on kicking the ball, and were doing a decent job of punting.  We enjoyed this so much that at the end when the time was up, we reluctantly went inside.  I mentioned to Wilson later that these kids need to trust the volunteers before they open up.  Playing outside was a good start.  Hey, maybe I’ll even get picked the next time.