Believe it or not, last week marked my first volunteer engagement with my daughter’s kindergarten class. I’ve been slow to get involved not because I haven’t been asked (the volume of requests for volunteers continues to astonish me), but because school volunteering is necessarily not family volunteering.

Early on I asked if there were any opportunities that would allow my three-year-old to tag along. There are not. I understand. A young child could unintentionally and easily side track the entire class.

Unfortunately, this triples the effort to get involved. In addition my time volunteering, I volunteer to swap child care with a friend so that we both get a peek in our children’s classrooms. The scheduling alone took longer than the actual volunteer engagement.

In the end, the effort was worth the treat. Watching any group of five-year-olds actively learning is remarkable. Watching your own borders on the miraculous.

While I collated and folded according to the teacher’s instruction, and then played ten rounds of War (called “top it” in kindergarten), it was easy to see how volunteering at school can consume all available time. You are happy to watch your own child in action. You value your child’s education and want to enhance it however possible. And the teacher is so very happy to have the back up.

The childcare issue will keep me from getting overly involved, which is a good thing. I hope to focus my volunteering energy on activities we can do as a family. In fact, I made a special effort after volunteering to include Miss Kindergarten in my effort. We had an extensive conversation about how much my (and all of the other parents’) work in the classroom helps her teacher, her friends, and herself!

Read more about the growing need for volunteers in schools and what in-school volunteer jobs are most helpful here from this Wallstreet Journal article.

Tags: Building Community, Strengthening Our Family

About Sarah

Sarah Aadland is striving to make family volunteering a meaningful habit for her family of five. Join the conversation as she ponders what they may (or may not have) learned and looks for helpful information about raising compassionate kids.Though she plans to one day put her Masters in Public Policy back to work for social justice, she sees family volunteering as a way to build a stronger community, a better world, and a more connected family. In addition to her children, Sarah tends a large garden, a small flock of chickens, and a habit of mindfulness amid the necessary rituals of parenting.

View all posts by Sarah