Dear Teachers Q & A
By Peggy Gisler and Marge Eberts
Opportunities for Young Teens to Volunteer
Question: I’m already thinking about summer and what my young teens could do beyond just fun activities. There are some jobs like babysitting and yard work, but beyond this there aren’t too many jobs for children this age. Where are some places they could do some volunteer activities? – For Volunteering
Answer: Volunteering is a worthwhile experience for young teens. It can be an opportunity to explore career paths by stepping into a new environment. Most communities offer some summer volunteer opportunities even for young teens. You can find opportunities for young teens with parks and recreation departments, food banks, soup kitchens, animal shelters, nonprofit organizations and local libraries.
You and your young teens can easily get an idea of what opportunities exist by searching for “volunteer opportunities for children” online, or you can be more specific and search for a specific age. You will find loads of websites with suggestions about things that they can do. Some cities, usually larger ones, have websites that list volunteer opportunities for teens.
Besides volunteering in person, there are many opportunities to be an online virtual volunteer. Both of you can explore these opportunities online. Consider online tutoring, calling and checking on senior citizens as well as playing online games with them, being a pen pal to younger children, advocating for a cause, starting a fundraiser and much more.
Young teens can also get together with their friends to create items for the homeless or others in need. They can sew blankets, knit socks and put together bags of needed items from clothes to food. They can also grocery shop for the house-bound and raise funds for a particular cause.
One thing that is great about young teens’ volunteering is that it starts them on the road to a lifetime of volunteering. Furthermore, studies show that volunteering tends to make them happier and increase their self-confidence—and they may even learn some new skills. And in volunteering, they get a feeling of satisfaction that they have made a difference by meeting real needs in their community.
Kindergarten Expectations
Question: My son did not attend preschool. This fall he will start kindergarten. I have tried to teach him some of the skills I thought he would need to be ready for kindergarten. He has been an eager learner and knows how to write his name, knows most of the letters of the alphabet and can count to 20. What I am wondering is whether he has the readiness skills the teacher will expect him to have. Is there a checklist I can use to evaluate his readiness? I want to make sure he is ready and gets off to a good start in kindergarten. – Ready or Not
Answer: You are right to be questioning whether your child is ready for kindergarten. You want him to be ready to learn from day one. Unfortunately, kindergarten is no longer the milk and cookies and playtime it once was. In many school districts, kindergarten is now essentially a watered-down first grade. The kindergarten readiness checklists all now have an academic element, as well as the more traditional social, emotional and motor skills sections of the past.
If you search online for checklists, you will find a great number of lists. However, what you want to find out first of all is whether your local school district has a checklist. This will be the best checklist for you to use. Another possible source is your state’s readiness checklist.
If you want to see whether your child is ready to learn to read, visit the ReadingRockets.org website and search for the “Get Ready to Read Screening Tool.” It is a fast, free, research-based and easy-to-use screening tool designed specifically for children in the year before they begin kindergarten. It only takes parents 10 to 15 minutes to give this test. Be sure to read what to do after using this test. This excellent website also has skill-building activities to help children get ready to read, as well as animated online games. All are designed to enhance their pre-reading skills.
One important reminder for you and all parents who are anxious to know that their children are ready for kindergarten: Children this age change rapidly. Skills they may not yet have acquired this month may be solid in another few months. Just use a checklist as a guidepost for engaging in fun activities with your son to strengthen skills that are not as strong as they should be.
Parents should send questions and comments to DearTeacher@DearTeacher.com and to learn more about helping their children succeed in school visit the DearTeacher website.
©Compass Syndicate Corporation, 2021
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