A New Activity for the Kids

Courtesy of USAService, instructions and a US address for making a Gratitude Package for Troops.  This is a great activity for young children, and one that they can do in large part on their own.

What We Did at the Inauguration Party

You can read about what we ate, which is always a big part of our parties, but for this party, I wanted to do something more, something that would signal to the kids that this was a slightly different party, and have them contribute something that they would remember.

So, we set out red, white and blue construction paper, a sheet of  “Dear President Obama, I hope…” stickers, a few baskets of red, white and blue crayons, and decorative star and American flag stickers.  The kids wrote their wishes for their new President, and I’m going to mail them to the White House along with a note and a picture of  all our guests.

Of course, I was hoping/thinking the kids would wish for things altruistic, like world peace, or an end to hunger.  But most of them wrote more general things like:

“I hope you have a great time in the White House”

“God helps you”

“You rock!”

“I love you”

“I want you to know that my family voted for you”

“People who do not have a home will have a home”

“You have proved that what matters is how hard you work”

“I love your daughters!”

Of course, when I thought about it, these are the kinds of things that are appropriate for 6 & 7-year olds.  (And, yes, most of them sat down and colored and wrote these cards unsupervised because the parents were busy celebrating, too…)   But for one thing, while these kids are pretty sophisticated when it comes to community service and outreach (a monthly event in their school and required for the upper grades), they are also just kids.

First graders know that President Obama is the first African American president, some know he looks like them, they all know quite a lot about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. But not having had much–or any–first hand experience with racism, and not truly and fully knowing the horror of the history of race in this country, the full impact of this election is, of course, lost on them.  As is the spiraling misery of the last eight years, or an awareness of the global crises in progress right now.

But this is a really good thing. Because theirs is the generation that will grow up not without racism or social injustice or global crisis but in what (I hope) will be a new era of hope, with a new attitude of possibility.

If we can be as hopeful in our support for this administration and our democracy as our children already are, this really can be the end of irony and disillusionment.   If we can hope and continue our involvement and hard work, in our neighborhoods, schools, cities, and beyond, our kids will learn more precisely what is possible for them and for their communities working together. And the whole country will benefit from a generation raised with different ideals and different attitudes.

Of course, this is good citizenship.  But it’s also good parenting.

What We Did on the National Day of Service

We decided to stay local, as that would have the most meaning for our children, ages 4 & 6, and there were no official events that were especially appropriate or safe for them. Also, because they’re so young, we decided against hosting something official, that would put them in contact with people we didn’t know.  We’ve just given a lot to our local food pantry through our school, and have 4 big bags of donations ready to drop off at a local home that provides education, support, and services for women and children, and we’d also donated every single book we don’t read anymore to a used toy drive right before Christmas.

Our goal was to get them thinking Not About Themselves for a day.

Given these circumstances, Ella & Finn decided they would clean up our neighborhood. But first they woke up and ate bowls of Panda Puffs, by Envirokidz, which is a decent way to start your day, aside from the relatively high sugar content, since the company donates 1% of its profits to saving said endangered animal featured on each cereal box, and features nifty facts and games about the animals.

Then, we each got bags and walked up and down our street and picked up trash. There was not a lot, but not none either. It wasn’t gross, mostly scraps of paper and recyclables, and we used plastic bags to handle things that looked very dirty.  On the way back, we picked up their bikes and headed to the park, collecting trash along the way. The kids were terrific, and I only felt slightly weird and virtuous picking up other peoples’ Juicy Fruit boxes while every other mother and father and child was playing soccer or pushing swings or doing things people do on days “off.”  No one bothered to ask what we were doing or why and we didn’t volunteer and our kids thought it was the most normal thing in the world.

All in all it was a small, quiet way to do something beyond themselves, and to introduce doing something as a normal part of their day.

After, they played at the park until it was time for lunch, and Kory and I sat on the grass in the sun and planned the party, and for a few minutes, everything was right in the world.

Just for Fun

Pete Seeger & Bruce Springsteen at the Inauguration concert.  I’ve been listening to both of them for, well, as long as I’ve been listening to anything.  Seeger was a good, old friend of WRL when I worked there, and, of course, a Civil Rights activist.  I remember, too, when Springsteen fans raised hell in the NJ State Legislature trying to get “Born to Run” named as the state song.

So it seems especially, impossibly that the music of my childhood, and adolescence, and turbulent activist years is now being sung for my children, too, and that it means the same, but also something entirely new.

MLK, Jr.

Of course you know the most famous bits, but take time to listen to the whole thing.  Remember why King, and this speech is so important.  Show it to your family.  It’s a good way to start–or finish–your day of service.

Inauguration Day

If you haven’t gotten the email with the new announcement about Inaugural events, and another call to participate in National Service Day, here it is:

You can sign up to host an inaugural ball, too, which we’ll be doing at our home, in small fashion, even though it’s a school night, and after soccer practice, and we will surely pay dearly for it the next day.  But it’s history, right?

I’d love to hear your plans and ideas for the coming week of service and celebration…

The Education Bail-Out

Writing in the New York Times on Sunday, Thomas L. Friedman makes an excellent case that what we need is not simply an economic stimulus plan, but a full scale commitment to educating the next generation in the math, science, and engineering skills that will create a new, green, efficient economy that will launch us into prosperity, not just bail us out of a recession.

Friedman quotes Dean Kamen (who really is some kind of genius-of-the-future walking among us):

“You can bail out a bank; you can’t bail out a generation,” says the great American inventor, Dean Kamen, who has designed everything from the Segway to artificial limbs. “You can print money, but you can’t print knowledge. It takes 12 years.”

Way back during the Debate season, Barack Obama had a moment when he turned to the audience and noted that Bush had missed an opportunity after September 11 when he asked Americans to “help” by shopping.  Obama made this remark with such seeming candor, and with what seemed to me such restrained bitterness, that I paused the debate and turned to my husband.

I had the distinct image of Barack and Michelle sitting in their home sometime after September 11, maybe immediately after the tragedy, maybe in the months and years that followed when everything spiraled so badly out of control, maybe after the unbelieveable election for Bush’s second term.  I imagined they said what we thought many times over those years: if we don’t educate the next generation better, if they can’t read and think critically, if they can’t understand and analyze the news, if they can’t fathom the global significance of America’s foriegn policy, if they can’t do the math and science that we need to innovate new clean technologies, maybe we really do deserve the train wreck of a leader we’ve been handed.  Unless the next generation can really think, and can think their way out of the problems they will surely be handed, and think of new ways to innovate our economy and serve our country, we’ll be saddled with another Administration like the one leaving office now. Or worse.

I suspect the Obamas knew, better and certainly earlier than most, that the future of the country depends absolutely on its leadership, but equally on how well we educate our children.  I’m certain that had he been President, Obama would have called on us to serve, to get involved in our communities, to do something productive, something that would have made us stronger, not more materially bloated.  But such a call would have had to come from a President who actually had the capacity to think.

We need to make sure that the Obama/Biden plans for education, for investment in green technology, and in commitment to service (and thus our increasing awareness of our place in the world) are not lost in the face of the current miserable economic climate .  We need the full scale change to start now, so that our children will have the jobs, and the candidates for leadership, that they need.

Michelle Obama’s Call to Service

New Public Service Annoucement

Just released today, just so you don’t think I’m making it all up, a PSA that introduces USA Service.  It’s not specific, but it’s the beginning.

National Day of Service: More Ideas for the Youngest Ones

This terrific list from Youth Service America.   From the most simple to the more involved, this list has helped me think about ways that our family–as a family–can get involved on our street, in our neighborhood, in our community. 

Personally,  I think that for very young kids, even very small things can help connect them to their community and their world, and when they do things themselves they stick. 

For example: After sending her lemonade money and a letter about sea turtles to the Nature Conservancy, and receiving back a very personal note and lots of educational information, Ella to this day remains conscious about using and recycling all plastic, and understands better that how we live matters to one very specific part of the environment.

For example:  At Christmas, Ella decided it would be a good idea to bake cookies for our neighbors, especially for those who lived alone.  Which project she happily did, on her own, and delivered.  Her spritz cookies may not have been the fanciest cookies of the season, but they were darned cute and the gesture was incredibly sweet & greatly appreciated by everyone on the receiving end. (We know these neighbors, but not that well.)  I’m still working up to the dinner invitations she wants me to extend to our single, older neighbors, but she’s the one with the right ideas.

Neither of things are earthshattering, but they are absolutely character forming. Small steps to the larger goal of raising a child who cares about more than herself.