Riley's Reflective Blog #1

While volunteering I find myself drawn to the nutritional aspects more than anything. I am amazed at how much energy goes into time at the table. Meal time seems to be the highlight of everyone’s day. Often time’s parents will bring their younger children and eat with us. The food is prepared from scratch and very healthy. I am a health nut myself so seeing this is very cool to me. I remember as a kid growing up in a low income family that my parents struggled to make healthy food, but often weren’t able to. A bag of chips is much cheaper than a bag of carrots, and if you are hungry you go for what you can afford. For many parents who are struggling to keep things together it is nice to be able to sit down with their children and eat a good meal. I have been struggling trying to find a focus for my paper, and really think this would be a good topic to focus on. I have so much information on poverty and education that I hate to change it now, but I feel though that I could really put my own experience into a topic on nutrition. Parents are more than happy to talk with me about it, and there are a lot of great stories.
As for my experience with Head Start; I am having a great time. I will probably continue working here when my hours are finished. I love everything about it. The teachers are extremely open and easy to talk to. Everything is extremely well organized and easy to understand. The facility is clean and safe. The kids are great. They can be a lot sometimes but I love each and every one of them. I am beyond impressed. As a skeptic I was afraid that all kinds of problems would make it hard to write about Head Start in a good light. However I have yet to find much of anything to make this fear a reality. I am even seeing improvement in learning skills. Most of the kids can spell, write their own name, and even count to ten in Spanish. They are all healthy and happy when they are there. It is a safe place for both the parents and the children. I am able to go home every day feeling like I accomplished something truly worthwhile.