Written Reflection 3

Each time I volunteer for Step By Step I like it more and more.  The last time I volunteered I watched the little children that were starting to walk around and be more active.  This was a big change from the little newborns that I usually watch.  They were so cute and it was fun to be able to actually play with the children rather than just hold them.  Most of them were able to talk and tell you what they wanted rather than you just having to guess what they wanted.  For almost the entire time the children were running around and playing with each other, and there was a toy house that was a big hit.  They would knock on the door to enter and when they were going into the house they would wave and say good bye to us, the volunteers. 

One of the little boys I played with when I was at Step By Step

In the little amount of time that they have had they have learned common habits and behaviors that they had seen older people demonstrate.  This shows how much these children are influenced at a young age.  Because of this, these children need to grow up in a good environment, so they are able to develop good behaviors and grow up to have satisfactory life.  Step By Step helps achieve this.  It helps the mothers provide a good environment for their children and it gives them tips and skills needed to keep giving their children the good environment they need to grow up to have a successful life and have well developed behaviors.  Without going to these meetings, some of the mothers might not be able to have as good of a support system and guidance for raising their children and taking care of themselves at the same time. 

At this meeting I also had to try and get the children to eat their food that was given out at the beginning.  This is harder than one might think.  There were a couple children who were able to eat the food fine, but others who kept dumping it onto the floor and did not know what to do with it.  This little challenge showed me how hard it would have to be on the mothers to have to take care of their child and deal with having to teach them everything they do not know how to do, while going to school themselves or having to work.  I think school is hard enough as it is now, having a child and going to school has to be twice as hard and I admire the mothers who are able to do this.  These mothers are amazing and going to Step By Step helps them on their journey through their life with their child they may not have planned to have had this early in their life.

Me with one of the girls I watched

This time when I volunteered at Step By Step I have been able to see the effect that parenting has on children and how much the children learn from just interacting with their environment.  I have also realized how difficult it is on the mother to take care of their child and still work towards improving their lives and learning how to take care of themselves and their children.