Final Video Reflection

My experience with Step By Step has been amazing.  I have met many new people and I have gotten to know the people I worked with and the children well.  I am glad I got to help out this organization and I was able to see how beneficial organizations like this are too mothers and their children.

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.  

Analyzing a TED Talk

The speech I chose to analyze was by Jennifer Senior titled ‘For parents, happiness is a very high bar.’  Senior gave this talk at TED2014.  I enjoyed listening to this talk, and I learned new facts about parenting I had never heard of before. 

Jennifer Senior presenting her TED Talk

Jennifer Senior did a very good job at getting her point across and relating her speech to the audience.  She told a story about the different books that are being sold on how to raise children and how much parenting has changed since she was a child.  She told another story about holding her first child in her arms and promising to never hurt him, made her speech more personal, and also related to how happiness is very hard to give to someone.  With this story she got her point across that her promise she made is an easier and more attainable goal than trying to make your child happy.  Throughout the whole presentation, Senior made it feel like she was having a conversation with her audience.  She used PowerPoint slides, which had only pictures or had very few words.  This helped to emphasize her points and was not too overwhelming for her audience.

Listening to this presentation, I learned many new facts about modern parenting.  One fact that surprised me was the shocking statistic that the United States was one of eight countries that do not have paid maternity leave; this makes it so much harder on mothers to be able to support their family and give their children the best life they can have.  She also presented the fact that mothers now spend more time with their children then they did decades of years earlier when not many of them had jobs.  So much has changed in the past few years, and so much will change in the years to come.  She pointed out that happiness is not something you are able to give to your children.  You just have to teach them and help them get to a point that makes them happy.  To make her speech livelier Senior put some humor into it.  She started her speech with a joke which pulled people in and helped them to focus on what she was saying.  Also throughout her speech she would put little pieces of humor, which helped her audience focus again and it helped defuse some of the seriousness of the talk.

Jennifer Senior was able to paint a picture through her words about her speech on happiness.  She used her own experiences and she was knowledgeable about her subject.  She used stories and images that her audience was able to relate to, and therefore they are about to visualize the story in their mind.  She did all of this is in 18 minutes, and having this time limit gave her enough time to cover her topic well and did not give her time to deviate from her track.  

These are some of the words that describe parenting

‘For parents, happiness is a very high bar’ by Jennifer Senior was a great TED talk.  It related to my service organization Step By Step, which helps single mothers and their children.  This talk made me realize how stressful it can be to be a parent, and how much harder it would have to be if you were young and on your own.  Parents want their child to be happy, but that is an unrealistic goal for the parents to give themselves.  There is no guidebook for the parents to follow they just have to do the best they can and hope that the child’s happiness will follow.

Video Reflection 2

          Working with this organization has been an amazing experience and it has taught me how important it is to have a caring family supporting you through your life.  It has also showed me how important it is to be able to have a type of child like wonder and love for the little things in life.

Written Reflection One

by Cara Cox

          Having now gone to Step By Step two times I have been able to get to know the children a little more.  I have worked with the newborn to one year old children.  Some of them are so small and fragile.  While holding them you can hear their little heart beating and you know that with each beat they are growing up.  Even after just two weeks there were noticeable changes in the babies.  They  got bigger, grew more hair or were crawling better than they were only a couple weeks prior.  It is amazing how much one can change is such a short amount of time.  

Growing up can happen in a blink of an eye

           Being away from their children while they have to work or go to school must be very difficult for the mothers.  They must miss some of the milestones in the babies life and have to hear about them from someone else.  While the mothers are missing their children, the children are also missing their mothers.  One thing I have noticed is how attached to their mothers some of these children are.  Some of the children have a hard time letting go of their moms while they go to their meetings or small groups.  

           

            When I see the sadness in the children's faces when their mothers drop them off, it makes me realize how important it was that their mothers love them and do their best to give them a happy life.  I know that when I was little it was always scary to leave my mom and do my own thing.  But, for most of them they can handle being away from their mothers after they settle down a bit and start playing with the toys and other children.  Our job for two and a half hours every other Thursday is to give the children a enjoyable time to play and have fun.  It can be difficult to calm some of them down but once we have done this we can have fun with the children.  

           To the left is a picture of one of the little boys I help take care of at the meetings.  I love being able to spend time with these kids and hopefully they enjoy coming and spending time at Step By Step.  When we get to the church where the meetings are held we need to put all of our worries and stresses out of our minds.  We need to give the children our full attention and focus entirely on them.  We are able to be a part of their lives and watch them grow up even if we only see them twice a month.  Our job for this organization is to keep the children safe and happy while their mothers are at the meeting so they are able to have some time to themselves.  The mothers were not able to have their entire childhood, but we want to give their children a chance to have an amazing childhood and a bright future.

My Initial Reflection

The Step By Step Logo of a mother and her child pointing toward a cross with a heart in the background and a little boy praying over his food.

My Initial Reflection

By: Cara Cox

          Step By Step is an amazing organization and I cannot wait to work with them during this semester. This organization works with young single mothers and helps them to care for themselves and their children.  It provides a place of support for these women and gives them the confidence and encouragement to succeed and have an amazing future.  Raising children is not easy and being young and single makes it even harder.  Coming to these meetings gives the mothers a time to relax and forget about their worries for a while.

          Step By Step meets every other Thursday for two hours.  While here, the members can talk about their struggles or joys and receive advice or comfort.  This organization is based in Christian faith and uses this faith to help guide and comfort these women and their children.  There are many more activities and services that this organization provides, such as bible studies and retreats, but I will be helping with the meetings.

           While I am volunteering for this organization I will be able to care for the children while their mothers are at their meeting.  Having an opportunity to let someone else look after their children gives the mothers a break to do something fun and think about themselves.  I hope I will be able to make a close connection with the children and help them have a good experience during their time at Step by Step.   I want to be able to give these children something to look forward to every other Thursday.

           During my time working with this organization, I hope to learn how to put others first.  I want to be able to incorporate my Christian values into my volunteering experience.  I want to be able to give my time and talents to this amazing organization.  I have been blessed to have had a very good life, so I want to be able to help those who may not have had all the opportunities I have had.

          After volunteering for the first time, I am so excited to go back and continue working with the children.  They are so sweet and after leaving I felt good, having helped out and given the mothers and the children a little break from their average day.  I felt that what I was doing was valuable because I was not only able to help others, I was helping myself.