Although this is my conclusion blog my time at Lydia Home is not over. Some of the other volunteers, as well as myself, are going to continue to help out at our service learning locations. This has been such a fulfilling experience, & one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved working with kids when I taught in the past, & being able to be around them again has been great. Communication is so important in both speaking to others, as well as understanding what others have to say.
Listening trended throughout my whole Lydia Home experience & I'm sure will trend in many other experiences I face in my life time. The way I listened was different for each & every child I worked with. Some need that emotional/empathetic listening & others just kind of babble about from topic to topic & don't really need you to listen at all, they just need you to be there for them.
Overall this experience taught me a lot about no matter how different those kids & their families may be from me & my own that I should treat them no different than anyone else. At the end of the day they don't want to feel different, so it was our jobs to make them feel like they weren't. This after school program helps to keep them in positive situations & although not all kids need a place to go like that I feel that it is a very influential program. I value & respect the people who run Lydia Home & feel blessed to have been a part of their program.
In short I learned to use the many types of listening, & I learned just how influential stereotypes can be on people today.
This was a great service learning experience for me & is one I am glad to continue on doing! (:
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