Season for giving

Turbo is 29 months and Sweet Pea is 4 months

2 weeks! Wow, I can't believe it's been that long since I've posted. We've been busy, enjoy the holiday season with play, parties, friends and giving.  It's the giving aspect that I want to nurture in my children.  We did two specific acts of charity this year with Turbo.

ADOPT A FAMILY
We adopted a family through the local CASA Program. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) program services the foster child population in almost every county in the USA. These children have been abused, neglected and/or abandoned and finally become dependants of the court.  They are placed in foster homes, group homes or at times with another member of their family. The CASA program is comprised of volunteers that assess, then advocate for the child's best interest regarding education, mental health, medical/dental, sibling/family visitation and placement interests. During the ever changing enviorment of a foster child, a CASA volunteer is often the only stable relationship the child has while in foster care.  I was a CASA for over 5 years before my son was born. It was such a tremendous expereince to be brought into these kids lives (8 kids in all). The picture below is of one my kids and me several years ago.

We adopted a needy foster family through CASA this holiday. We bought the kids and caregiver gifts and then delivered them to the CASA office. Turbo was so excited to give! It was heart warming to see his smiling face as he saw the gifts carried into the office.  Can you believe I didn't get one picture of this entire process?!!? 




FEED THE NEEDY

What does it look like to feed 28 families for 2 days?
112 cans of vegetables
56 cans of fruit cocktail
56 cans of tuna
28 cans of spaghetti sauce
28 boxes of pasta
28 boxes of tuna helper

Another project was preparing bags of groceries for the hungry. The bags contain: pasta, sauce w/ meat, tuna helper, tuna, canned vegetables and fruit. It's designed to feed a family of 4 for two days and are handed out as the needy come for a meal at the local soup kitchen. I chose this project because Turbo could participate in every aspect of it.  

Turbo had some terrific Tot School moments. 
General: We talked about the food groups. We worked on same/similar/different using the fruit and vegetable cans. I think Turbo got it. We'll see if it translates to other things besides peas, corn and green beans!  Concepts of high and deep while stacking the cans 3 high, 5 deep and heavy/light between the cans and boxes.  You get the idea.

Counting:   It was great opportunity to count to larger numbers than normal.  We counted boxes, cans and packages. While we did mostly consecutive number counting, I showed him the concept of counting by 5 and by 2, while I don't think he understood it completely, it got his attention.  He also counted for Daddy while helping to bag the groceries.  (4 vegetables, 2 fruit etc.)

Sorting: It doesn't get better than this.  We had boxes and cans galore for him to carry, sort and stack. Truely a 2 year old's delight!  He's very interested in the pictures and words on cans and boxes now.

 

Following directions: He had to hand Daddy just the right vegetable, fruit etc. It was good practice for listening and following directions. I was so proud of him and his wonderful attitude!

 Here are the bags, filled and ready to go. We'll be doing this again soon!