Serving Others- Nursing home Treating

As part of our home school journey I like to do service projects.  Today we did one close to my heart.  Our home school group had a "Treating" at the nursing home my grandmother is in.   All the kids dressed in costumes and brought treats to the residents. 

 

To prepare for today we needed to create our "treats".  My kids wanted to make flowers so we took it a step further and made vases out of old water bottles.

We raided my recycle art bin and started removing labels.

 After the kids removed the labels they started putting paint inside the bottle.  They added a little water to help it spread better since it was a thicker paint.

 Then they added some glitter and  the lid goes on. 

 It is time to SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE.  Spread that paint all over the inside and completely cover the bottle on the inside. 

 After that we took all the lids off and let the bottles dry upside down in a box (with packing paper inside to catch excess drips).

 

The next night they took the bottles and glued (hot glue and tacky glue) buttons, sequins, feathers and tissue paper on the outside to decorate their vases.  A few they left plain.  

We also created flowers out of foam, felt, buttons, pretty paper, beads and pipe cleaners.  The paper and foam flowers were pretty simple.  I cut petal shapes out of the paper and foam. We then hole punched the center (if a double petal) or end and threaded it on our stem.  The center of these flowers were silver beads the kids colored. 

For the felt one's I found a flower template online and cut flowers out of the felt.  The kids then layered their flowers and cut two tiny slits in the center of each one.  They then threaded the pipe cleaner through one side of each flower.  For the center they used buttons or beads.  They threaded the pipe cleaner through the buttons (also layered).  The kids then threaded the pipe cleaner back through the other side of the button and back down through all the layers of buttons flowers.  Once back to the long stem they twisted at the top and laid it flat against the flower.  This helps the flower stand up.  

 

 I printed out little cards that said "Bringing you a little sunshine!" on cardstock.  My oldest cut these out with decorative scissors and I put two hole punches in them.  We then threaded it onto our "stem" (pipe cleaner) of each flower.  The finished product was a deorative vase with a pretty handmade flower and card.  

 The next project we made was rainbow cards.  These were very simple.  We used construction paper cut in half, glue and tissue paper.

 The finished project was a tissue paper rainbow (this one is upside down).  Each one of these was unique. 

This morning the kids were so exited to go and pass out gifts to the residents at the nursing home.  They really had the spirit of this project in their hearts.

 At the nursing home we met at the front for our group and the activity director.   My kids got ready to start passing out gifts.  My oldest was going to hand out vases with flowers, son was handing the rainbows and youngest was giving candy. 

 The activity director then took us around to the area's we were going to pass out "treats".  The first area we came too everyone was ready and waiting.  They had buckets to collect their goodies.   The kids did a great job going around to each person and passing things out.  My youngest was confused with this and stood by me most of the time.  You can see my oldest in the pink hoody and son in black passing out items.

 The residents really enjoyed seeing the kids.  The children did GREAT.  They gave hugs, passed out goodies and even accepted the candy some of the residents handed them.

 We then all started walking down the halls to the other side of the home where my grandmother is.  That side was holding a Catholic Mass so we just went to the rooms.

 Here is a photo of my grandmother greeting my son and daughter.  She is unable to leave her room or bed.  She cannot move the right side of her body, speak or talk.  However she adores the children.  She really enjoyed not only seeing my kids come in but our friends come in.

 We continued to pass out goodies into the rooms and the residents were so grateful.

I saw first hand how much this service project touched those that live here.  When I came back later in the day many of the staff and residents thanked us for coming that morning.  The smiles on their faces was priceless.  Many of these people are terminal or just forgotten.  They are left here without people visiting them.  Yes they have activities but that one on one contact with children is often no longer there. 

 I am so blessed to be a part of a Christ Centered group that wants to teach our children to put others before themselves.  I love that we were able to turn Halloween it into something fun and exciting for not only our children but for the elderly.