My experience at the Alexiandria House

How mant times have you gone to Alexandria House?What did you do?Whom did you work with?What did you learn?How did you feel?What would you do differently?


So far, I've gone to volunteer at the Alexandria house 3 times. The first time, I went with another student. I was nervous at first because I didn't know what to expect from the children, whether or not they were going like me or even let me help them out with their homework. I was also afraid of being asked questions I wouldn't be able to answer and not even know how to help. Luckily another student who was volunteering was helping tutor the child along with me because there was only one student to tutor at the time. The girl's name was Anna and she was a friendly girl who had a lot to say. She was homeschooled. We tried our best to help her with her Pre-Algebra homework and honestly I had forgotten how to do PreAlgebra so I sort of struggled, but I was glad to have someone with me to help her out. I had to read her textbook and look at examples to try and understand the problems. Besides tutoring her, in between she would interrupt and try to converse with us about random things, asking us questions about our life and how college life is. She made an effort to get to know us better besides just strictly tutoring and thats what I liked about her, she was open to talk about anything. Then she admitted to us how being with her as she did her homework actually helped motivate her finish and concentrate better. Her just saying that me made me feel somewhat accomplished. The part I'd probably do differently is that if I knew I was going to tutor a student who needed help with math, then I would've prepared myself better considering I havent done any math for about almost 3 years now.



The second time I went, I was assigned to do the Child Care. I worked with another student, Michelle and the a few other adults who helped supervise the kids. The infants and toddlers were so active and playful they exhausted me but I haven't had that kind of fun in so long. The kids were so playful by the end of the day, they had worn me out. Some games we played with them was Down by the River hand game, Duck Duck Goose, Tag, and Catch me when I fall. I also pushed and raced them in cars going around and around in circles which was fun but tiring. It was worth it because hearing and seeing them laughing and smiling made me feel happy happy for them. I've never seen kids so happy and playful in my life. A boy even hugged me constantly for no reason. As I played with them, it made me think more deep about their situation and how I would only have 4 more hours to complete. I thought to myself I wonder how many student volunteers actually have gone to the Alexandria House in the past years, completed their 8 hours and stopped going. I knew automatically that there must have been a lot of them that went and never came back after completing there time. Then I thought to myself no matter what they've been through, I saw how much the kids enjoyed there time with us, them knowing that we'd eventually stop going. For a moment, I felt sad. Being so far away from my siblings and family, it even got me feeling homesick. It made me appreciate my life and family more. Playing with the kids, I honestly havent had that kind of fun in so long and I had so much fun that time flew by so fast. By the end of the day, the experience made me exhausted but happy to know I had made other kids feel happy.