The four of us, my husband, my two sons and I went to the community garden to weed today. One son was pretty grouchy leaving the house, because what 11 year old wouldn't rather stay home on a Saturday morning, especially to go weed. I agreed with him that I actually didn't feel like going either, but this was a commitment we made.
When we got there, we met the new person who was hired to coordinate the garden. There could not of been a more perfect person to help us in our effort to engage the boys in community service. He gave them a project that required tossing rocks into a wheelbarrow, complete with a scoring system for when the rocks went in and when they missed. And he was entirely understanding of their desire (need) to create a competition for who could weed a row the fastest.
We stayed for about a half an hour, thinking that less was more, in terms of making sure this commitment is more fun than tedious. When I started this project nearly three months ago, a primary goal was that we, as family, would understand that being nice to others is something that is an action, not just something we say we do, and is part of our family routine. Today it felt like we are on our way.
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