Monday, March 10, 2014

A Phone Call

Vaughn had an assignment tonight as part of his Service Learning Journal. The assignment was called "A Phone Call" and the instructions read:

Most of us have a person in our life that we don't see very often and would love to receive a phone call or letter checking in and catching up. A simple gesture of a phone call or written letter can make someone's day very special. Choose a person who is of an older generation to call or write a letter to. 

Nice sentiment! Vaughn chose his Grandpa Lou who it's fair to say he sees on a pretty regular basis. We tried to coach Vaughn on some meaningful questions but because he is pretty lazy about homework, he went with three questions that just scream "catching up."

1. How was your day?
2. Do you have any plans for tomorrow?
3. What did you eat for breakfast?

Actually, now that I think about it, those aren't bad "checking in" questions for an older adult but I don't think that was the spirit of the assignment. When we teased him about the quality of the assignment, Vaughn actually tried to pin a little blame on my dad by saying that he just said his plans for tomorrow were to do "something indoors" rather than naming something specific. My dad, for his part, confessed that Vaughn's giggling throughout the interview made him think that perhaps he and Sten were playing a trick on him (which would be fair since they did try and slip my dad a couple melatonin a few years ago when my dad was babysitting them. Once bitten…)

The best part of the assignment was the final question: How did you feel about the conversation after? How do you think it made them feel? Vaughn's answer? "I think it made my grandpa feel more included in my life."