Summer of Service - Bracelets for Hospitalized Children

Halfway through June and we are slowly getting into our Summer of Service groove. Lily has logged about five hours of service so far by picking up litter on hiking trails, making dinners for the sick, collecting cans for Cans for Humanity, cleaning/ doing yard work for the elderly and today she just started making bracelets for orphans. Whew!

We made bracelets last year as part of a Craft Hope project. Craft Hope collected thousands of hand made bracelets to donate to orphans in Russia and China. When I asked Lily how she would like to serve next, she remembered doing the bracelets last year and asked if we could do that again. Of course!

****Update****
I contacted Craft Hope and, because their project had ended, they encouraged me to see if the bracelets could be donated locally. As luck would have it, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center is in need of Bead Kits for their Children's Services Unit. Instead of making the bracelets, Lily is now putting the beads and string into a kit for a child in the hospital to make on their own.

 

While we made bracelets together, I realized that we are learning so much as a family as we focus on service this summer. 

The service projects are helping Lily get ready for kindergarten in the following ways:

1.  Scissor work - Lily cuts each string needed for the bracelet. At kindergarten orientation, her teacher said that scissor work was a skill they should work on mastering before the school year started. 

2.  Measurements - Lily measures the length of each bracelet so that it will fit either an adult or child wrist. She is learning how to use a ruler. 

3. Sorting colors -Lily and her two year old brother (supervised of course because of the chokeable factor) had a lot of fun sorting the beads into different colors. They did this all on their own and did awesome!

 

4. Pattern recognition - Lily came up with the idea to do a rainbow pattern. It was fun to hear her singing the rainbow song as she repeated the pattern several times for the bracelet. 

5. Sharing/working together - Love seeing my oldest two working on projects together. Even when Cortland mixed up a few of the colors, Lily was patient and helped him put them where they needed to go. 

6. Fine motor skills - Putting each bead on the strong helps build fine mother skills.

7. Patience - This project took a lot of patience! I forgot how tricky the jewelry string could be and our bracelets came apart a few times. Lily responded like a champ and just started over singing her little rainbow song. 

8. Service starts small - This project took us about an hour to do several bracelets. My two little ones may not be the fastest beaders, but I am hoping that we are laying the groundwork for a life long love of service.

9. Practice makes perfect - The more times we rebeaded the bracelets - the faster we got!

10. Music - I love how Lily incorporated her rainbow song as she did a rainbow patter on her bracelets.

If you would like to make bracelets of your own, we found our supplies on Amazon.com. I'm all about free and fast shipping with my Amazon Prime Membership. For the jewelry string we used Stretch Magic 1mm 25 meters Clear 42321 and for the beads we used Pony Beads 6 by 9mm 720/Pkg, Transparent Multi. These are affiliate links and we would love to use the funds to purchase more beads for future service projects. TIA!

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