Ways to add volunteering to your homeschool

Why Volunteer?

A big part of being homeschooled in our family involves volunteering within the Bunbury community at large.

Besides building social skills, volunteering has many benefits, beyond academic prowess or personal achievement. My kids have learnt responsibility outside the home and gained new workplace-style skills like customer service and how to manage a community project through supporting an event or project. They are able to practise social skills by observing and learning mature (and fun!) social behaviour from mentors, thus widening their social circles as a result of meeting new people with each volunteering opportunity. This then flows into feeling a sense of belonging and connection to the local community, which is especially important as a homeschool family in Bunbury.

A practical side benefit is that the hours of volunteering builds up into workplace hours, the accumulation of which can help the kids gain TAFE entrance workplace points in the future. Volunteering opportunities also demonstrate the many capabilities of a young person, which can be used in resume building.

Past Volunteering Jobs

Examples of volunteering that our family has done in Bunbury, up to today:

1. Ongoing hosting (ushering) at our local church
2. Hospitality and barista at the church cafe and at church events
3. Festival host/guide
4. Student helper at the local dance studio running toddler ballet classes
5. Creche helper alongside adult creche leaders (at church)
6. Craftspersons – help to create and perform giant puppets at two separate festivals; help set up and decorate for church events; help install and set up lantern installations at a local festival
7. Musician and media work with the church creative production team
8. Manage a craft activity at community events
9. Sausage sizzle at the local market for fundraising

Ways to add volunteering to your homeschool

1. Join a local community group:

Find a group that matches your values, goals, and spiritual/emotional growth, or one that helps you build community connection and sense of belonging. Many different community groups provide opportunities to share your expertise or learn new skills. Examples of community groups include your local church, Scouts group, sporting clubs, dance studios, local service communities like Rotary or Lions, or not-for-profit organisations supporting various community events and projects.

2. Look out for volunteer call outs from your local shire/city:

The City of Bunbury has many city-owned tourism and community hubs that call out for volunteers to run tourism and day-to-day. You can choose to volunteer as an animal carer at the Bunbury Wildlife Park, be a Dolphin Discovery Centre volunteer guide, Bunbury library volunteer, or offer a spare morning for tree-planting days.

3. Organise a community group or event:

Create or host an event to run for your homeschool group or the wider community. One event I have run in the past that involved my very young children at the time (1-5 years old) was regular playgroups for babywearing mums. My kids played with the babies and toddlers while the mums chatted about all things babywearing. Other local initiatives that require volunteers to host include Clean up Australia Day drive, Daffodil Day Cancer Foundation High Tea, Telethon fundraising.

4. See a need and take initiative:

I have endeavoured to make volunteering a part of my kids’ daily life by noticing needs of the people around them and taking action, with permission. Notice the neighbour’s bin still out? Pull it in. My kids are still learning this!