A SUMMER FULL OF FUN

By Travis Hardin
An Inspirational Speaker @ The Re-De-Fined Project

I want to begin this post with a huge hello to those students of SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. We spoke to this awesome group of aspiring engineers on Saturday April 6, 2013 at Arizona State University and we had FUN. For those of you from SHPE reading this blog, we look forward to hearing from you as you walk out the 3 C’s……

I believe many of my friends experimented with drugs and threw parties because they were simply bored. There was nothing better to do so we created our own FUN that our parents would not have approved of. We would “up the ante” during the every weekend boring activities (watching movies, BBQ at a friend’s) so they were more exciting (hook-up and watch a movie, play drinking games at the BBQ).

I truly understand, even if you provide enough FUN activities for 52 weekends, teens will still find ways to drink, do drugs and have sex if they really want to. However, I do believe by helping create activities you are:

a) Showing them you care

b) Showing them you pay attention, so if they try anything you will probably find out

c) Allowing less opportunity for them to be bored and create questionable activities out of boredom

Planning alternative activities can be important yet, there is no need to do it all yourself. I believe it is a great idea to get together with a group of parents from school, or all of your child’s friend’s parents and comprise a “committee like” group to plan something each weekend and take turns carpooling, cooking and hosting. That way you are not responsible for everything and all the parents can keep an eye out for suspicious behavior together. Here are a few suggestions for activities parents can create, provide, and encourage so teens have less opportunity to come up with their own.

- Paintball/Mini-Golf/Laser tag: Teens love doing these kinds of activities; they can be co-ed and not that much money for a few hours of FUN (not to mention physical activity)

- Comedy Clubs: There are a lot of improv clubs, comedy clubs or even coffee shops that have stand-up that allow all ages. This can be a FUN weekend night for teens. You could also ask in advance to use a local coffee shop for the teens to do their own stand-up one night and they will all buy coffee and bring friends as an incentive to the owner

- Plan a Themed Party: No, I do not mean plan a themed party in the 4th grade sense. Be willing to open up your house have a party that will appeal to teens: a 90′s movie marathon and include dinner, fondue, pop-culture trivia night, pool party and BBQ, Taboo, Sequence etc

- Dinner and a Show: Do some research to locate places that offer dinner and then some sort of entertainment like Medieval Times where they have food and then a joust show.

- Celebrate a Holiday (no matter how minor): My mom and dad were “community parents” with lots of patience and enjoyed having friends over. We often had Super bowl parties or Halloween gatherings, where they would come up with games and prepare lots of food. It definitely kept us away from those “parents-are-away-for-the-weekend” parties happening around town.

- Game room: I had a friend whose parents had tons of board games, a ping pong table, air-hockey table, pinball machine and a foosball table. This was a lot of FUN; it was great when it was just boys, but also a great way to spend time with the opposite sex when girls came over to visit his sister.  You might consider some video game systems like a Wii with lots of controllers.

These are just a few ideas. There are plenty of ideas around your city and community; you simply have to be creative. Our youth need to have FUN and know that adults are encouraging the FUN so they do not have to sneak around and find things that could prove to be 1 huge mistake. Here at The Re-De-Fined Project we welcome all ideas from youth and create ways in which we can involve young men and women of all ages. We will continue to do our part, we are simply asking for you to join in the FUN and engage with today’s youth. We promise you will have lots of laughs.

 

Pay it forward

Travis Hardin

“GIVING” Begins at a young age

I was recently asked by a coworker, why I give to my community as often as I do. I thought about it for a brief moment and responded with “My today is a result of GIVING when I was younger.” I saw my father give of his time when I was young and it always had a huge impact in the lives of those he helped. The key is, teaching our youth to give when they are young.

It can be tough to teach children the value of giving in a society when they're surrounded by messages about the value of getting. Here are five ways to start:

Start small when the kids are small.

Youth might be happy to help bake cookies for a friend but end up wanting to keep the gift themselves. An exercise for a young person would be baking enough cookies to keep and enough cookies to give. Young children need help in learning to share.

Teach your child that he doesn't need money to give.

Help your child make gift certificates good for "one free car wash" or "breakfast in bed" that he can give to a family member.

Involve your child in selecting the gift.

You may think that donating to cancer research is important, but your child who is an animal lover may be more interested in making sure the dogs at the humane society have an extra treat at the holidays. Help them find a way to give the gift they feel is important.

Be a role model.

Volunteer your family's time at a soup kitchen or senior center. Gather small-size toiletries, such as toothpaste and shampoo, and pack them in gift bags to take to a homeless shelter. Ask your child if they'll help you baby-sit for a neighbor's toddler so the neighbor can do some shopping or stop and help you bring groceries in for an elderly person who has returned home from the grocery store.

Personalize giving.

It's faster for busy parents to write a check to a charity, but it has little impact on a child who can't see where the money is going or imagine the people who benefit. Delivering canned goods to a food bank is more meaningful than dropping a check in the mail. Your family could "adopt" a needy family through a community organization, choose the gifts and wrap them.

Feeling too busy to organize an activity like this? Author Ellen Sabin has suggestions that can work for the most time-challenged parents. Sabin wrote The Giving Book: Open the Door to a Lifetime of Giving, an interactive workbook to help 6- to 11-year-olds discover the joy of giving and their power to make a difference. Sabin also offers free tools and guides for parents, teachers and religious educators to use with her book.

Sabin suggests having a family conversation about what you're thankful for. That will help your child realize that what she values may be missing in other people's lives.

Sabin also offers three activities to try. "These things don't take huge amounts of time. They just take a few moments of thoughtfulness."

• Start a tradition in which family members set aside one of their gifts to give to someone less fortunate.


• Think of someone without a family - a soldier, a distant relative, a friend in the hospital - and write a letter as a family to make the person feel loved and included during the holidays.


• Talk about beginning the New Year with a family giving box. Everyone can regularly add a small amount of money to the box to contribute to a group or cause the family agrees to support.

Giving gives children a sense of self-esteem and pride, says Sabin. "Giving is addictive. It gets in your blood. It makes you realize that you and your actions matter." I challenge you to GIVE today.

 

Travis Hardin,

Hire Travis to speak

Pay it forward