Hollins Vieth

Prof. Sheila Fielding

WRTC 103

January 26, 2017

Little Tikes Lending Library

There have been events in my life that changed my perspective. A significant event was

working on my Girl Scout Gold Award project last year. Creating this project taught me

important information, skills, and values. I have learned about the relation between financial

status and education, being a leader, and understanding how fortunate I was.

The preschool I attended now has several students from families with lower financial

statuses. Those students do not own books or games at home; the only reading practice they

receive is at school. I learned this information around the time I needed to think of an idea for my

Gold Award, so once I heard this, I knew I wanted to make a difference. The Girl Scout Gold

Award is the highest achievement a Girl Scout can earn, and the project has to make a difference

in the community. Little Tikes Lending Library is a system where the preschoolers can check

out books, games, or puzzles on Fridays to borrow over the weekend, and return them on

Mondays. The purpose of the project is to provide children with games, books, or puzzles they

can read or play over the weekend, and spend time with their parents by playing games or having

stories read to them. This helps the children and their parents bond, and helps the children

academically.

Prior to this project, I was not aware that children from families with less money often

performed worse in school. A cause of this is parents frequently do not spend much time with

their children because they are constantly trying to make ends meet. Children are not able to
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interact with their parents as much. Since their parents cannot read to them regularly, the

childrens reading competence is lowered. The stress at home about financial issues also impacts

the childrens academic performance. According to N.L. Aikens and O. Barbarin in Journal of

Education Psychology, childrens initial reading competence is correlated with the home

literacy environment, number of books owned and parent distress (Aikens and Barbarin).

Childrens learning development is also impacted because they do not have books, games, or

puzzles at home. Without practicing reading at home, preschoolers in these situations tend to

have less knowledge and reading competence going into kindergarten compared to their peers.

Their language skills develop slower because they are not learning at home (Aikens and

Barbarin).

Not only did this project teach me important information, but it also taught me valuable

skills. One important skill was how to be a leader. There were countless events where I needed

assistance, such as painting bookcases and organizing books. I had to be able to contact my

friends in a manner where they knew I really needed help. Also, I had to lead my friends

whenever we were working on a specific part by knowing what needed to be done and how to

achieve the goal. I had to be polite and kind, but also serious. Along with leading my friends, I

had to reach out to my community to collect donations. I spoke about the collection during a

church service and posted on social media, saying that if people had gently used books, games,

or puzzles that they do not use, I would be able to collect them. The amount of donations I

received was so large that it was surreal. I never would have received that amount of donations if

I had not organized collecting them. Being a leader is a skill that will last a lifetime, so I am glad

that this project was able to teach me that.

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I never realized how fortunate I was growing up until I researched information about

children in those situations. The fact that a lot of those children do not have games or books at

home made me realize I was an extremely privileged child. In my house, there were bookcases

filled with books, and toy boxes packed with toys and games. Something that I will always

remember about the project was when I did a trial run last spring. I had some books and games

stacked on table, which included Candyland. The children saw the game and were so excited

that the game was something they could take home, they actually began to argue over who

would. After talking with the teacher, I found out that barely any of the children have that game

at home, and I was shocked. Candyland to me is one of the games that several families have,

along with Monopoly, The Game of Life, and Chutes and Ladders. During the trial run,

the parents were asked to fill out surveys on whether or not their child enjoyed taking games and

books home. When I read the comments, it surprised me to read that most of the children had

never played board games. I did not know that money can affect other parts of childrens lives;

parts that did not affect me growing up. Children in poorer families have greater health issues

than their peers. In Daniel T. Willinghams Why Does Family Wealth Affect Learning, They [the

children] are more likely to have a nutritionally inadequate diet and poor access to health care,

which likely has wide-ranging health consequences (Willingham 34). Another effect is that

children in poorer homes tend to miss school more. Children in these circumstances have more

advantages from going to school more than their peers, so not going to school has a negative

effect on them (Willingham 34).

All in all, Little Tikes Lending Library has taught me information, skills, and values

that will stick with me forever. My goal is to become an elementary school teacher, so the
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lessons I was taught will definitely benefit me. I hope the students at the preschool are enjoying

the project I made for them, because I enjoyed making it for them.

Works Cited
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Aikens, N L, and O Barbarin. Journal of Educational Psychology. Edited by Steve Graham,

Education and Socioeconomic Status, American Psychological Association, Jan. 2008.

Willingham, Daniel T. "Why Does Family Wealth Affect Learning?" Ask the Cognitive

Scientist. American Educator, Spring 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.