How involved are you with your children's schools?

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I have been involved since my oldest was in kindergarden. I was preggo at the time with my second. Thought I was going to get a break after getting one in school and BAM, we were blessed with our second. So the entire school year I was pregnant, off subject = SORRY. I started volunteering in pre-k and K doing projects for the teachers at home. Cutting, sorting, pasting, you name it anything to help the teacher out. First grade I was room mom and loved it. Plus my youngest now has her older sister's first grade teacher. It is so cool because her teacher can comment I remember when . . . . Second grade I helped out with a little book club the kids had. It was a lot of fun. Third grade and fourth grade again room mom and copy mom. Plus I was not getting involved with PTA since my youngest was getting older and starting pre-k 1/2 day. Fifth grade I slacked off some during the day because I started working but was still involved with PTA and helping out at all the events, etc. We have moved up and I now have one child in two different schools. My PTA duties will be done in the elementary school this year but next year I will still be involved in some capacity and will be working more in the middle school. My point is that you if you can give one hour a week or one hour a month to your child's classroom, school or PTA you will make a difference. I know a lot of people are afraid to step forward and help with PTA because they feel they will be sucked up into a lot. You can if you don't be careful. It happened to me and it became so overwhelming. One year I was chairing 4 different committees and had to make a choice between PTA or my family. This year I cut back to two and next year I will be just volunteering to help out at activities. Then you hear people complain that it is the same ole people running the show. Well someone has to and if no one steps up who is going to. If no one steps up, who looses our kids. So the next time you are at an event and it's near the end, don't run out the door, take 5 - 10 minutes and offer to help close out the event. You will not be turned away, plus then everyone can go home at a reasonable house. On the plus side you might even make some new friends. I have made such wonderful friendships with moms and dads whose common goal was to help out their child's school. If you don't want to help with PTA, talk to your childs teacher. If you ever look through your child's bookbag and see lots of copied worksheets 9 out of 10 times the teacher had to make time in their busy day to make copies. Teachers have lives too. Their day isn't finished just because the bell rang. I try to pop in at least once a week to see if a teacher needs copy. I start with our current teacher, if she has nothing I stop by teachers we have had in the past. I can usually find something to help them with. They really do appreciate it. Sorry for the soapbox but our children's education is something very important to all of us.