Yesterday for the third year in a row I was a Watch Dog at my sons elementary school.
If you never heard of this program I encourage you to check out their web site. Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads Of Great Students) is an organization that was started by Jim Moore in response to the 1998 middle school shooting in Jonesboro, AR. It’s an initiative of the National Center for Fathering and the program goal is:
To help every school in America be positively influenced by the committed involvement of fathers and father figures in lives of their children and students.
As always the administration at my sons school was great. They had my schedule for the day waiting at the front desk when I arrived in the morning. The day was full of attending classes and helping students with various tasks. Everything from reading, spelling test and helping special needs students with getting paper that needed recycling. I also helped in the cafeteria during lunch hour.
I make sure that my Watch Dogs day is on the same day as my sons birthday. That way I know what day I’m suppose to be there and my son loves having his “pappa” there that day. They make sure you have at least part of your day in your child’s class room.
It is very fulfilling to take a day and do this every year. Everybody at the school are so appreciative to you all day. The students, teachers and other personnel at the school love you being there, and they tell you all day.
I encourage you to try this out. Talk to your kids school administration to influence them to add this program if they don’t already have it. I promise, it’s worth it.