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Posted

This is our first year. We don't have any animals this year. Next year oldest ds wants pigs-- we'll see.

 

Oldest ds is doing the small engine project with dh and the Birds of Ohio project.

 

Dd is doing Mini Meal Magic and the first sewing one (can't remember the name).

 

Is it just me, or are these projects going to kill me off. They are a ton of work. It doesn't help that ds is less than motivated. Is it a 10 yo boy thing or what? He wants to do nothing that requires anything of him. Ughh! But that's a whole nother post.

Posted

We're in Ohio, too!

 

Dd10: Ready, Let's Sew; Fun w/Clothing; Adventures in Home Living

 

Dd13: Meals in Minutes; Bottle Rockets; Lawn Care

 

Summer judging is next week - we're in the thick of it right now! Good luck to your kids.

 

And wanted to add: no, it's not just you. Motivation is a big problem in our house as well. It's gotten marginally better over the last 2 years, but it's still like dragging mules along!

Posted

My dd15 did Photography, Horse Care, Rifle Shooting, Vocal, Million Trees and Community Service projects this year. It was our first year and I think we will scale back for next year. Million Trees will be moving to another club and Horse Care will not be offered next year. I think Rifle Shooting, Photography and Community Service are enough.

Posted

Hijacking this thread to ask...

 

What exactly do kids do in 4-H? Are there meetings? How do you get involved?

 

I had thought about trying to get my kids involved, but then I realized I didn't really know what is involved. :001_smile:

Posted

Our club meets twice per month. One meeting is a business meeting and this is run by the elected officers of the club. The other meeting is a project group meeting where the kids are divided into project groups led by adults and teens.

 

The bulk of the project work is done independently at home.

 

4H varies greatly from state to state.

Posted

I thought I had posted earlier but it was dropped so here is my reply again:001_smile:

 

We have judging in two days. :willy_nilly:

 

Dd has an involved cross stitch and muffins.

Ds has a painting and cookies.

 

We will mostly be done but we have slowly worked at this for at least 2 months now (and even longer for the Xstitch)

 

Chickenpatty - To answer your question. Our 4-H club is not very "farmy". We live in town and will not ever show farm animals. Some in our club might but it is not the emphasis. Our club emphasizes the public speaking, so dd presented a recipe this year. There is a Speech event and almost all events involve some form of "sharing" your work publically. The kids are given pointers about how to improve in a very gentle way.

Also most of our events involve a hands on learning activity and they are usually lost arts sorts of things. Sewing and canning come to mind but there are others. There are some newer skills like computer and rocketry.

We have enjoyed it but WOW the end of year came quickly here and we had a few busy days. HTH

Posted

Last year, we had 2 feeder steers (ds12 showed a club steer and ds14 purchased and showed his own steer) and a hog (ds10). It was a lot of work; in fact, I don't know how ps kids in after-school sports have time to do it! My sons would go out every day to feed and handle/train their animals. We required them to participate in the showmanship competition at the fair, not just the livestock show. Ds12 and ds14 also were involved in livestock judging (volunteered by mom...not their first choice). Ds10 was involved in dairy judging.

 

This year, we currently have a laying hen project with 20 pullets (ds10). In a few months, we will purchase our 2 feeder steers and 1 hog. The boys will also be involved in livestock, dairy, and poultry judging. Ds10 would like to do the cooking and photography projects, too.

 

I love being able to incorporate this into our school day. Often, we need a break and can use that "agriculture" time as a break from the academics.

 

FYI...we are not "country folk". We moved to our lovely rural town 2 years ago from Orlando. We just decided to jump right in with both feet. The learning curve has been steep and sometimes I wonder if we are crazy! But the people of our community have been very willing to help us out, offer us advice, haul our animals (we don't own a livestock trailer), and teach us what we need to know to have a successful adventure!

 

If your game for adventure, I'd encourage you to jump right in!! BTW...of all the animals, the hog has definitely been the easiest!

Posted

A good mother would remember this stuff... but I can't seem to!

 

I think these are the ones started or done for this year - all the age appropriate books

11 dd - One of the art ones Portfolio something?, Rabbits

12 dd - horticulture, horse

18ds - poultry, personal finance, entomology,

 

Our group is focusing on citizenship and as a family we are doing Electricity.

They'll probably each do at least 1 more. I'm hoping for the Meals in Minutes, lol.

 

Our group of 9 families (about 23 kids) meets monthly and the children run the meetings. All officers are elected and they perform their duties then we have a presentation and work on our "group topic". We are currently working on a park that has been neglected - the county forgot it existed! In the winter we did a variety of volunteer work.

 

We eat lunch together and play together afterward. This is a homeschool group and the children range in age from 18 to Cloverbud (and little sibs who tag along). My favorite part is watching the different ages interact (the littles find my 18yo fascinating, hehe)

 

hth,

Georgia

Posted

Our 4-H year is ending here, and we're planning next year:

 

Woodworking/Heritage Arts project - making a stool and then caning/weaving the top

Heritage Arts/Recycling project - Crochet Grocery Bags using Plarn (yarn made from plastic grocery bags)

Sewing

Cooking

Rocketry

Gardening

Shooting Sports

My own kids will be working on a poultry project at home.

 

Most projects meet on Friday afternoons for a month, although some (like shooting sports) meet only once per month throughout the year. We are also required to do a community service project and participate in at least one county level event. My own kids do all of the non-animal county events (Food Show, Public Speaking, Craft Jamboree, Pinewood Derby, Fashion Revue, Presentation Day, Fair). We include our 4-H projects as part of our homeschool. We do the sewing, cooking, and gardening every year.

 

In the past we have done astronomy, small engines, theater arts, dairy, knitting, electricity, wildlife, and hiking. In the future we hope to do possibly beekeeping, possibly goats, create a wooden lamp base, pressed flower lampshade, and (electricity) wire it, felt wool and make slippers, geology, braided rugs, hooked (wool) rugs, basketry, and linoleum block printing with our club. My own kids will also do the Focus on Finance, Marketing Me, and Leadership projects.

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