4-H Cloverleafs in an urban county? Your thoughts?

[SKL]

I was in a discussion about how great 4-H is, and I checked to see what is available to my kids. They are 5 and we live in a mostly urban county.

 

So the website says that at their age (until age 8 & 3rd grade), the option available to them is "cloverleafs." It is unclear just what this program is, so I thought I'd ask you all if you've had any experience with it. If a child already has a pretty involved schedule, does this offer anything of value? Do these kids do individualized projects, and if so, what type? What are the meetings like (if any)? What outings do they do (if any)?

 

Also, anyone have experience with an urban-based 4-H?

 

Thanks!

[Tenaj]

My kids were in cloverleafs a few years ago. In our club, it basically meant that the younger sibs came to the meetings and had their own activities. They didn't have projects like the older kids. Usuallly they had a craft they would work on during the meeting. I remember that they did make some decorations for the fair booth and there was a special program/judging for them at the local fair - they got a ribbon for participating. It worked out well for my youngers at the time because I had to bring them to meetings anyway, but I probably wouldn't think it was worth the effort if the oldest kids I had were cloverleaf ages. I would have ended up waiting until they were ready for "real" 4-H.

[Denise in Florida]

It depends on the club but most of the clubs I have seen use the Cloverleaf option to keep younger siblings busy during the meetings. It can be a great idea if you have one kid 4H age and one younger.

 

Most Cloverbuds have a short meeting, a snack and a craft project. They can enter crafts in the shows but do not get judged (they get a participation ribbon).

 

If I remember correctly one of the clubs ran a rabbit project for younger kids and the cloverbuds were allowed to show their rabbits at the fair. They even did a dress up/rabbit costume category. :001_smile: