4H'ers-a question about your club project

[athomeontheprairie]

When your club chooses a project, do they DO stuff for that project throughout the year? What type of stuff?

(Last year was our first year in 4H)

Last year our club did rocketry-which involved building the model rockets 10 days prior to fair and shooting them off. I thought they would talk about rockets throughout the year-maybe explain how/why things work,how to make them better, etc.

The whole project was only about the fair. Are all clubs like this? This year they picked a project that the kids are already "doing" (citizenship). This way they only have to make a poster-we've done nothing. It's frustrating to me. I don't know if it would be better to leave the club for another-or try to change things next year.

Are all clubs like this?

[Guest]

No, all clubs are not like that! Our club does dog, shooting, and community service projects. (You pick what you want to do, don't have to do all.) We only do dog project. We have met weekly for dog class, had dog shows, monthly club meetings, community service projects (roughly 1/mo.), and educational days. (Quarterly?) We also then did fair projects, presented them at a monthly meeting, and then had a club field trip to the fair. I believe the community service project got together every few weeks. Also, a few of the girls do additional projects - sewing, cake decorating. We were told that we would be able to add an additional project if we desired, but the club's purpose was not to have a bunch of families doing their own projects. IMO, yes, I would definitely look for a different club.

Edited May 7, 2016 by Guest

[Ewe Mama]

This is our first year and it wasn't at all what I was expecting. We had tried joining in the past, but had a difficult time finding a group as our extension office was not very helpful a few years ago. They must have changed staff because this year we hit the jackpot! Our 4-H group is awesome, with very involved families (moms and dads) who are always willing to help out. That being said, our group does not do dogs or horses. The group members have done just about every other project imaginable. If you need help, they will help. If you choose a project that no one has ever done, they will help you find people who have done it so you stay on the right track.

 

We do community service projects as a group, but fair projects are what we ourselves are working toward all season. I made the mistake of letting all five of the kids choose two projects each. Oi! I am in over my head at keeping track of who needs to do what, but it's still fun. We have two doing gardening (1 flower, 1 vegetable), two doing cooking (1 breakfast , 1 snacks), 1 raising turkeys, 1 doing a pet rabbit, 1 doing cats, 1 doing the laundry project, 1 feeling his way through a self-determined project, and one doing gun safety. Whew!

[dirty ethel rackham]

Our club does lots of service projects, but when it comes to a project to present at fair, we only do one club project, Intercultural.  Because we are a club of homeschoolers and former homeschoolers and we have people who travel quite a distance, we don't always have a lot of time during the year.  Our meetings are typically business meetings and we do project activities outside of the club meeetings. We do participate in our county's International Night (where each club in the county creates a display on a country.)  That country is the one we use for the club Intercultural project.  I'd say that most of the work for presenting at fair is done in June and the first couple weeks of July. 

[athomeontheprairie]

Wow. I thought the "club project" was required. We do it in addition to the individual projects my kids picked.

If your club doesn't have a group project, what do you do as a club? (Genuinely asking, for the life of me I don't know. I'm of the opinion our club is... Well, not good...)

For the projects your kids are in, are there leaders?

[J-rap]

Our club never did a club project.  In fact, this is the first time I've heard of that.  They did do big yearly activities like "Share the Fun" and a fashion show (showing projects members had sewn), but that's maybe unique to our club here.  The Share the Fun was a talent show type thing that all the clubs in our area took part in, and they prepared for it months in advance.  They would also volunteer from time to time for service events.

 

Other than that, if a parent wanted to offer a Saturday afternoon type project event (it could be anything -- water color painting, how to sew a hem, working on an engine, etc), they certainly could, and that did happen from time to time.  Oh yes, one parent always taught dog training for several months in the summer to prepare for dog showing at the fair.

 

Anything project-oriented was done with the primary goal being the County Fair.

 

 

Edited May 8, 2016 by J-rap

[Hilltopmom]

I've been a leader & I'll say that all counties & clubs do things differently (& that's ok). So, there's a huge variety in how things are run, & how well they are run depends on having a good group of leaders (like Scouts or any other group).

What we do : (we have a huge homeschool 4H group here, so divide into smaller classes at meetings, plus smaller animal specific groups that meet on different days)

 

We have 3 project semesters (of 4-5 classes each usually) per year & a choice of projects for kids to work on during those semesters. We vary project choices by categories & ages. For example, this year the high schoolers choices were- GPS mapping, electronics, public speaking, underwater robotics, participation in our annual play (I guess that would be our "club" project, almost everyone participates in some way from sets to makeup, actors, sound & lights, costumes, etc). Middle schoolers chose from iron chef cooking classes, 3 D art, painting, knitting, & the play. Elementary did robotics, sewing, electronics, & nutrition & the play.

Some kids chose to do additional projects at home or take a project we did together furthur.

We make sure each semester's worth of classes has a fair worthy project that families can chose to show at fair or not, but yes, the idea of having projects done is to have stuff to show at fair, otherwise,there is nothing to see in the 4 H building during fair.

We do community service a few times a year as a group, with smaller ongoing service projects during the year too for individual families or small groups.

I would try out some other groups in your county to find a better fit if you don't like yours- or start your own:). Oh, you should be able to track down a handbook from your county that explains all the project categories & procedures, that's helpful when starting out since 4 H is so different from other activities in the range of options. Good luck!

 

Eta- we also try to do a few one time only activity day specifically for making nice fair craft projects (that can be used as gifts or home decor later). Things like: flower arrangements, wreaths, water color paintings, paintings, fairy homes, container gardens , etc- we try to get local artist types to come in & coach kids for these.

It really is nice to see a good variety of projects at fair. Not everyone does fair, which is ok, but some years there have been so few projects on display that our building looks sad.

Edited May 8, 2016 by Hilltopmom

[Wheres Toto]

I run a STEM 4-H club.  We don't have a group wide project, and for this year we don't have a lot of individual projects but it's the first year our club has been in existence and the majority of the families are new to 4-H.  We'll have a club booth at fair with different activities and I'm hoping that a lot of our members will help out.  Once they see what kind of things have been done for fair, I'm hoping they'll do more for next year.  I will be talking more about fair at our next few meetings as well, so we'll see.

 

We do different hands-on activities each meeting (twice a month).  Sometimes the topics are related for a few meetings, sometimes it's a one-off.  We've done: chemical reactions, reverse engineering, robots, marble roller coasters, non-Newtonian fluids, Rube Goldberg machines, a few different STEM challenges, some physics, owl pellets, and a few pet visits (mainly snake and we're going to have a hedgehog at our next meeting).