Last summer Abby and Jonathan attended our County Fair. As you always see at any county fair, there was a display of 4-H projects. Jonathan suggested that maybe 4-H would be a good thing for us to check out for the kids.
I had looked their website over and made a couple calls. I kind of drug my feet into checking it out, so here we are in March and we finally attended our first 4-H club meeting.
We went to the meeting and there were a variety of ages attending. I was told that each meeting there is usually a demonstration of some sort usually done by the kids. This week was different because one of the leaders was doing the demonstration. He did different activities where they got to see how light worked using special glasses, boxes, and lasers. It was a really fun learning experience for them and they enjoyed the hands on activities.
After the demonstration was over the real meeting started. The older members (high school age) called the meeting to order and started with the pledges. Then they went over the last meeting minutes, treasury report, old business, and new business. This is almost totally kid run, while the leaders sit on the side lines for assistance as needed. If the president (again a high schooler) asks for an idea it is expected that all the kids speak out. This was something new for my kids to see and experience. They loved it!
As the meeting was going on, the younger kids had received a worksheet with ideas on it and they were supposed to circle what they liked to do. When the meeting was about done each of the younger kids got to stand up , say their name, share what they liked, and why. After watching a couple others do it my kids were ready. I thought at least Joel would need a little prodding but he was the first one and he just stood up, said his business, and sat down. Abigail and Lydia followed and they did just great. I was so proud of them. I loved that they had this opportunity to practice speaking in front of others.
I think 4-H will be a great opportunity for my kids to learn leadership and speaking skills. They will also enjoy serving the community and getting to make new friends.
They had such a good time and are looking forward to many more adventures with 4-H. I look forward to sharing them with you.
Have you or your kids ever participated in 4-H?
Average Housewife 
Every year at the fair, I pick up the 4-H pamphlets with hopes of looking into it and never seem to get around it. I appreciate your perspective because the pamphlets always seem so vague to me. You’ll have to keep us updated how it goes over the coming months. What age rage do you think is a good starting place?
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It is for Kindergartners through High School age. From what I’ve seen I would feel comfortable starting them out at age 6-7. I would give a local group leader a call to get more information, because I know every group can be a little different.
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We LOVE 4-H. I just found you from the “best homeschooling resources” writing prompt linkup and was reading some of your other posts… just thought it was funny that 4-H made my list of top five best resources for homeschooling in our family.
We live in Pennsylvania and our local 4-H is incredibly active; right now, we’re only in one club, but we hope to join at least one more in the next few months!
Nice to “meet” you. I’ll definitely be following along. 🙂
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Thanks, Joan! I have not heard anything bad about 4-H, just great things. Thanks for checking out my blog!
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