Our Journey Westward » 4-H

Slim Goodbody and a Healthy 4-H Meeting

Cindy — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:09:36 +0000

The Slim Goodbody Bodyology Tour came through our area Monday. It was well worth the $6.00 ticket price! I even won a music CD for sharing an awesome muscular ability I have – being able to close one eye completely without closing the other at all. Now, how cool is that??

On Tuesday, our Homeschool 4-H Club had a special speaker who happened to be talking on the topic of nutrition. A perfect fit even if it wasn’t planned! After talking about healthy eating habits, they made some fun little critter snacks out of apples, raisins, pretzels, granola and peanut butter. Yum!

Our group usually gets to help bag take-home snacks for the needy children in our local schools. They always enjoy helping with this task.

4-H Horticulture

Cindy — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:11:00 +0000

What a fun 4-H class this month! The extension office’s horticulture agent taught a lesson about indoor plants, then each child created their own planter. He even brought a plant from his office and let the kids take a piece home to try their hand at rooting a new plant. Our little guys (and moms) were full of questions, which he happily answered no matter how silly or serious.

4-H Lap Robes

Cindy — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 04:34:00 +0000

Have you ever heard of Warm Fuzzies for Cancer Patients? I hadn’t either, but our 4-H extension agent did some research and found this wonderful program for us to take part. Groups (or individuals) make fleece lap blankets and donate them to cancer centers. So, that’s what our 4-H group did this week. Our blankets were headed to Markey Cancer Center in Lexington, KY. That’s our pile of rolled blankets and all the loving and capable hands that made them.

Making the blankets is a cinch. You take one yard of fleece and cut 4″ squares out of the corners. Then, cut slits up 4″ about an inch apart on all sides. Loosely tie two “slits” together in knots until you go all the way around the perimeter. There you have it – beautiful lap robes that kids can easily do on their own.

Here’s a site I found that gives directions for other fleece blankets, as well as ideas for other worthy groups to donate to. There are also some literature suggestions if you want to make a mini-unit out of the project.

An Amazing 4-H Club

Cindy — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:19:00 +0000

Just recently, our local 4-H agent, Lois, started a Homeschool 4-H Club. Can I just tell you how awesome it is???

We decided early on that we wanted it to be hands-on, meaningful and service oriented. Forget the meeting minutes and officers and such! Well, we met for our first meeting this week and it exceeded every expectation I had!

The children were asked to bring ingredients to make their favorite Christmas cookie. They each got to be “Emeril” as they demonstrated their recipe to the rest of the group. After a cookie tasting party, they loaded up the leftovers and we delivered them to our local fire stations as a Christmas gift. What fun!!

Next month – making lap quilts.

Fair Time!

Cindy — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:14:00 +0000

Did you know your children can make some serious money at the fair? This was our first year for entering any projects, so Mahayla only entered her basket and lamp. But she won 1st place in her class for each project and earned $8.00. She also won reserve grand champion for her lamp! Think about how much she could’ve won had she entered art projects, knitting, crochet, baking, canning, flowers, vegetables….!! At $4.00 for 1st, $3.00 for 2nd and $2.00 for 3rd place, a kid could earn quite a lot. Next year, we’ll plan better!

We always have fun at the fair. It’s getting more and more expensive to go ($8.00 a person), so we try to pick the night when the most fun activities are going on. This year we enjoyed a horse show, cattle show, alligator show, goat show, talent contest, petting zoo and, ofcourse, the rides. I even won a drawing for three jars of jam from a local farm!

A Great Week

Cindy — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:00:00 +0000

It’s Spring Break around here this week. Even though we weren’t on Spring Break, we took advantage of some special programs being offered in the area – and what fun they’ve been!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings the 4-H/Extension Office offered classes – an oil pastels art class, basket making, electricity (lamp making) and a horticulture class. They were WONDERFUL! Here’s a picture of the projects.

Wednesday afternoon was our regularly scheduled Keepers At Home meeting. This week’s class was taught by my Mom and the topic was CAKE DECORATING! The girls all seemed to have a great time. My Mom sent them all home with their very own decorating tip and a little booklet of cake decorating how-to’s. It was a messy day, but beautiful cakes were created. Here’s a picture of Mahayla’s finished product. Thank you, Momma!

EclecticEducation left a comment letting me know she saw my blog was nominated for a couple of blog awards. I think I have Nancy from Nancysnook to thank for those nominations. Thank you, Nancy! You can see all the nominees’ sites at www.homeschoolblogawards.com – there are some really helpful blogs out there!