Hello 4-H Families! I hope you all had a great October and have been able to make it to a club meeting. If you are still having trouble hooking up with a club please call the Extension office and we can help. In Shawnee County that number is 785-232-0062 ext. 120.
Last Saturday, our county celebrated a year’s worth of achievement at Achievement Night. It was a lot of fun and we had a great turnout of clubs. 10 of our 11 clubs walked across the stage and we had 113 youth receive their awards on stage. Our Events Council sponsored four prizes and it was fun drawing for the winners after the program.
Last Wednesday, I ran into another new 4-H mom while we were waiting for our kids to be done with kids choir practice. She was telling me that they were really enjoying their club but she was freaking out a little bit. As the 4-H Agent I wanted to know why and get more of that new family perspective that I lost years ago.
At their club meeting the leaders handed them the club calendar and it had all of the club, county and state 4-H activities listed in it. She said it was a FULL calendar and it was just 4-H stuff. Her daughter also does some sports and music things. I was so glad she confessed her feelings to me because I had sage words of advice. “Don’t Do Everything in that Calendar.” It is not a calendar of requirements to be in 4-H but more a list of opportunities for their family.
I’m afraid we scare new families away from our program because we have a project experience or countrywide activity for every week of the year. You have to adjust your thinking from these are required events to these are opportunities to be involved. So I counseled the new mom to look for the activities that don’t conflict with their schedule and pencil them in on her personal calendar.
Then in your second year go back to the events you enjoyed and maybe try something new too. Don’t let 4-H stress you out in November, we will save that for July! 😉
If your club does not do a yearly calendar we will have one available in the office at the first of the year for the countywide events.
