Big Brother's 4-H Demonstration!

In my last post, I mentioned that Big Brother was preparing to participate in our county's 4-H Demonstration Contest. As a Cloverbud (a 4-H member under the age of 9), he would not be eligible to advance to the Area or State level competitions. But he was encouraged by our county 4-H agent to give it a try at the county level for fun and practice.

Big Brother had chosen to demonstrate how to do speed cup stacking. Cup stacking is something he loves and knows how to do well. So it made a great choice for his first demonstration.

So he worked hard all last week. He made posters, practiced his introduction, the body of his demonstration, and his conclusion. He practiced taking and answering questions properly. He watched videos on YouTube of other 4-H demonstrations. He watched cup stacking videos. For a little guy who will not be 8 for another month, he really worked!

And it paid off!

The night of the competition, we arrived early to register. We were pleased to find out there were other Cloverbuds participating. I had feared that he would be the only one, and that it might be discouraging to him if all he saw were older and more advanced students giving demonstrations. But this was not the case, and we were glad. One boy was only 6!

When it was time to start, Cloverbuds were divided from the older 4-H members and we went to a separate meeting room. Big Brother was relieved to see that one of the judges was his Cloverbud club leader, and the other gentleman who judged was extremely nice.

The judges told us that they would watch each demonstration and make helpful notes on how each student did. Awards would be given out once all the demonstrations had been judged.

Big Brother was second, so he was able to watch a fellow Cloverbud do his demonstration first. I think that helped calm his nerves a bit!

I had told Big Brother that winning or losing a contest was not the point. I did not care if he received an award from 4-H or not. All I asked and expected of him was that he work hard to prepare and just get up there and try his best. Daddy and I let him I know we were already proud of him, and that we planned to reward him after the contest was over.

My parents were also able to come watch, and my dad was able to video the whole thing for us. Having his grandparents there in the audience also made Big Brother feel more supported and confident.

Finally his big moment in the spotlight arrived! I helped him quickly set up his posters...and I sat beack down...leaving him up there alone to conduct his demonstration.

I WAS NERVOUS!

I knew he had done well at home for me, and I knew he was well prepared. I knew I had done everything in my power to make sure he was ready for this...

But now my hands were off, and he was completely on his own.

For the first time ever, he was going to be judged (or graded) on something by someone other than just Mom.

I should not have worried at all...

Big Brother shocked everyone in that room! He was confident, he was comfortable, and he was cool.

He nailed his entire demonstration. He was professional, he used his notes well but still managed to make plenty of eye contact. His expression was excellent. He expertly used his posters and cup stacking materials to really get the judges and the rest of the audience interested in the sport ofcup stacking.

At the end of his demonstration when he asked for questions, the judges wanted to see him do a fast Cycle (the most challenging cup stacking pattern)! Even under pressure, Big Brother did great, and the judges were obviously very impressed.

When Big Brother was finished, we watched a few more demonstrations. While the others did fine, none of them had the enthusiasm nor had prepared quite as well as Big Brother.

I honestly felt a kinda sorry for some of them because Big Brother had done so well.

When all the demonstrations in both rooms were finished, light snacks were served as the judges met with the county agent and awards were prepared.

Cloverbud awards were given out first.

Big Brother was delighted to be declared Cloverbud CHAMPION for the General division and was awarded 2 beautiful ribbons!



He also received the judges forms with their encouraging comments. Words like "Awesome!" and "Great job!" really made Big Brother's day!!!

Actually the judges had wanted to find some way to send him on to represent our county at the Area competition, but the agent explained that he was too young to be eligible for that this year. But what an honor!

After much congratulating, Big Brother was ready for his reward from Mom and Dad! So following the competition, we took him out to McDonalds for a chocolate milkshake and then to Wal-Mart to pick out a new toy.

His choice?

A new LEGO set of course!

Participating in this community activity not only won our little homeschooler some well-earned recognition, but through the whole process of preparing and conducting his demonstration, Big Brother has practiced numerous real life skills that can serve him well as he grows into adulthood later on.

He stretched himself out of his comfort zone just a bit and gained all kinds of knowledge, skill and confidence along the way!

It was amazing for me as homeschool Mom to just let go and watch him shine!

A Busy Week in Our Homeschool (Feb. 19-26, 2016)

We have been busy beavers around here over the past week or so, and I thought I would give a glimpse of all that we have been up to!



Every day since last Friday (Feb. 19), Big Brother has finished up his "regular" school work by about noon and has spent the rest of the afternoon with other activities.

Last Friday was a super busy day! We worked together all morning on school work and laundry. Then my mother came by to sit with Little Brother for the afternoon while Big Brother and I went out together.

Our first stop was the horse barn where Big Brother takes his riding lessons. He is so comfortable in the saddle, and his teacher is really proud of his riding skills. I was happy to watch him ride and snap some good pictures. After his ride he brushed the horse, and then he insisted on getting in the pen for awhile with his teacher's pig! He loves animals so much. I am glad he is able to interact with animals regularly this way even though we are unable to have our own at this time.

Since he also had a 4-H homeschool club meeting that afternoon, we decided to make a mother-son date of it and go out for lunch together. So we had a nice little lunch at McDonald's. :)

At this 4-H meeting, the homeschool club was filling drawstring backpacks with necessities and toys for children entering foster care. Big Brother and I had gone shopping earlier in the week, and he had picked out some simple board books, preschool puzzles, Play-Doh, some balls, a soft blanket, socks, and markers. My mom had also donated several items like toothbrushes and nightlights. Big Brother helped sort these and all the other donated items out on tables and helped with deciding which items should go in each backpack. He was able to personally fill a backpack for a 7-8 year old boy.



During the meeting, the county 4-H agent announced the county 4-H Demonstration Contest coming up next week. She encouraged Big Brother to participate even though he is a Cloverbud and would not be able to advance past the county level. So much of this week has been spent helping him prepare his demonstration. More about that in a bit...

After the business of the 4-H meeting was finished and the backpacks were all filled, the club members finished out their meeting time with some fun games. Big Brother loved learning to play a silly game called "Statues." Most of the members of this club are a bit older than Big Brother, but I was VERY impressed with how the teenagers in the club really went out of their way to befriend Big Brother and make sure he had fun, too.

Following the club meeting, we picked up Little Brother and Daddy at home, went out to the library, out to supper, and made a quick grocery run before finally coming home where I literally crashed on the couch! Phew!!

Over the weekend we had several fun things going on. The weather was nice, and we took the boys out to play in the backyard. Our neighbor on the little farm behind us introduced the boys to some cows. Little Brother especially enjoyed that as he loves all things cow
right now.

Sunday after church we were invited over to some friends' house for lunch, and the boys had fun playing with friends close their ages. Big Brother especially had fun playing LEGOs with several other boys.

Sunday night, much to Little Brother's delight, we attended a Gospel singing nearby featuring one of our favorite local Southern Gospel quartets. Little Brother has a huge love for music and singing, and he was totally engrossed for the entire 2 hour service...totally unusual for a 22 month old!

Tuesday night, Big Brother attended his first 4-H Cloverbuds meeting. Cloverbuds is a special club for 5-8 year old 4-H members. The club leader is a sweet older lady who has a grandson in the club. They ate a snack, opened the meeting with pledges (both U.S. and 4-H), played a game to learn about recycling, and used fabric crayons to make their own 4-H t-shirts. Big Brother had a blast!



Our county 4-H has created a butterfly garden in the county seat, and now all the 4-H clubs are collecting plastic lids to be recycled into a nice park bench for the garden. 400 lbs of plastic is needed to complete this project! The clubs are having a little contest among themselves to see who can collect the most plastic. This week, Big Brother and I set up a little "recycling corner" in our kitchen to remind us to drop in our usable plastic lids. Such a simple and educational community project!



Every afternoon this week has been spent preparing Big Brother's 4-H demonstration! He has chosen to demonstrate how to do speed cup stacking. This is an activity he enjoys with our homeschool co-op, and he will be showing exactly how to stack the cups in 3 different official patterns. He has to have posters as visual aids for his demonstration, and he has enjoyed getting to use the computer to make them.



He is pretty nervous because he has obviously never done a demonstration before. But the skills he is practicing like organizing his thoughts, creating visual aids, and speaking in front of an audience will serve him well as he grows up.

Since he is just a Cloverbud, the contest itself is not the focus. This is really to help him to learn how to give a demonstration and to prepare him for more serious 4-H competitions when he is a bit older. We are looking forward to giving him a special reward next week for his bravery and for doing his best on this project! He has really put a lot of work into it for being so young.

Another neat thing I want to quickly share is about Big Brother's new pen-pal! As part of Love for the Elderly's Senior Buddy Program, he has been connected with an elderly lady who lives in an assisted living facility in another state. They are writing letters regularly back and forth, and it has been so nice. I encourage you to check out Love for the Elderly!

So, yes we have had a really busy week around here! Right now we are looking forward to a 3-day weekend as my husband has Monday off from work. We are planning a little family fun day for Monday! I love how homeschooling offers us so many wonderful opportunities and so much freedom to pursue activities that we love!

I hope you have enjoyed this little window into our lives this week!

Linking Up: Weekly Wrap Up

Homeschoolers & 4-H

This part of the school year can often lead to homeschool burnout if we are not careful. With yucky winter weather, fewer hours of sunlight, and just the continued hum-drum of the same old routine every day; things can get pretty boring. So after Christmas break, we decided to add a little something new into the mix for Big Brother! We signed him up with our county's 4-H program

In case you are not familiar with 4-H, it is a youth development program that has clubs and activities available in most counties. Regular 4-H is for youth ages 9-19, and many counties also allow 5-8 year olds to participate as Cloverbuds.

The 4-H motto is "Learning by doing." This hands-on approach to life and learning really fits well with the educational philosophy of many homeschoolers!

Students can choose from a wide variety of interesting projects, clubs, activities, competitions, and camps. Our county has a very active 4-H Homeschool Club that meets monthly for various projects. There is also a Cloverbuds Club, Shooting Sports Club, Rabbit Club, Horse Club, Teen Club, Business Club (for young entrepreneurs), Outdoor Adventure Club, and several of the public schools also have their own after school clubs. Most meetings take place at our local county extension office, and membership is free.

4-H'ers are also encouraged to complete projects and displays to be entered in the county fair in the summer. Cloverbuds can win prizes at the county level, while youth 9 & up can also advance to the state fair!

Big Brother is still 7, so he is Cloverbud age. And already he is really enjoying himself!

Last week we attended our first 4-H Homeschool Club meeting. We met some new families and were able to join in with a great service project: helping make shoes for needy children in Uganda through an amazing organization called Sole Hope. We watched a very interesting video about the organization and then worked together to cut shoe pieces from old blue jeans.

This was not only a good service project, but it also turned into a geography lesson and a health lesson! Big Brother learned all about a parasite called a jigger and how it causes foot diseases.

We look foward to next month's 4-H Homeschool Club meeting as we will be filling backpacks with necessities and comfort items for small children who are entering emergency foster care.

Also, this week Big Brother has participated in a couple 4-H photography contests! Each contest has had a specific theme, and the goal is for students to learn more about photography as they are participating. He has really had fun with this and enjoyed the different challenges!

The most recent contest involved shadow pictures. It was an interesting challenge and a great learning experience for him. I am proud to announce that Big Brother won for the Cloverbud age group in our county! Here is his very silly winning shadow picture:


Big Brother is also interested in learning to cook (cooking = life skills, math, & science!). He would like to enter some of the 4-H food competitions at the fair, so he has started practicing some of the simpler 4-H competition recipes. The chocolate cookies he made the other day were some of the best I have ever tasted!

If weather permits, his first Cloverbuds Club meeting is scheduled for this week. They plan to work on some different art projects. Art is an area where I am pretty weak as a homeschool teacher, so I will be very thankful for him to have this enrichment opportunity!

A few of the other 4-H activities that he may soon be participating in include picking up trash in our county, collecting plastic lids for recycling purposes, and helping design club T-shirts!

While I was not a 4-H'er growing up, I have known several homeschoolers down through the years who were involved in 4-H and found it very beneficial to them as it complemented their home education. From farming and agriculture to cooking and sewing to engineering and technology, there is sure to be something to interest any student! The focus on building real-life useful skills is wonderful for our children.

In case you are wondering, 4-H is not necessarily a Christian program. There may be times, as with any secular activity, when we may want to pick and choose when or how we participate if we come across anything that goes against our family's convictions. I honestly do not see this being a huge deal though with the clubs in our area.

I just wanted to share with you this new little development in our homeschooling, and perhaps to encourage you to give your local 4-H program a try! Please stay tuned, as I will soon be announcing a few other rather interesting new developments regarding our family's plans for next school year!!

Do your children participate in 4-H? I would LOVE to hear about it!! Please leave me a comment!!

Find more info about 4-H here!