Life Skills from 4H

I’m behind in getting this blog post out. We had a beautiful week with two of our grandchildren giving them a break from daycare before school started and all their other summer activities had ended. Other summer activities included being at county fairs to watch some of the grand kids show their animals. What an amazing experience as we now watch our children help their children learn all about 4H and what that means.

Do you know much about 4H? It’s an incredible organization for our young people. A.B. Graham started a youth program in Ohio in 1902 that was considered the birth of the 4H program in the U.S. When Congress created the Cooperative Extension Service in the USDA in 1914, it included boys’ and girls’ club work. These soon became known as 4H clubs.

The 4H name represents four personal development areas of focus for the organization: head, heart, hands, and health. The goal of 4H is to develop citizenship, leadership, responsibility, and life skills of youth through experimental learning programs and a positive youth development approach.

We joined a 4H Club almost 30 years ago when Jason was old enough to get involved. It began with two pigs and later expanded to sheep, when Elsa was old enough, a steer, and dairy. From ages 9 to 18, both Jason and Elsa picked out their animals, purchased them, fed, and cared for them in all ways necessary. That included cleaning up, walking/exercising them, and filling out detailed record books. Both kids had a check book and checking account at age 9.

We told them from the very beginning that as long as they were taking on the main responsibilities, we would help them. What transpired for all those years was a family time of feeding, exercising, washing, and fair time together. MEMORIES!! 

When I read the goals of 4H, I can attest to ALL of them being a part of our experiences. Though we primarily did the animals, many young people choose to go the project route which includes projects with leather, sewing, cooking, rocket building, fishing, gun safety, and so much more.

I watch 4 and 6-year-old Nyelle and Teagan tying up the new dairy calves to get them use to a halter. They will walk them around with the halter, and they love showing their dairy animals during the Open Shows at the county fairs. They’re still a little young to be a part of 4H, but you’d never know it the way they prepare their animals for showing. They have learned what to do when you show, and they know they must practice ahead of time.

Last year Bria was old enough to join their county 4H Club and went to the fair with her bucket calf. This year Bria showed three pigs and two goats. It was a totally new experience with five animals versus the one steer she had last year. It also meant learning how to correctly feed the animals, so they would make weight, learning how to clip them for fair time, needing to exercise the animals and practice showing them on an almost daily basis throughout the spring and summer. She learned that you don’t just show up when it’s time to take the animals to fair and expect to do well.

 I know 4H taught our children about responsibility. Being accountable for their expenses, reinvesting their earnings into either future animal projects or their college fund, writing checks and balancing their checkbooks along with a work ethic that is definitely a life skill have been invaluable lessons that have benefited our own children and now we watch those same skills contributing to the life skills of our grandchildren.

Being a part of the parade in Longmont with our dairy cows, spending the night on the fair grounds when we had to milk out the cows at 2:00 am to be ready for the show the next day, water fights in the wash racks where we were washing the animals, continually learning from those more experienced who shared their knowledge, meeting people that are still friends today, and so much more. MEMORIES!

I tell this now mainly because I see the value of families being together, the value of having something which everyone can participate in, the value of learning responsibility, leadership, citizenship, commitment, respect, and life skills first hand. Whether it’s 4H or something else, my hope is families today can focus on something more than texting and video games.

Suggested book: The Ant and the Elephant - Leadership for the Self by Vince Poscente

Quote: I pledge, "My Head to clearer thinking, My Heart to greater loyalty, My Hands to larger service and My Health to better living for my club, my community, my country, and my world."