4-H, the week of day camps - round 2

plantsite
Aug 6, 2017
2 min read

July 10 - 14, 2017

The county is large enough that there is a second location for day camp to accommodate more of the children in the county. So, this week we took day camp on the road. Cookies, Legos, survival, cake decorating, babysitting, rockets, rocket launching, judging, and awards. What a full week!

It is fun to get to know the children and see them enjoy some new skills and become proficient with skills they already know. For example, when we did the cookie making class, one of the girls has come to this class for 3 years but likes it so much she brought her younger brother with her this time. They had fun working together! She used the skills she already had to help her brother learn. It was really nice! Other kids have never seen a measuring cup and do not understand the importance of following the recipe and using correct amounts. There were only two major mishaps, but they were both survived. (One group of girls learned to respect kitchen tools. And another group of kids made the saltiest cookies on the planet, but they look good!)

We made a different rocket this time and it took longer to glue together. So, the rocket class worked a little bit different this time. Last time there was more history of rockets, and progression of early rockets. This time we had to spend a lot of the time putting them together. We will use the other rockets next time for that reason and the launch was not as awe inspiring.

The babysitting class was good for the kids! I wish more kids that stay home while their mother works, or kids that babysit others would have the opportunity to go to a class like this. They learned about babysitting preparation, getting information from the parents, basic safety, basic first aid and how to be a responsible care giver, playing with the kids they are tending, reading to them or helping them do things that are not electronically based.

The lego class was fun because the kids got their own set to use for the day and when the completed their chosen things they could hook them to the computer and make them move or make sounds. The survival class was well attended. They even got to build fires and get a little backpack with fun stuff in it! The cake decorating class brings out the designer in the kids. Some of them were doing this for the first time and others for their second year. You can see the skills increase with practice and it also helps when they have seen some professionally done cakes. The beginners start out with licorice and lifesaver decorations and the more skilled use the frosting to create something more elaborate. One person even made a frosting tractor out of frosting and the star tip.

After the fun is done, they must complete a record book and do a small demonstration about something they did or learned. This is the most difficult thing for many of the children. You can see this in one of the photos below - record book reflecting...