Contents Quality Time With Children Cloverbuds, Pets, and the County Fair Challenging Cloverbuds to be Active Starting A Good Habit Jell-O Sand Painting Campus Connection Now You Hear It, Now You Don't

Quality Time With Children

Many people say, "Parents need to spend more time with their children." Spending time in a way that both of you value is better than just spending more time together. The best time spent with children may be while washing dishes or folding clothes together. I use this time to discuss their feelings about school and friends. I let them explain their dreams for projects and sports. At the same time, I try to teach them about how to get their jobs done.

Other activities children and parents can share include cooking, setting the table, and cleaning up afterwards--and, yes, it gets messy. But that is how children learn, by doing. Be prepared for some mess and don't fuss if dishes aren't put back exactly where you would have put them.

Two of our favorite family food activities are to make and decorate gingerbread houses and sugar cookies. The gingerbread houses can be decorated for birthdays and holidays. We often make one for us and one to give away. We get as much out of giving one away as we do making the houses.

We bake sugar cookies for just about any event, or for absolutely no reason at all! I often use an eggwhite wash frosting. Mix one egg white with one tablespoon water and food coloring. Paint the eggwhite wash on the cookies in the design you want before you bake them. When the cookies come out of the oven, they are already brightly colored. The children love these.

Watching or participating in a sports event can provide a great time together. This is a wonderful time to share values, likes, dislikes, and discuss what may be fair or unfair about the game. Any activity that triggers open discussion on values, likes, dislikes, goals, and dreams can help you influence your child. The important thing is the quality of time you spend together, not the quantity.|

Source: M. Christine Price, WSU Cooperative Extension CONNECTIONS. Vol. 5, No. 4., Page 3.

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Starting A Good Habit

How reading is modeled or portrayed at home has a direct relationship on a child's desire to read. The experience of reading for five to eight year-olds can be challenging or uninteresting, therefore it becomes important that adults help motivate them.

Parents want to help their children grow and learn through a variety of experiences. Reading to children is one of the most basic forms of learning that parents can help nurture. Research has shown that reading just 30 minutes a day with or to a child significantly increases that child's reading ability.

Reading time can involve: reading a book to your child, your child reading a book to you, using flash cards to learn new words, talking about favorite or least favorite parts of the story, reinforcement of positive story characters, and helping a young reader understand the consequences of decisions made by storybook characters.

Parents can also challenge a young reader to learn one new vocabulary word each day at home. This can be done using a calendar posted in the child's room. Each day, the child can write a new word and say or write a sentence using the word. Rewarding extra effort with a sticker or star on the calendar is a great way to build enthusiasm.

The America Reads Challenge encourages adults to:

• Talk with your children as you do daily activities together.
• Read with children at a regular time every day for at least 30 minutes, and when children ask you.
• Get a library card for each child in your family. Take them to the library and encourage them to choose their own books.
• Create a special place in your home for your children to read and write. Keep reading and writing materials where children can safely reach them.
• Take books and writing materials with you wherever you go: in the car, on the bus, or to the doctor's office.
• Tell children how you read and write every day to have fun and to get things done.

As parents practice reading skills with children and model reading in the home, children become excited and challenged to find new adventures through reading. Parents can help start a good habit when children hear "Let's read a book together!"

Bruce P. Zimmer
Extension Agent, 4-H Youth Development
Monroe County

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Cloverbuds, Pets, and the County Fair

Pets enhance children's lives. They are their "friends." Pets serve as playmates, confidants, and warm fuzzies. Even the youngest child can receive enjoyment from watching and touching a pet.

At the county fair, Cloverbuds can exhibit their work they completed in their Cloverbud groups or clubs. The setting must be noncompetitive with equal recognition given to all participants. Some county fairs have ėshow and tell' as a type of non-competitive interview where Cloverbuds, either individually or as a group, bring an exhibit to talk about. Occasionally this exhibit is a live pet, but more often pictures or drawings are used. If a Cloverbud activity involves direct contact with animals it must be approved by the Cloverbud Curriculum Review Team, coordinated by Scott Scheer, Pre-Adolescent Education Specialist, 4-H Youth Development. A current activity available for state-wide use that allows Cloverbuds to have controlled animal contact is called "Cloverbud Farms at the Fair."

When Cloverbuds are involved with live pets as part of their activities, precautions must be taken to insure the safety of both children and pets. Domestic animals do not have the capacity to reason nor do they have a conscience. Even the most trustworthy animal's behavior could be altered in a threatening situation. The species of animal, breed, age and weight, and behavior of that animal are all factors to consider when deciding whether a Cloverbud should take their pet to an activity.

For example, a kitten with claws can be dangerous for a young child to carry during a fair activity. If scared, it's first reaction is to flee. If a child is holding the kitten, it might claw and bite to try to escape. The tighter it is squeezed by the child, the more scared the kitten will become. A solution would be for the kitten to be in a harness and lead, brought to the fair in a pet carrier, with the assistance of an older 4-H member or adult. With the older person holding the kitten, the youth can pet the animal and show it off, either during a ėshow and tell' interview, parade, or pet show without the danger of being scratched.

In some cases the Senior Fair Board, or another sponsor, supports a fair activity involving Cloverbud-age youth by sponsoring that event. It is not a part of the 4-H Youth Development program and not endorsed by OSU Extension. If this is the case, it is important for the sponsoring unit to take every possible precaution to insure the children's safety.

Remember, when an activity has been approved and safety precautions are taken, direct contact with pets can be a positive learning experience for Cloverbuds.

Lucinda Miller
Extension Agent, 4-H Youth Development
Leader, Ohio 4-H Small Animal Leadership Team

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Challenging Cloverbuds to be Active

Cloverbud members love to stay active. They love to participate whenever possible in all aspects of the 4-H program. However, sometimes there are restrictions based on the members age that limit total 4-H program participation.

So what can you do as a 4-H volunteer to keep the member active and participating? Set some member goals for the Cloverbud group. These goals can parallel the older members activities and participation, but on a "Cloverbud level."

Here are some simple goals to get Cloverbud club members active and participating:

• Reward members that attend 100% of all club meetings or that only miss one meeting
• Attend a 4-H program on the county level (ex. 4-H open house, a project clinic, etc.)
• Help a fellow Cloverbud member with an activity in the Cloverbud Notebook
• Learn the 4-H pledge and lead it at a Cloverbud meeting
• Provide refreshments at a Cloverbud meeting
• Visit the county Ohio State University Extension office and meet the county 4-H Agent
• Attend the county fair and/or put an activity on display for the county Cloverbud Show-n-Tell
• Attend the Ohio State Fair and visit the 4-H display building
• Visit a 4-H camp and/or attend a Cloverbud camp
• Promote 4-H to a friend and invite them to join

Use these ideas to get started then make up your own list according to what is going on in your club and county. Or better yet, develop the list together at your next club meeting and encourage all members to achieve one hundred percent of the goals set.

Remember, a simple 4-H sticker, or special treat, is all that is needed to reward members for their involvement. The Cloverbud member will be pleased that you noticed.

Roxann Sommers
Extension Agent, 4-H Youth Development
Madison County

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Jell-O* Sand Painting

Get your tools:

paper
pencil
craft glue
different flavors of dry Jell-O Salt
Shakers with large holes or use your hands

Follow the directions:

1. With your pencil draw a picture on the paper.
2. Pour some glue on the paper, and spread thin all over the paper with your fingers. (If the picture is large, you may want to start at the top, and put the glue in one area at a time.)
3. Pour Jell-O into salt shakers that have large holes or use your hands.
4. Sprinkle the Jell-O to create a beautiful picture that smells good, too!
5. Wait until it dries before hanging.

Source: Fun with Kids in the Kitchen Cookbook. Judy Rogers, The Health Connection. Page 88.

*Note: Product Endorsement neither intended nor implied.

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Campus Connection

Hello again! It is nice to make a Cloverbud Connection with you again!

Is it hard sometimes having members who arrive early to wait patiently before things get cranked up? Well if it is, that is very typical for young children at this age.

Here is a list of suggestions you may what to try with them.

1. Sing songs
2. Read a book
3. Tell a story
4. Play follow the leader
5. Ask the children to share with each other their favorite things to do, eat, play, etc.

Another issue or problem you may face every now and then, is having the children "downshift" from whatever prior activity they were involved with before the Cloverbud gathering. This may often mean having the kids go from a high-energy activity to a moderate, low-energy activity. Children have a hard time doing this, and no wonder, their minds and bodies just aren't designed to do that quite yet. So what can we do when the children need to "downshift?"

One thing you may want to try before starting a low-energy activity is have the kids do some muscle stretching or slow-deep breathing exercises. Another strategy when the children are wound-up is to walk around briskly playing follow the leader, start fast, then slow down to a turtle's pace. All of these things can be made into fun games, while at the same time helping the kids settle down or shift gears.

Well until next time, take care and have fun. I look forward to sharing more ideas with you soon.

Scott D. Scheer,
State Extension Specialist,
4-H Youth Development, Preadolescent Education

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Now You Hear It, Now You Don't

Hearing and saying the parts of words help prepare children to learn to read.

What you'll need:
A list of words with two parts, like baseball, raincoat, sunshine, and motorcycle.

What to do:
Sit beside your child. Tell the child that you will say a word and then you will leave off part of the word. Ask your child to tell you what part you left off. For example, tell the child, "let's say sunshine without sun; what part is left? That's right, shine." Repeat this activity with another word: "Let's say motorcycle without motor; what part is left? That's right, cycle." "Now you try it. Say 'manhole' without man."

As your child learns this game, try leaving off the last part of words (manhole without hole is man; motorcycle without cycle is motor).

Source: America Reads Challenge. U.S. Department of Education, page 17. 1996.

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Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ad. Admin. and Director, OSU Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868