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Ideas and Helpful Articles

The Fair is Over .... But the 4-H Year Continues
By Diane Baker
Youth Development Educator
Quad Cities Extension Center

Whew ... 4-H exhibits are finished!! For most of you, the deadlines are past, the projects are finished, and the ribbons have been distributed. Many times, we consider the 4-H year finished at this point. However, some of the best learning can take place after the 4-H exhibits are past.

As a 4-H leader, you can help to make the end of the summer a great learning experience for your club members. If you have a year-end meeting or celebration of some sort, set aside some time for "debriefing."

4-H claims "experiential learning" as its cornerstone in education. Many of you are incorporating experiential learning techniques into the work that you do with 4-Her's all of the time. Experiential learning includes the things that we "do" with kids . . . but it goes beyond the doing to actually talking about the things that were done. What did we do? Why did we do it? How is that important? When will I do that again in life?

When we think about the "4-H Year" we need to make that experiential, too. During the year we are busy having meetings, doing community service, taking part in workshops, completing projects, exhibiting at the fair, etc. Now, it is important to STOP and look back at the entire year. Help them to talk about and think about the things that they have done and accomplished. Help them understand the importance of the things that they have learned and how they can apply these new skills to new situations in their lives.

Some questions that you might use to encourage discussion are:

Encouraging the Group to Share What Happened

What are some of the things that we did this year?
What are some new things that you learned this year?
What are some things that we did that you really liked?
How did our group work together this year?

Encouraging the Group to Process What's Important

What did you learn about yourself during the year?
What did you learn as a group that you might not have learned alone?
How has having fun helped you learn?
What made this year a good year?

Encouraging the Group to Generalize to Other Situations

How will the things your learned this year help you?
Why is it important for each person to have their own views?
What did you learn about making decisions?
What did you learn about working with others?
What can people do to help themselves keep learning?

Encouraging the Group to Apply to New Situations

What did you learn that will help you in the future?
How could the skills you practiced help you in other ways?
What would you like to do differently next year?
What did you learn this year that will help you relate better to others in the future?

The end of the year is an important time for 4-H members. It is a time to bring closure to the past and a bright future and excitement to the next year. Ceremonies can be a great way of bringing that closure to the past. Ceremonies are used to highlight or recognize special accomplishments and goal attainment.

Ceremonies can be used: To convey a message or lesson. To challenge and inspire all the members to reach greater heights in personal growth and the 4-H organization.

A ceremony must convey that "you" and "this moment" are special.

To achieve these goals a ceremony must be more than a ritual; it must be a commun-ication of the 4-H'ers thoughts and feelings about their ideas.

The ceremony must say something that matters. Ceremonies can: Meet a greater part of the youth's basic fundamental needs for personal growth. Provide peer interaction and recognition. Encourage positive self-discovery through exploring new social roles. Create a feeling of affiliation with and acceptance by an ever expanding circle of acquaintances.

Group loyalty and personal identity are enhanced by the formal membership, and reinforced by the use of ceremonies.

Sandra Lignell, Youth Development Educator in the Chicago area has recently put together an entire packet of ceremonies for 4-H clubs. If you are interested in receiving the packet of ceremonies, contact one of the Youth Development Educators listed on the Staff page. (You can check with your local extension office, but not all offices have them on file).