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In Your Homeschooling Curriculum? |
You may be a homeschooler now or a 4-Her already. (You may be both after you read this page!)
But have you thought about using the 4-H project books in your homeschooling curriculum?
I will tell you a bit more about 4-H, and how you can successfully combine 4-H and homeschooling!
First, some background information...
This year our Christian homeschool group decided to branch out and form our own Christian homeschooling 4-H group. Most all of us including myself are newbies to 4-H. But it sounded like a good idea, so we took the plunge.
At our first meeting, we received our 4-H Family Guide pamphlet which contains a brief description about the various projects. So, my kids and I proceeded to study this guide to find the perfect project for each of them.
Well, my kids are interested in so many topics! All of the projects sound so interesting! However, there is absolutely no way we can get many 4-H project books for each child AND meet all of the requirements for all of these projects.
I have been confused (read 'going crazy') because I want to also use these projects for homeschooling curriculum as well as 4-H, but I do not want all of us (mostly me!) to get overwhelmed by all of the 4-H requirements.
So, I have been pondering (read 'stressing out') about which 4-H projects to do this year with my kids. I have been investigating all sorts of information on the internet about 4-H projects. I even picked up group 4-H project books from the extension office to see what they are all about.
What I discovered is that the 4-H project books are terrific unit studies for homeschoolers!
They have all sorts of information in one place about your topic. They suggest experiments and activities to learn more about your topic. Many of the 4-H project books have worksheets, too. You could easily using notebooking with these unit studies.
You can also add extra information (especially for all of you unschoolers) to make the unit study even more individualized. You can skip material if it is just not applicable for your needs or interests. .
You may even want to participate in various classes in your county that are offered for some of the projects.
Then, and only if you really want to, you could do the various suggested projects which are really just extensions of the information that you just learned about. These projects teach various skills as you implement the knowledge that you have just acquired. You also have the opportunity to help your community with your project.
If you do enter the project in the fair, then you usually do a poster and discuss your project with a judge which is great public speaking experience. You could do other 4-H activities about your project, such as demonstrations in the 4-H group. You can help fellow 4-Hers with similar projects showing good leadership.
So, 4-H actually follows the classical approach to education! First, you have the grammar stage where you learn necessary facts. Then, you move along to the dialectic stage and apply the new information to project work. Finally, you proceed to the rhetoric stage where you discuss your activities and relate your findings.
The beauty about 4-H is that you can stop at any of these stages! You can do as much or as little as you desire. So, you can learn the information in the grammar stage without doing any or much with the project and fair in the dialectic and rhetoric stages.
This means that the unit study on your topic could be done entirely separately from the project and fair! For just $5 for your 4-H project book (in Ohio anyway!), you have a ready made unit study for your child(ren)! This is a great deal!
So, here is what I decided...
I am going to order quite a few individual 4- H project books for each child and several group 4-H project books for the family.
After we get the project books, we will investigate the specific 4-H requirements further for each topic. We will then decide which projects we will actually do and which projects we will actually enter in the our county fair for judging.
Then, we will just use the rest of the projects as unit studies with notebooking sometime during the next year (or two) at our own pace!
My younger daughter is a highly kinesthetic learner, and I recently discovered that my older daughter is more of a kinesthetic and tactile learner than I had originally believed. These hands-on 4-H project books with activities and experiments will be wonderful learning opportunities for them especially.
My son is not a kinesthetic learner at all so we will just leave out many of these activities for him and add in some other visual learning experiences instead.
So, we will be able to individualize these 4-H unit studies for each of my children.
Here are some examples about how I will be giving homeschool high school credits for these 4-H project books.
My older daughter is interested in astrophysics. She is planning a self-determined project in astronomy where she will earn hours toward (you guessed it!) - Astronomy. She will work with the Creation Museum and the Cincinnati Observatory with this project from a creationist point-of-view.
My son loves the Backyard Ballistics book by David Macauley along with medieval history. So, he will do a self-determined project in engineering where he will make various weapons and learn the associated physics and mathematics. In addition, he will learn more about military battles and medieval weapons with this project. So, he will earn hours toward World History and Physics with this project.
My older daughter has been dreading reading a boring biology text book next year. So, we will use many of the topics as unit studies for her Biology credit instead. These unit studies include chick embryology, fish, beekeeping, insects, veterinary science, water, plants, gardening, microbiology with dairy foods, bread science, forests, pond ecology and environmental science.
My youngest daughter is still in elementary school. She is interested in environmental science eventually. So, she will be working on the above science unit studies also.
In addition, she will be getting a guinea pig for her guinea pig project. The above chick embryology project will lead to baby chicks which of course lead to chickens and then a pullet project. The horseless horse project will complement her therapeutic horseback riding lessons. She just loves animals!
We will adapt the science unit studies to accommodate the age difference between my daughters. My son will also have the opportunity to fill in any missing gaps in his biology education.
By the way, have you ever wondered which came first – the chicken or the egg? Well, Genesis says that the chicken first! God created the chicken (not the egg) on the fifth day. The egg came after the chicken.
As president of our 4-H club, my son will be doing the teen leadership project. In addition, he will be doing a money project. Both of these projects will apply toward his Life Skills credit. Eventually, in future years, we may do various cooking and sewing and lawn care and more such projects for more hours toward this Life Skills credit for all of my children.
My son and my older daughter are both active in soccer and ballet, respectively. They have planned self-determined projects in soccer and ballet, again respectively. My son wants to help coach younger soccer children, and my daughter wants to start ballet classes in her community. Physical Education credits would be perfect for these activities as will Life Skills credit.
Many of the projects will apply toward Language Arts credits. For example, my older daughter is also interested in the creative writing project. They all will receive hours toward their Communication credit for their public speaking endeavors associated with each of their projects. Any written work will apply toward their Composition credit.
As you can see, 4-H project books can be applied toward homeschooling in various ways.
You can design a unique program to meet the needs and interests of each child.
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