Homeschooling with 4H

[Sandy & Rob Kelly <sandyandrob@sbcglobal.net>]

Homeschooling with 4-H

(By Sandy Kelly)

 Madrone Homeschool 4-H club is a collection of homeschooling  
families that have gathered to provide hands-on learning and  
leadership opportunities for their kids, grades K thru 12. The  
projects we offer are different each year depending on what our kids  
want to learn about and work on (and what we parents want to teach).  
Topics ranging from geology to geocaching, sewing to photography,  
cooking to entomology have all been done along with many others.

 While the kids are “learning by doing” in their chosen project(s),  
they are also finding out how to be leaders and how to be caring  
citizens of their communities. There are many opportunities in the  
club for kids to hold an office or to lead a committee, to have a  
club job, to give short presentations to a group and to do community  
service. The club provides our kids with a supportive environment in  
which to practice their growing skills—an environment filled with  
their homeschooling peers and their families.

 Our club meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month  
(Sept. to June) at 1:30 p.m. in the Rohnert Park 4-H Center (Rohnert  
Park Expwy exit). Our project meetings, which consist only of the  
kids interested in a particular project, are held separately, in  
smaller groups, and are often held at the home of the parent who is  
leading the project, or at the 4-H Center, or in the “field.”

 The 4-H pledge expresses the club's ideals well: "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."

 If this sounds like the type of group you and your kids would  
enjoy, please join us for our New Parent Orientation meeting (geared  
towards parents), Wednesday evening, September 5th at 7 p.m. at the  
Rohnert Park 4-H Center.

 And mark your calendar for our first regular monthly meeting (for  
kids and parents alike) on Tuesday, September 11 at 1:30 p.m., same  
place. The cost to join is $38 per child for the "school" year. If  
you have questions or would like more information prior to the  
meeting, please feel free to call Diana Hampton at 833-2002 or Sherry  
Weinberg at 578-5200. Also, check out our pics on the web:  
www.madrone4h.phanfare.com.

 Directions to the Rohnert Park 4-H Center: from Hwy. 101, take the  
Rohnert Park Expressway exit and head east. Take a right on Commerce  
and continue to the first stoplight. Take a right at this stoplight.  
You'll be going into the RiteAid parking lot. Turn left at your first  
opportunity, down an short alley. The 4-H Center will be directly in  
front of you. Turn right and park in the parking lot.