Celebrating Flag Day

Today is Flag Day in the USA.

The kids and I worked on a 4-H project to help them learn about Flag Day.  I read them a short story about Betsy Ross and how it came about that she sewed the first flag.  McKayla colored a picture of Betsy Ross holding a flag (find it here).  In the story it talked about how a sheet of paper was folded and cut with only a single cut to create a five point star.  I found the directions on how to do this and the kids and I made stars.  They thought that was really cool.  Both Evan and McKayla colored pictures depicting the original 13 colonies flag sewed by Betsy Ross.

I also read the story of the Star Spangled Banner song to them.  We talked about what the flag means to our country and the feelings it invokes in people when they see it.  Finally, we made kazoos from recycled toilet paper rolls and played the Star Spangled Banner on them.

We recorded it all in our 4-H project book as part of our Civil Education portion of this year.

Ellette Rangers 4-H Club Meeting

This afternoon we had our monthly 4-H meeting for our general 4-H club here in Person County.  We met at the park and held our meeting before the kids played for a while at the playground.

During the meeting we talked about Flag Day coming up on Monday.  The kids colored pictures of our flag while president Micheal told us about Flag Day and how it came about.  McKayla also reported on our activities at home for Earth Day (making birdhouses and bird feeders).

Horse 4-H Meeting

Tonight we had our meeting for Horse 4-H.  We arrived at 6pm to hold our Cloverbud meeting before the regular meeting began at 6:30pm.  Heather and I went over the 4-H pledge and what each of the lines ment to the kids.  Then once the meeting started the Cloverbuds lead the group in saying the pledge... they did a great job!

4-H Pledge
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.

The kids also worked on making covers for their 4-H Project Books.  Each month we will be working on a section of the project book and then adding the pages in.  At the end of the year they should have completed project books.

My friend Heather traded me three pounds of zucchini and summer squash for two dozen eggs today.

She had come over so we could discuss what we were going to do with the Cloverbuds (kids age 5-8) at the horse 4-H meeting on Wednesday evening.  It is the first "formal" Cloverbud program in the group and we have lots of ideas to make it fun for them.

Out in the barn I discovered two more ducklings under the game hen... bringing the total to five now.

4-H Club Meeting

Southern

Ring Rockers

4-H Club

The kids and I traveled up to Clarksville, VA to attend our first meeting of the Southrn Ring Rockers 4-H club.  We still belong to our local 4-H club here in Roxboro, NC but the SRR Club is a horse emphasis club.  We also have friends that are members already so it seemed natural for us to join them instead of searching for a horse club here in Roxboro.

Tonights meeting was strickly a business meeting.  Next month we will be starting up a Cloverbud program before the business meeting.  Cloverbuds are 4-H kids between 5-8 years old.  It should be fun for kids and they are looking forward to it.

A Family-A-Fair

A Family-A-Fair is an annual event in our county to mark the end of The Week of the Young Child. There are many activities through out Huck Sansbury Park including inflatable slides, hay rides, petting zoo, games, and community awareness booths. Which is why we were there... to help with the Ellette Rangers 4-H table.

L to R: Matthew, Zach, Cheryl and Micheal

McKayla with her 4-H temporary tattoo.

New Postcards

We received two postcards in the mail today. One from Iowa and one from Pennsylvania and both state map cards.


The third litter of Chinchilla rabbit kits are finally leaving the nest box to eat pellets.  They are very cute.  There are 6 Chinchilla colored ones and 2 black frosted ones like their mother.  I have offered one kit from this litter as the raffle prize for the 4-H event this coming Saturday.

Today I also did the Ivomec injections on the alpaca girls.

First 4-H Club Meeting

I have been waiting for a long time for McKayla to turn 5 years old so both older kids would be old enough to participate in 4-H Club. It has taken a while to get connected to a club here in Person County but we finally did. Tonight was the first meeting since we got assigned to the Ellette Rangers 4-H Club.

Most of the meeting was discussion on an event coming up next week, "Family-A-Fair", that the club will be hosting a information table at. The kids and I promised some baked goods and crafts to sell as fundraising at the event. We also donated one of our chinchila rabbit kits for an auction prize.