Grayson County 4-H Youth Development

 

The 4-H Program is open to youth in Kindergarten to 12th Grade. Find a club in Grayson County!

Enrollment in Texas 4-H is completed annually via an online site called Texas 4-H Online.  There you set up a family profile and enroll anyone interested in participating in 4-H.  Once you have enrolled you are on our 4-H email list and will receive blasts and announcements of events and opportunities.  The registration link can be found at Texas 4-H Online (Click HERE to download a 4-H enrollment tip sheet)

Clover Kids: “Where The FUN Begins!”

Clover Kids is a FUN 4-H program for children in kindergarten through second grade. There is no participation fee for the Clover Kid program. Children participate in hands-on activities designed to build lots of different life skills!

The purpose of the 4-H Clover Kids Program is to help youth learn social skills, develop self-esteem and build family strengths. The goal is to promote children’s positive development through cooperative learning and developmentally appropriate activities.

Clover Kids can participate in many educational projects such as

  • Rabbits
  • Food & Nutrition
  • Healthy Lifestyle Education
  • Safety
  • Photography
  • Computer Science/ Robotics
  • Horticulture
  • Recreation
  • Companion Animals
  • Sport Fishing
  • Clothing & Textiles

Clover Kids are not allowed to be enter into competitions, this is  reserved for in 3rd grade and up.  Projects accomplishment may be exhibited at an appropriate Extension approved 4-H Clover Kids event.  In presentations and exhibits, Clover Kids will be presented participation awards only, with recognition based upon completing and exhibiting the product or skill.  No judging or placing shall be permitted.

The Grayson County Clover Kids 4-H Club meets on the 3rd Monday of the month from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Grayson County Courthouse (2nd Floor Assembly Room). Contact Dr. Tamra McGaughy for more information at tdmcgaughy@ag.tamu.edu.

4-H membership begins when youth enter the third grade and ends at their completion of high school. The 4-H starts in September and ends in August each year. Texas 4-H requires youth to pay a $30 participation fee. There is a $5 discount for youth enrolling by November 1st each year.

In 4-H, the activities are organized by topics and called “projects”. All 4-H members must be enrolled in at least one project. When you choose a project, you will learn and demonstrate concepts related to the topic. You will participate in various hands-on activities, learn new skills, do community service, or even make speeches about your project. Browse the list of projects to see what you would like to do.

 

How to choose your 4-H project:

  • Select a project you like.
  • Consider the money and time it will take. Can parents/guardians help?
  • Consider the space and equipment that you have at home.
  • A 4-H project should be fun, serve a purpose, and be worth the effort.
  • Select only the number of projects you can complete.

Check out 4-H projects to see what looks fun to you.

Even after you graduate from high school, you can still be involved in 4-H as a Volunteer.  Volunteers are the heart of the 4-H program.  We can only offer as many clubs and projects as we have volunteers to lead or direct.

We are always looking for more volunteers so we can offer more opportunities to youth in Grayson County.  Some volunteer opportunities are one time only, others are short term, and other volunteer opportunities can be for the entire year or more.  That is up to you and what you want to do.  All of our adult volunteers must clear a criminal background screening conducted by the volunteer center of Dallas prior to working with youth.

We have Community clubs that have members all from a particular town or section of the county, we have project clubs that the members are all interested in a specific project or activity and we have spin clubs that are project only based without some of the leadership you get from traditional clubs – these are usually short term clubs.

4-H is all about developing life skills through fund hands-on leaning.  There are opportunities for public speaking, consumer decision making, healthy lifestyles, judging, habitat evaluation, citizenship, community service and leadership.

Youth are elected by their peers as officers and the youth officers run the club meetings and programs with guidance from adult volunteers. General information about 4-H in Texas can be found at http://texas4-h.tamu.edu

You can also keep up with what is happening in Grayson County 4-H by going to our 4-H Facebook page GraysonTX4H   https://www.facebook.com/GraysonTX4H.

 

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