Homeschooled kids are cool kids too

There is a saying I have heard a few times before. “That weird homeschooled kid.” I never used to understand it, because I was a homeschooled kid. Now that I am older I can better understand. Other kids find homeschooled kids to be different, mostly because the stereotypical version of them lacks social interaction. That is not true for all of them. I am homeschooled, but I have had PLENTY of social interaction that many don’t think of me as ‘that weird homeschooled kid’. In fact there are times where some of my friends have even forgotten that I am homeschooled. I have 4-H to thank for that. Without the program, I would not be able to speak in front of others at all. Now when first meeting people I am quiet, but I warm up eventually.

Now there are times that people say “I wish I could be homeschooled too.” Yeah it is great for me, because I can pick the hours to work on school but I don’t just sit around all day doing nothing. I have work to do. I live on an Organic dairy farm that my parents run, but I help them do it along with my other siblings. We also have beef cows, horses, dogs, chickens, and goats to take care of as well. So it’s not all fun and games for me, some homeschooled kids’ maybe, but not this one.

I attend PACyber which is an online school that gives me a course to follow. I have been homeschooled ever since I was little. What started me off with it was my mother. She started us in homeschooling because my older siblings had some trouble with public schooling. I have never switched from being homeschooled. I will admit, there were times when I would think about going to public school, but being able to stay at home and do my work was easier for me while working on the farm and taking care of it.

The most awkward times for me, I would say are when my friends are talking about afterschool programs such as sports or other after school activities. I have never experienced them. I just get to listen to what that person has to say about it. I like hearing it, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t have much to contribute to the conversation. There were chances for me to get into sports but homeschooling sports aren’t advertised well or they are a big distance to get to, so instead I use my time to work with the animals on the farm. This gives me more chances to go to 4-H events as well, so I don’t really mind. I also have more time to work with my horse and goats. So being homeschooled works well for me, but may not be the best choice for others.



I hope to see many of you at our next event, Capital Days!

Danielle Knapp
State Council Reporter

When I grow up I want to be...

Recently while watching TV I saw a commercial for Monster.com. Their tag line was “when I grow up I want to be.” Children around 8 years old to about 14 years old were stars in this commercial. They each had a different answer depending on where they grew up and who influenced them. Some of the answers were I want a big nose, I want people to love me, I want to be a teacher, I want to work in advertising, and the list goes on.

The commercial made me realize that a big influence of my ending for the sentence came from 4-H. When I grow up I want to work in agriculture public relations. I love talking to in front of a large crowd, creating handouts, and evening writing articles. This all came from my 4-H career. I would not have prepared my first public speaking speech if it was not for 4-H. I learned starting at age 8 I can accomplish anything if I put my mind on the task at hand.

I show dairy animals through the 4-H program. My love for the dairy industry and the animal would not be as strong if it was not for my first 4-H animal. I still remember to this day I was finishing my soccer game one minute and rushing to a sale the next. That sale changed my entire life. It was that day when I bought my first animal to show. I was only 8 years old so I didn’t quite understand the process of bidding but I knew when the gavel fell that animal was mine. The purchase not only influenced my passion but it shaped my future.

The count down is on for the next big council event, Capital Days. This year we will gather in Harrisburg on April 28th until May 1st. 4-H members will be engaged in workshops, participate in a mock legislative session and have a tour of the State Capitol. Members also will meet face to face with their legislators during the final breakfast.

With something to think about,

Ashley Mohn

PA State 4-H Council Secretary

“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your Grandfather was.”

Stronger Every Day

Every day brings new challenges, as I am sure everyone knows. The way we handle the challenges will make us either stronger or weaker. 4-H has handed me several challenges. One challenge I face is  keeping the Northumberland County Council running. This is a particularly hard task because in order for it to work we need dedication from almost all members. Unfortunately, we do not have that dedication. Therefore, I have to find ways to get people interested and willing to work with the council. I could decide that county council isn't worth the trouble, or I could continue to work at it. I have decided to keep on working on it. The longer I work at it the more I learn about how to work through problems, communicate with people, and working with other people. I also learn more about running meetings and planning events. Therefore, through my challenge with county council I have become a stronger person, learning to work through all sorts of problems.
So, next time you, or someone you know is having a challenge work through it. It is alright to ask for help too. Just know that by working through it you will become a stronger and better person.

Until next time,
Sarah Bassett, president

What a busy month

This past month I got to attend the Pennsylvania Farm Show for my 18th time. Since I was born I haven't missed a single one. I did my typical thing up there which is exhibit a market lamb, market hog, market goat and my breeding sheep. This year was different though too, this year I was part of state council so I had the opportunity to take part in some events that i never thought I would be able to do. I took part in the opening ceremonies in the large arena with the rest of my team, I even helped to work at our sandwich stand. While doing that I also had to fit breeding sheep, my goat, lamb, and pig. The weekend after Farm Show was our State Leadership conference held in the beautiful Penn Stater Hotel. Here we meant a ton of 4-H members and even had our past council members come in for dinner. During this weekend we got to see what it is really like to be the ones running the event instead of the ones who get to sit back and enjoy the show. So long for now, hope to see everyone at Capital Days in April!

Potato Judging

OK, OK I know some of you reading this are like, "What is potato Judging?" or "How in the world do you judge a potato?" Well with this blog I am gonna give you the entire rundown. Potato Judging is a competition that is held annually at the Pa state farm show. You never really see signs for it, you just have to ask to find it. Usually it is held upstairs in one of the meeting rooms in Mcreary hall.
Potato Judging is not a hard competition if you study the information. At the competition there are three different parts. One table is for timed judging, one is for defects, and one is for plate placing. When you are at the timed table, it is your goal to get through one hundred potatoes as fast as you can ,meanwhile , circling on your paper, which potatoes you think are grade A. That's not hard right? On the defect table, this is where the studying comes in, you have twenty potatoes with places circled on them, and you must decide out of forty defects which one it is. Such as, Rodent, grub or slug, and Rhizoctonia, just to name a few. The plate placing table is easiest table that is there. At this table you judge four plates of five potatoes. When you are judging these plates you look for uniformity, size, and if there are any defects. That's the competion part of it. This is a team event. After you win as a team you move onto honors. Which is an individual competition with all the same tables. In honors they up the competition by adding another plate placing table, a pick of a dozen table, and two guess the weight potatoes.

If you want more information on potato judging contact your extension agent, and if you have any questions you can message me on face book. thanks for reading.

Your Council Vice president and Sentinel,

Garrett Richardson

Purple Pouch Surprise

When ever my family travels we take our camera in a purple case to keep it protected. When it is not in use the case goes back onto the cabinet. Now you're probably wondering why I just told you this; well the case comes out when I am not home and one of my dairy animals calve.
If my animals calve when I am at school, my Dad goes to the farm and helps with the process. He takes the camera for pictures of the process and the new calf. The case was on my desk, not in the cabinet. I figured something was happening. You probably guessed the surprise. My animal indeed did have a calf.
The surprise does not stop there. The calf was a red and white Holstein. Simple science will tell you that the calf probably came from a red bull and cow. That was not the case. The mother was red and white BUT the father was black and white.
This birth was miracle to have the calf a red animal. For a buyers/ market stand point a red animal is more valuable in my area. When you jog back to 7th grade science you would use a punnett square to find the chance of different genes being passed to offspring. This time the punnett square showed 50% both ways: a red calf and a black calf. The red genes are recessive so for the animal to be red is a miracle I love.
In every good story there is also something that is sad, or upsetting. This story has just that. The calf was a male, or bull, not a heifer. On my farm I only keep the heifers to show at the local fairs. The bulls will got to market to be sold. My calf that was born was sold on market.
If the calf was or was not sold on market, the birth is a circle of life. Through 4-H this is one of the most important lessons I learned. 4-H gives us each a chance to learn something new at every event we participate in. I hope you all are finding you niche, just like I did with my dairy animals.

With something to think about,

Ashley Mohn
PA State 4-H Council Secretary

“A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end - and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral.”

February is Cake Month

February is the month I like to call Cake Month. All the months in the year have their very own titles ‘national month of…’ or a ‘the month of…’ and sometimes there are several of these titles for each month. There are some 'national month of..' that are more known than others, but each month has at least one. Now by calling it Cake Month you might imagine the month being about celebrating the many YUMMY different kinds of cake, but... not quite. Let me better explain the reason why I call it that.

First I have to tell you a little bit about me and my family. I am the fifth child in my family, out of seven. I have three brothers and three sisters. Two of my brothers are younger than I am, and then the rest of my siblings are older. Out of the seven children three of us have our birthdays in February; my oldest sister Christine, third oldest sister Kim, and me. Our birthday’s fall into each week of February, not counting that last half of the month. The first week is mine, the second is Christine’s and then the third is Kim’s. With celebrating birthday's usually a traditional way to celebrate such a great day is to blow out candles lit on top of a birthday cake and then enjoy the cake afterwards. My family does that, but we don't have just one, but two cakes. One cake is homemade and the birthday girl/boy gets to choose what flavor they want it to be. My siblings and I are fans of the simple ones, like Vanilla and Chocolate. I love Vanilla cake more than I do Chocolate, but Marble cake is delicious way to mix together a little bit of chocolate with vanilla to make a great combination of both cakes.

The second cake is not homemade, at least not by us. This cake we buy and bring home to enjoy. A family tradition of ours is to get a Carvel ice cream cake for every birthday. So with these birthdays right after another we get to enjoy yummy Ice cream cake three times in February. All of my family members have a favorite part of the ice cream cake. The kind of ice cream cake we generally get is where the chocolate ice cream is the bottom layer of the cake, a cookie crumble is the middle separating the two ice cream flavors, which brings us to the top ice cream layer; vanilla ice cream. Covering those layers is white icing, then a gel icing is on top with different colored balloons and a 'Happy Birthday!' written out, last there is blue icing with sprinkles surrounding the edges of the cake. Most of my siblings love the blue icing that goes on the edges, but my favorite part of the cake is the cookie in the middle! I love the entire cake, but the cookie is the 'icing on the cake' for me.

Now that you know why I call it Cake Month, think about some of your traditions for birthdays, they probably vary from my family's. No matter how different they may be, they will still be similar by making a birthday wish and then blowing out the candles and lastly, eating your birthday cake. Those of you that will also be celebrating a birthday in February, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I hope you have a great day! Everyone who have already had or are having one later in the year, I wish you the same!

Yours truly,

Danielle Knapp

State Council Reporter

Learning is fun??

Well..Hello Again! I hope that everyone is doing fabulous and enjoyed their January! I know, I've had a crazy and exciting month but enjoyed every second of it!

This past month, I participated in my county's annual officer training day. Every year I have gone as an officer of my 4-H club to listen to the presenters and to absorb as much information as I could. But this year, something different happened. Instead of listening to the presenters, I became one of them. My county's educator asked myself and my fellow council members to help teach the group of officers from my county the officer positions and responsibilities, the Leadership Ladder, and talk about state 4-H events. Unfortunately, only one other council member was able to attend with me but thankfully our adviser was able to come also!

The day finally came and I was definitely a nervous wreck! I keep telling myself that I shouldn't be nervous and that it isn't that hard because I've done it a million times, but for some reason I still can't control my nervous! Even though I was presenting to a group members that I knew. I mean they are from MY county. I guess I should take into consideration that it was my first time ever teaching a workshop. I would say it started a little rocky in the beginning but after a couple slides **meaning like 10 or 20** we finally got the hang of it! And my nervous even died down a little. Halfway through the workshop, we played the Oreo game, where you put an Oreo on your forehead and by using only your facial muscles, get it in your mouth. Everyone loved that game! We then, showed the group of officers a video from National Conference, talked about statewide opportunities, and finished with a couple of team-building activities. All in all, everything ended up going great and I even heard from the some members of the group that we had the best workshop! Not only because they got cookies, but because they did learn a lot more about officer duties and opportunities that 4-H offers, that they didn't know before.

This experience taught me a lot. One being, you have to have confidence when speaking or else it may sound like your not sure about what your talking about. It won't be believable. No one wants to listen to someone that isn't sure of themselves. Another lesson, control the room! Do so by speaking loudly, clearly, and confidently. Oh, and don't look at the slides..

Truly,
Liz McAndrew
State 4-H Council Vice President of Operations and Events

Farm Show Excitement

I haven’t been to Farm Show since I was around 10 years old.
So thanks to 4-H State Council I was able to go and see it. I went down
Thursday and stayed until after Opening Ceremonies on Saturday. On Friday the
council team worked on setting up the 4-H booth and got some more training in.
Personally, the team building workshop was great. Everyone on council got to
work on solving a maze, doing a memory game, and fitting through a worm hole! Throughout
the various activities we all learned to work as a team. We also became closer
and more comfortable around each other. In the maze game we had to work
together to remember what order the squares went and had to help each other figure
out what the next square was. Then in the memory game we had to find different
pairs of team traits, such as; honesty, communication, and dedication. After we
found the 22 pairs we had to pick out 5 traits we thought were the most
important. Luckily it was pretty easy to find 5 that we all agreed on. Then my
favorite exercise was the worm hole! We had some string that made a small
circle. Our objective was to get everyone through the hole without touching the
sides and everyone had to go through the circle a different way. We came up
with a couple of interesting ways. Everyone had fun while we completed this
exercise.
Then Saturday the council team and I headed over to the Farm
Show complex to get ready to for Opening Ceremonies. This year 4-H was asked to
help emcee the event with FFA! This was quite an honor for 4-H state council
because we have never been asked to emcee at Farm Show before. So I got to
announce the ceremonies along with FFA’s state president.
After Saturday I went home to get ready for a week full of
beef brisket sandwich selling. I volunteered in the 4-H food booth for a couple
hours every day. Except for Monday, when I worked in the other 4-H stand. In
the other stand I taught kids about friction as they did an activity that was
set up by a robotics club in 4-H. Overall it was a great and successful week!
Thursday was even declared as 4-H Day!
I had a lot of fun working in the booths and doing other
things to help out at Farm Show. There was so much to see and I recommend that everyone
goes next year! I did so much that I didn’t even talk about yet. I could
probably right a whole essay on my week at Farm Show. So, I just highlighted a
couple of my favorite parts.

Hope everyone is staying safe,
Sarah Bassett, President

Happy New Year!!

Hello again everyone! Hope that all of your holidays were just as fun and exciting as mine were. The month started out as just another month, went to school, and all the other stuff. But as the month went one things got busier and busier. I got the chance to do many community service activites, as well as become recertified as a soccer referee. There were also more matches and tournaments to go to, shopping to do, and all my homework, but it got done. On Christmas Eve my family went to the family "party" that we go to every year, and the coolest thing happened, my uncle, who owns a dairy farm, offered me a job. Of course I accepted his offer because I have always wanted to work there. Christmas day some family came over and we had dinner and spent the day together. The day after we went to my Grandma's for dinner.
Well beings that January has begun Farm show is coming even faster and with that I have had to spend more time with my lambs, goats, and pigs. I am so excited to get to show them because thats my thing, showing. I always get so excitd for any show. And after I come home from farm show i should have my first 2 litters of baby piglets this year!!!!
Welp Happy New Year, hope everyone has a good one.
Bridget

Favorite Parts of December

December is one of my favorite months. Not only because of all the Christmas spirit, but because of how everyone cares for one another. There are so many charity cases at their peak due to the holiday season. There are many soup kitchens where one can volunteer and help those less fortunate. Also there are many charities like The Christmas Tree where one can donate clothes, food, and toys for presents for families in tough situations. With the holidays approaching everyone feels more inclined to donate to others. I think it is great how everyone helps out. However, I wish that people would help more then just the holidays. Another great thing about December is the breaks that we get. It allows for more family time. I see more family in the month of December then any other month.
This year there was one more thing that added to the excitement of December. I knew that shortly after December was over that the council was heading off to the Farm Show. I spent a bit of the month preparing for Farm Show and State Leadership Conference. There has been quite a bit of scripts to read, schedules to figure out, and numerous other things. However, even with all the work, I am still excited for the next couple of weeks to come.
Hope everyone stays safe until next time,
Sarah Bassett. President.

Where is all the snow?!

Hey everyone! December didn't give us much snow so hopefully January will! I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Christmas and New Year. Although it wasn't the white Christmas that everyone hopes for, it was still a great time to be able to be with family. It was great to go see my Grandma, cousins, aunts, and uncles and it was also great to be able to Skype my sister while we all opened presents. One of the best presents that I received, was a kitten that my dad got me because I had been wanting her ever since she was born and of course when i opened the bag she was in, I cried my eyes out because I was so happy! But by far the best present was being there as a family on Christmas.

Earlier in the month, I started my new job at a pet store! I never knew how much work went into taking care of all the animals and keeping the store looking spotless. It has definitely been one of the best jobs I have ever worked at because hopefully someday, I will become a Vet!

Another great experience was when my mom and I took over the donations that my local 4-H club had collected for Centre Wildlife Care near State College. It was incredible to see some of the animals that they had and all the work they put into helping them recover so that someday they can be released back into the wild.

As for January and the many months of 2012 to come, the State Council has many exciting events to come! Farm Show is quickly approaching and we can't wait to be there. Also this month is the State Leadership Conference! It is going to so much fun this year and will definitely be one to remember!

Have a Happy New Year!!

Truly,
Liz McAndrew
State 4-H Council Vice President of Operations and Events