Estes: Learning by doing

As you may be able to tell from the title of my blog, this is another part in my 4-H saga with my kids and the struggles and successes we have been experiencing.

This story revolves around my two children who are showing sheep and having to complete the YQCA, which is also known as Youth for the Quality Care of Animals certification.

Both Graham and Addy each had to complete their YQCA to show their sheep at the Johnson County Fair. However, each one had to take a different course due to their age level.

I started with Graham, whose program went over the importance of recordkeeping and planning, as well as how to read a water chart to make sure his animals were getting enough water.

He was doing his best to pay attention, but then when it came to the quizzes, he was a little confused — and I admit I was, too, because some of the directions and question weren’t very clear.

After about two hours of listening and answering questions about how to properly care for his animals and the importance of proper recordkeeping, Graham was done.

Then it was Addy’s turn, and I would be reluctant to say that I was not looking forward to Addy doing it because she tends to have little patience at times.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to see Addy very interested in the basic animal husbandry along with proper feeding and the importance of providing water for livestock.

She was very excited to click on the different parts in the modules, and within an hour she had done all the knowledge builders, skills builder and passed all the quizzes.

Stay tuned for more 4-H saga blogs. I’m sure there are more to come.