Extension
It Starts With Us
Acquiring Basic Life Skills in Family and Consumer Sciences
4-H Youth Development Programming
Kendyl Redding
4-H Communications and Expressive Arts Core Curriculum
4-H Leadership Core Curriculum
How we live life is ever-changing but learning basic life skills is still as important as ever. Learning to practice healthy habits, select clothing to emphasize one’s best appearance, create and live within a budget, prepare nutritious meals safely, nurture children, create a safe and pleasant home environment, practice common courtesies, and form relationships with others—all of these skills are basic to everyday life. Many schools no longer include family and consumer sciences classes in the curriculum. Reality is that today’s youth and adults are busier than ever. Many of these basic life skills are not consistently taught to youth at home or at school. 4-H family and consumer sciences projects equip youth with these skills.
As with any other Kentucky 4-H Core Curriculum area, when it comes to development of life skills, a strong case can be made for the need to go beyond mere transfer of knowledge to giving youth the opportunity for a variety of supportive, related learning experiences to significantly increase the program’s influence.
4-H often offers basic learning activities on a topic of interest to youth but the addition of activities which support that interest (such as fair exhibits, related subject matter workshops or day camps, field trips, and decision-making judging contests) significantly increase the development of life skills in youth. In a study by Olson, Croymans and Ji (2014), 4-Hers reported that participating in 1 or 2 educational opportunities influenced the development of critical thinking and decision making skills, and participating in 6 to 8 opportunities significantly increased the program’s influence by adding development of life skills in leadership, planning/organization, wise use of resources, useful/marketable skills and accepting differences.
While many FCS skills can be learned through self-directed projects or school enrichment, it’s beneficial for youth to have the added experience and guidance of a trusted adult and the opportunity to form relationships with caring mentors. For many adults, long-term volunteering is not always possible but shorter-term volunteer roles create doable opportunities for more people to tuck volunteering into busy schedules. Special interest clubs and groups that meet for a few weeks or months broaden the possibilities. The volunteer efforts of multiple adults may be required to take the 4-H experience from club meetings alone to also include exhibits, field trips and more.
Youth will:
Be responsible and contributing individuals and family members.
Gain and maintain employment through life skill development.
Contribute to a safe, pleasant and productive home and family.
Youth will:
Utilize and practice life skills in projects and life situations
Project a positive image and self-confidence
Practice responsible consumer and financial decision-making
Practice healthy eating choices
Make choices that lead to responsible and beneficial results
Adopt habits and skills that contribute toward employability in the future
Youth will:
Gain knowledge and develop skills in Family & Consumer Sciences projects and programs
Understand the decision-making process
Gain skills in setting a goal and developing a plan of action
Learn to read and follow instructions
Initial Outcome: Youth will set goals to achieve a healthier lifestyle.
Indicator: Youth will gain knowledge in basic life skills and will set goals to achieve moderate physical activities that will improve health and well being. Youth will gain knowledge in food safety and preparation.
Method: Pre and post surveys, evaluations, and personal observation.
Timeline: 1 year
Intermediate Outcome: Youth will take action in reaching their set goals to achieve a healthier lifestyle.
Indicator: Youth will continue to practice basic life skills and has made strides to meet goals set for physical activity plan and healthy eating habits. Youth practicing safe food preparation skills.
Method: Evaluations and personal observation.
Timeline: 2 years
Long-term Outcome: Youth will see results in their life based on the changes they have made. Youth will eat more family meals at home.
Indicator: Youth have learned and practice weight management. Decrease in obesity and chronic illness due to increase in physical activity and healthy diet. Youth help prepare meals at home and have family meal time.
Method: Evaluations and statistics, success stories from clientele, and personal observation.
Timeline: 1-4 years
Audience: 4-H youth
Project or Activity: 4-H Cooking Program with High School
Content or Curriculum: Teen Cuisine, 4-H Cooking 101, 201, 301, and 401 curriculum, Super Star Chef.
Inputs: Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service agent, specialists, volunteers.
Date: Ongoing
Audience: Youth
Project or Activity: Superstar Chef
Content or Curriculum: Superstar chef, NEP materials, and CES food preservation publications
Inputs: Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service agent, NEP staff, specialist, volunteers.
Date: July 2016, July 2017, July 2018
Audience: 4-H Youth
Project or Activity: Cloverbuds
Content or Curriculum: LEAP, Spark, and state 4-H curriculum
Inputs: Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service agent, NEP assistants, specialists, and volunteers.
Date: summer, yearly
Audience: Youth
Project or Activity: Reality Store and Dollars and Sense
Content or Curriculum: State 4-H curriculum for reality store, building a healthy wealthy future, and CES publications.
Inputs: Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service agent, specialists, teachers, community partners and volunteers.
Date: Yearly
Audience: Youth
Project or Activity: Financial Education
Content or Curriculum: FDIC Money Smarts.
Inputs: Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service agent, specialists, teachers, and volunteers.
Date: Ongoing
Author: Kayla Walton
Major Program: Food Preservation
The Menifee County Family and Consumer Science program hosted an educational Kid’s Can one-day camp at the extension office to teach youth about food preservation methods. Youth ages 8 and older were assisted by the FCS agent and county homemakers to learn the process of water bath canning.In the morning session, youth made and canned strawberry jam. They practiced cooking skills such as chopping strawberries, measuring sugar and strawberries, mixing ingredients and cooking on a stove-top.
Author: Kayla Walton
Major Program: Securing Financial Stability (general)
Beginning in September 2019, the Menifee County Family and Consumer Sciences Agent attended Menifee County High School once per month until March 2020 to teach the Foundations in Personal Finance Curriculum. The interactive, online curriculum was taught to two business classes comprised of 30 sophomores, juniors and seniors. Important topics covered were saving, budgeting, debt, careers and consumer awareness.Students learned and practiced creating a budget based off of a randomly assigned incom
Author: Kayla Walton
Major Program: Making Healthy Lifestyle Choices (general)
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the social distancing guidelines from our state and national public health entities, many in-person extension programs were not able to continue in the spring and summer months of this year. To adapt to these changes, our family and consumer science and 4-H agent created several programs “to-go” which were packaged and in front of the office for families to pick up and take home to complete. About 20 programs to-go were available for each topic. The p
