Since school is out for the summer, many parents are seeking for someone to watch their children.  I had two 4-H members who called and ask if I would offer a babysitting clinic including CPR certification.  I reached out to see how many youth would like to take a babysitting class and had a lot of interest.  After calling two agencies, I scheduled the CPR class with our local health department.  The final list of participants was only eight but those eight was eager to get started and learn the basics of babysitting. 

The class began with Amy from the health department teaching CPR.  She brought the infant manikins for the members to practice on but explained how to administer CPR to toddlers and school age children as well. Then I used the babysitting curriculum from the University of Kentucky 4-H Resource guide.

The pretest was  given with an average score of 60.  The main topics that were presented was the characteristics of a good babysitter, a form with all the information about the parents and emergency numbers, the safety checklist, what to include in the babysitter's bag, nutrition and food safety, ages and stages of children, the a b c's of babysitting, and scenarios where we role played and decided on what should happen in each one.

The post test was given and all of the participants received 100%; therefore, each received a certificate of completion.  Two members have called and been hired for the summer.  The others are anxiously awaiting a phone call.

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