So, I’m halfway through my internship and I must say, the experiences keep getting better and better. Over the past two weeks our office has hosted Projects days for the first week, and Kids Cooking Camp for the second week. It’s definitely been a blast. I’ve been more creative, thought on my toes more and been more of a “helicopter parent” than I ever imagined. Did I mention that I am learning a lot about Cooperative Extension, it is definitely the best kept secret.
Project Days are hosted at our office; they complete two projects a day. The first session is from 10:00-12:00 the kids that stay the whole day, stayed to have lunch and then we started back up from 1:00-3:00. We started on Monday with Basket Weaving. They turned out great. They were very creative, and everyone’s basket turned out much different from each other’s’. Tuesday, for the first session we made homemade Jelly with our FCS agent. It was soooo good! I have never made Jelly, and I really learned a lot. After that we continued our day with our Horticulture agent, building Terrariums with the children. They were told to bring their own “aquarium” and we provided the soil, plants and other supplies for this self-sustaining, plant tank. We then had rocks or small frog and butterfly figurines for them to paint to add to their terrariums. They turned out so neat. I had never heard of a Terrarium, or built one, so this particular project day, I think I learned more than the kids.
We headed Wednesday by assembling a bird house. Every child was given the pieces to the bird house, nails, sand paper and a hammer. I was absolutely sure that this would be the most difficult thing we had done all week. However, it was one of the best! They were great! The skill of these kids completely blows me away sometimes. I have learned that if you simply sit back and try to guide the children, they are able to do far more than what we think they are capable of. Wednesday was wrapped up with us making gumball machines/candy dishes. They were so cute, we made them of flower pots, small fishbowls, ribbon and a hot glue gun. They were so cute, that I made myself one as well! For our last project day we had about seven girls come, to make purses out of old jeans that we purchased from the good will, added with it was some very cute fabric that they ruffled around the purse. If I wasn’t so busy helping, I would have made one of those too, they were the cutest little creative bags! The girls loved them.
This week we have just finished Kids Cooking Camp, where we took the Kids to a different country every day. We started on Monday in America, where we made Grilled chicken packets, and fruit parfaits for desert. DELICIOUS! Tuesday we moved to Mexico where we all made Fish Tacos, Guacamole and Mango for desert. Wednesday we moved on to Italy where we made a Baked Ziti and an Antipasti salad. AWESOMENESS! It was sooo good. Lastly, we moved on to Germany where we made Pegouchis. It’s sort of like your traditional Calzone, but the inside was stuffed with sausage, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes. Much to my surprise, even that was delicious. I really enjoyed every bit of Kids Cooking Camp. Throughout the course of these two weeks, I honestly didn’t know what to expect during Project Days and Kids Cooking Camp, I just knew there would be a lot of little people around, which we all know can get a little overwhelming. Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed myself over these past two weeks. I felt like I was able to connect with the kids some, I was able to display some of my leadership skills, I was able to help plan and execute, overall it was a fulfilling experience, not only for myself but for the children as well.
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