I live in a neighborhood full of young families and children, which has come in handy whenever I have some chores that need to be done. I am getting so well known for my “chores” that more than one random kid has come by just to see if I had anything that he or she could do. Last summer I hired the neighbor boy to paint our fence. We agreed on the price, and that he would start work every morning at the same time and paint two sections each day. He was just barely in middle school, and had never worked, let alone painted before, so I knew I would have to work with him to teach him how to do a good job. He was excited about the money (which I paid him at the end of each week), but less excited to get up and start painting before 8 in the morning. Continue reading
Author Archives: Mary Arnold
About Mary Arnold
On Introducing the 4-H Thriving Model in 15 minutes
Practitioner Tip Tuesday
By Guest Blogger Kristen Moore, 4-H Companion Animal Programs, Portland Metro Region
Brightly colored sticky notes. They are my go-to answer for most things in my life: grocery lists, house chores, gentle reminders to my husband. Sticky notes create a physical connection to the important things, be it large or small. And they were my go-to answer when I introduced the 4-H Thriving Model to a room full of teachers and parents.
Portland 4-H is focusing on delivering a comprehensive school based 4-H program that engages students in every grade level with hands-on learning. For most of the teachers at Continue reading
On the Complexity of Describing Youth Thriving
Hello Friday!
My apologies for being a day late on my regular blog post. But, I have a great excuse! I was out and about the country this week talking about the 4-H Thriving Model, trying to raise support for the development of a training curriculum on the model for 4-H staff. I am hopeful my travels will bear fruit – but we will have to stay tuned for more.
As always, however, my thinking about the 4-H Thriving Model was front and center as I traveled, especially as my plane pulled in early to Salt Lake City late on Continue reading
On the Power of an Invitation
Practitioner Tip Tuesday
By Guest Blogger Claire Sponseller, 4-H Educator
Umatilla County, Oregon
I have thoroughly been enjoying Mary’s blogs as they are driving me to think more on what we as professionals can do to see 4-H youth thrive. So on that note, I’ll throw caution to the wind and hope to aid more thought on a thriving Oregon 4-H.
I, too, was a product of 4-H in Ada County, Idaho and had a pretty special relationship with my 4-H leaders and fellow club members. I started in 4-H because I was asked, which seems how most things still happen in 4-H. I dabbled in a little bit of everything, from livestock projects to youth leadership, but I keep landing back on: “What made my 4-H career a professional career?” It was those youth-adult partnerships and the comradery with my peers. Those same peers and leaders were at my wedding 20 some years later. They became my extended family, supporting me through college and guiding me to Extension and where I am now. Continue reading
On Promoting Purpose
At some point in my life I fell in love with words. I am not sure why this happened, because I distinctly remember being told in high school that my vocabulary was not very large. By college it had not improved much, and by the time I took the Graduate Record Exam to get into grad school I knew I had to make an effort to improve my vocabulary. Maybe it was listening to those GRE vocabulary tapes that first piqued my interest, or maybe it was the delightful discovery of the precision of words- finding the perfect word for describing something. In some cases it was because I just liked the sound of the word. I still don’t know for sure, but what I do know is that I began to pay attention to the words people use, and ponder the precise meaning and purpose for using them.
So it was as I wrapped up my reading of William Damon’s The Path to Purpose: How Young People find their Calling in Life this week. Toward the end of the book Dr. Damon presents a chapter, written largely to parents, but very apropos to our work as youth development educators, on facilitating the Continue reading
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