August 2nd – 6th at the Harvey County Fair Grounds, 800 W 1st street.
Category: 4-H & Human Development
Open Class FairEntry Help
We have exciting news about our fair this year! First off our schedule has changed. We have moved up our dates by one day, making all building exhibits judged on Friday August 3rd.
Check in times will be:
Thursday August 2nd from 7-9 pm and Friday August 3rd from 8 -10 am.
Judging will take place on Friday August 3rd starting at 11 am.
You can find the full schedule on our website www.harvey.ksu.edu.
Other changes will be the way we take entries. We will be using the FairEntry system to manage our entries this year. Included is helpful tips and a step by step guide on how to enter in the FairEntry system. This means that you will enter all of your exhibits through this system. To do that, you will go to http://harveycountyfair.fairentry.com, make an account and add your entries. You can start doing that on July 9th. Continue reading “Open Class FairEntry Help”
Brain Health
The brain allows you to interact with the world, understand and respond to carious surroundings. It is important to have a healthy brain to survive, grow and have everyday successes. How do you stay mentally fit? I have a few tips on how to keep your brain fit!
Socializing will help you critically think, be creative, and express your emotions in a healthy way. To do this, keep in touch with friends, get involved at church, by volunteering, or joining a group that meeting weekly/daily. Other ways is to get to know your neighbors and utilize the internet!
Doing mental stimulation is just as important as going to the gym! Play games or puzzles like Sudoku; read or write in a journal, stay a lifelong learner, pick up your favorite hobby again, or try new exciting things. Try to keep your brain stimulated by making it think critically about what you are doing.
Physical activity is not just great for your body, but for your brain as well! Basically by getting your heart rate up, you help circulate blood and oxygen to your brain releasing endorphins and making you happy.
Nutrition always goes with physical activity, so by eating foods high in antioxidants it will help your brain naturally repair itself. Eating right in general will help your brain tremendously with everyday functions.
Lastly catch your ZZZZZ’s. Sleep helps you with a ton of things because it gives your body a resting period where it can repair and rest. To get better sleep, exercise, eat a well-balanced diet, have a schedule and keep technology out of the bedroom.
Maintaining a healthy brain and establishing other healthy lifestyle behaviors throughout your life will influence optimal aging.
How 4-H Camps Help Kids
The last two weeks have been fun, long, hot and tiring. Why has it been long, hot, and fun? Well, I have been at several different camps for our 4-H’ers.
The first camp I went to was Discovery Days. During Discovery Days, older 4-Hers get to live in the dorms. That means they sleep and eat in the dorms on the KSU campus. Then they get to sign up for classes and attend them across campus throughout the days they are there. This camp gives a 4-Her a great opportunity to see what college is like. They get to find their way around a place they have never been, they have to be on time and they get to learn about themselves in this process.
The other camp, I went to was 4-H Camp at Rock Springs Ranch. These kids learn a lot! This might be the first time they are away from home. They learn how to make new friends and they try new skills like archery, about bees, or soil conservation. These 4-Hers are counseled by an older 4-Her and the older 4-Her learns how to manage children, and be responsible.
4-H camps are a great way for kids to learn about themselves and learn skills they might never learn at home. It gives them a chance to learn many new things away from their normal lives and experience opportunities they might have never had a chance to do. Camps are wonderful to help grow our children into responsible young adults and then into the adults we want them to be.
Well-Being
Vacations are essential to our emotional well-being. We all need time to unwind and focus on other things besides deadlines and daily pressures of “success”. If we do this, research has shown we will be more productive when we return to our work duties. We will also live longer and be in better health. You need to give your tired, over-worked body a chance to revive itself from daily pressures. Learning to listen to your body is essential to taking care of it and it’s hard to do when we are running from one event to another, skipping meals, running on little sleep and avoiding regular exercise.
Vacations offer us the opportunity to explore what we would like to do after retirement or as a hobby. What do you really enjoy in this life? When do you get to do it? Don’t put off today, learn to enjoy the simple pleasures in life and develop both hobbies and friends to share along the way. They suggest if you do physical work, then do something on your vacation that doesn’t involve a lot of physical effort, or if you work with a lot of people you may want to take a change of pace and be more solitary. If you work on a computer all day then maybe social activity is needed, look for ways to alter you pace in life and give you rest in your daily activities. It is also a great time for talking with your partner about your goals and dreams. When we don’t take the time to explore these things, retirement can be frightening, “what will I do with my time?” Continue reading “Well-Being”
Kansas State Fair Agriculture Challenge
Agriculture is an important piece of our past and a critical part of our future. According to the Kansas Department of Agriculture, there are more than 60,000 farms in Kansas which generate more than $18.5 billion in Agriculture output. On average, Kansas is the largest wheat producing state, producing 333,600,000 bushels of wheat in 2017. Nearly one-fifth of all wheat grown in the United States is grown in Kansas. Additionally, one 60-pound bushel of wheat provides about 42 pounds of white flour, enough for about 70, one pound loaves of white bread.
The Kansas State Fair wants to encourage students to learn more about Kansas agriculture. Farmers feed and clothe the world. Farmers today are raising more food with fewer resources. It is estimated that by 2050, we’ll need to feed two billion more people. Understanding how and where your food comes from is important. The Fair wants to help students connect with the people who grow their food.
There are 12 agriculture adventure stops listed at this link https://www.kansasstatefair.com/p.aspx?pID=fair/education/669& . You choose 6 of these stops to visit between May 1 and August 15, 2018. You can mail, email or bring your completed adventure sheet to the Kansas State Fair. All adventure sheets turned in by August 15 will receive a KSF Agriculture Fun Pack. Your name will also be put into a drawing for a free Kids Club ticket package to attend the 2018 Kansas State Fair.
Summer Fun Activities
School is almost over and that means you have to find something for your children to do. If they can go to camps and/or day care that is great, but not everyone can do that. If you have to leave them at home while you work, there are a few things you can do to keep them busy.
- Make a chore chart for them based on their ages. Older kids can do a lot of things to help you around the house and younger kids can do simple tasks like folding laundry.
- Find some free camps for them to go to, to help break up the summer.
- Plan some fun activities that will take them a few days to complete. Pinterest has a ton of STEM activities for children to do.
- Our local libraries have activities going on this summer, might be a fun way to make new friends.
- Boredom. Sounds weird, but it can be a good thing for kids to experience.
- Make a bucket list for the summer!
These are just a few, but be creative!