Family, Home & Health Projects
Family, Home & Health Projects
Additional Resources & Opportunities:
Youth in the 4-H Candy Making project will explore tools, techniques, safety precautions, ingredients, and more as they develop their skills. Based on specific skills, candy making is a chance to bring art and science into the kitchen!
- Beginner: Learn the tools and techniques of safe candy making, starting with chocolate dipping.
- Intermediate: Experiment with different types of crystalline candies.
- Advanced: Build your “candy portfolio,” adding non-crystalline candies to your skillset.
Learning opportunities: Create a variety box of candies as a gift. Explore what it would take to start a candy business. Visit a candy shop. Challenge yourself to make a candy you find there.
More Info
- Wisconsin 4-H Candy Making Project Resources
- Foodie Camp
Learn about children’s ages and stages, age-appropriate toys, healthy snacks, and how to create games or stories for children. Learn what it means to be responsible for children and how to be a good babysitter.
- Beginner: Make items like bags, hats, and masks. Learn how to keep your home safe.
- Intermediate: Make a family tree, prepare healthy meals, and create a circle of friends.
- Advanced: Learn about potential careers in child development and participate in a multigenerational service project.
Learning opportunities: Visit a daycare center. Interview a professional in the child development field. Create fun, safe toys for children of various ages.
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Mastering consumer skills will help you succeed in many areas of life. Set personal goals, communicate clearly, and make smart decisions with money.
- Beginner: Learn to make wise choices, set goals, and share with others.
- Intermediate: Discover your consumer rights and responsibilities, uncover advertising secrets, and learn how to shop safely online!
- Advanced: Explore the global marketplace, discover the joy of giving back, understand the actual cost of owning a car, and discover what real-life expenses are like!
Learning opportunities: Make a display about safe online shopping for your county fair. Take a field trip to local businesses to compare prices. Create a budget for a grocery shopping trip.
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Investigate what it means to be an entrepreneur by learning about community businesses, exploring business ideas, and determining your skills to make career choices.
- Beginner: Learn about community businesses.
- Intermediate: Learn about time management, ethics, and giving back to your community.
- Advanced: Develop a business plan and create a marketing strategy.
Learning opportunities: Interview small business owners in your community. Make a poster about the differences between digital vs. “brick and mortar” entrepreneurship. Take a workshop about developing a business plan.
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Creativity can be a piece of cake (or bread or other food)! This project teaches youth how to start making food for parties and events. It may start with knowing and practicing cake decorating skills and advance to creating beautiful works of food art. The only limits are ingredients and imagination!
- Beginner: Learn to bake and decorate single-layer cakes using simple decorating techniques.
- Intermediate: Learn to bake two-layer cakes and make various special effects.
- Advanced: Learn to make tiered cakes and design your own projects.
Learning opportunities: Attend a cake decorating class. Give a food decorating demonstration at your club meeting. Interview a cake decorator about market, pricing, and advertising.
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Does your garden produce more tomatoes than you know what to do with? In the Food Preservation project, youth learn to freeze and dry foods. Then, learn what to do with those tomatoes, cucumbers, and other produce with advanced food preservation techniques.
- Beginner: Learn to freeze fruits, juices, vegetables, meats, fish, and poultry with food-freezing basics.
- Intermediate: Make salsa, jams, jellies, and pickles.
- Advanced: Learn how to do pressure canning.
Learning opportunities: Visit a farmer’s market to learn what local produce you can preserve. Volunteer to help with a community garden. Host a freezer meal-making session.
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If you enjoy cooking or like good food, this project could be for you. Youth will have fun learning cooking basics and then advance over time to making gourmet meals. This project also focuses on nutrition and using MyPlate to guide eating, meal preparation, and planning.
- Beginner: Develop basic cooking “how to” skills.
- Intermediate: Practice different cooking techniques, including foods from different cultures.
- Advanced: Explore outdoor cooking, slow cooking, and cooking with spices and herbs.
Learning opportunities: Volunteer at a food pantry. Bake with residents at a care center. Prepare a family meal each week. Teach friends how to make healthy snacks. Take part in a local Foods Revue or other food related 4-H learning event.
More Info
- Wisconsin 4-H Foods & Nutrition Project Resources
- Foods Revue
- Foodie Camp
- Workshops (more info coming soon)
The Health project helps youth explore health and wellness. Youth learn to assemble a first aid kit and treat minor injuries. They also learn to stay healthy and develop a personal fitness plan that includes physical, mental, emotional, social, and other aspects of health.
- Beginner: Design a family First Aid Kit.
- Intermediate: Learn how to fuel your body with healthy, delicious foods and make mental and physical fitness part of your routine.
- Advanced: Design a health and wellness plan and find exciting ways to stay active.
Learning opportunities: Take a Red Cross or CPR class. Explore careers in health and wellness. Take a tour of a fitness center. Keep a journal of your fitness, activities, and food.
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Get creative with design, organization, and upcycling! Youth use decision-making skills, great taste, and big heart to make a difference through fun and meaningful activities that improve your room, home, and community.
- Beginner: Learn about principles of design (color, texture, line, and style).
- Intermediate: Create a project for organizing an area in your home or room.
- Advanced: Upcycle an older item from home, a garage sale, or a thrift store.
Learning opportunities: Buy items from a thrift store to upcycle. Attend a workshop related to maintaining a home. Participate in Home Environment judging at the county fair.
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Master money management skills! Learn how to save, budget, and make smart financial choices. Get ready to
take control of your finances and build a bright future!
- Beginner: Explore wants and needs, track spending, and uncover the world of banking.
- Intermediate: Explore career planning, spending and savings plans, payment methods, and credit.
- Advanced: Discover career paths, investment options, and how to manage debt like a pro.
Learning opportunities: Prioritize your wants and needs. Interview a professional in a career you are interested in. Visit a bank to learn more about financial management.
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Have you ever wanted an outfit in a different color or style? Youth in the Sewing project learn basics like sewing a shirt or putting a zipper on a pair of pants. As youth advance, they may learn to choose and customize a design for the perfect look.
- Beginner: Recognize basic sewing machine parts and how to use them.
- Intermediate: Learn to read a pattern and expand your sewing techniques.
- Advanced: Create a pattern or learn to sew Regalia.
Learning opportunities: Enter the county Fashion Revue. Tour a fabric store. Learn about clothing types and stain removal to do your family’s laundry. Create your own sewing business.
More Info
- Wisconsin 4-H Sewing Project Resources
- Quilting Contact: Cindy Heuer at (920) 602-6941
- Fashion Revue
- Fashion Revue Score Card (Word) Fashion Revue Score Card (PDF)
- State Fair Clothing Revue
4-H members in this project will boost their sports skills and fitness! Learn fun ways to build flexibility, strength, and endurance while staying active and healthy. Let’s get moving together!
- Beginner: Find out which exercises you love and how they can keep you fit and active.
- Intermediate: Learn how nutrition can improve your fitness and sports performance.
- Advanced: Set goals, track your progress, and see how strong and active you can become.
Learning opportunities: Attend a workshop related to fitness. Organize an activity at your club meeting that involves lots of movement. Prepare a project exhibit for a local fair.
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