Be Intentional About Transitioning
Transitioning is a hot topic these days! We all know that the longer we get to work with youth, the greater the chances for positive impact on their development. Clover Kids leaders have the unique opportunity to help CKs and their parents understand the benefits of continuing their 4-H experience by joining the Club program. But, we can no
longer just cross our fingers and hope the children will chose to join a Club. We have to be intentional!
Being intentional means we need to develop a plan of attack for introducing CKs to the Club experience. As we plan our meetings, we can also plan ways to help CKs see the benefits and fun involved in the Club program. Plan how you can bring up the Club program during your meeting! Of course that doesn't mean we are going to copy activities from the Club program - but what that does mean - is that we can point out how the activities we are doing can be extended during the Club experience. For example, if you are making pizza during a CK meeting. You can point out how they can compare different types of pizza for nutritional information, or how they can compare the costs/value of different pizza brands. I'm sure there are lots of different ways to extend that activity in the Club!
Another way to be intentional about transitioning is to plan to use the Club members in your CK program. We can have Club members do mini hands on workshops for CKs at our meetings to expose CKs to project areas they can look forward to in the Club. Club members can also just help at CK meetings for "crowd control". We can also have Club members show CKs around during the fair. The point is to make the Club visible for the CK members in a positive and fun way. Plan ways to get the Club members and CKs involved with each other. Again, duplicating the Club experience isn't appropriate for CKs and it isn't the best way to prepare CKs for the Club. We just want to keep the option of joining a Club in focus.