4-H Fridays Filling Need for Parents

It’s been several years since Boundary County School District 101 switched to a four-day week, closing on Fridays for budgetary reasons.

Nonetheless, elementary-aged students in the rural northern Idaho community now look forward to Fridays for especially engaging STEM-based educational lessons and activities, thanks to a University of Idaho Extension 4-H Youth Development program that’s filling a crucial niche for parents.

In partnership with the school district, the UI Extension office in Boundary County launched 4-H Friday Friends in 2006, providing an affordable educational option for students from kindergarten through fifth grade who might otherwise be left to their own devices. The district allows the program to use the library, gymnasium, cafeteria and equipment at Boundary County Middle School. Instruction is offered from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Fridays during the school year, with open enrollment. Parents are charged anywhere from $5 to $15 per day based on their ability to pay, and students needn’t enroll in 4-H to participate.

Students pack their own lunches but are offered snacks. The program serves 15 students per Friday on average — with much higher enrollment on teacher in-service days when many of the district’s teachers drop off their young children. Roughly 60 students combined use the program each school year.

“Parents really like the program because the flexibility makes it nice. They can drop them off before they go to work, or just if they need to run some errands without their children,” said Amy Robertson, a family and consumer sciences and 4-H Extension educator in Boundary County. “We’re short on daycares — it’s very difficult to even find a spot at a daycare — and quite often they’re not getting the educational programming at daycares.”

Lesson plans using research-based curriculum, with an emphasis on STEM activities, are posted weekly on the 4-H Friday Friends Facebook page.

Many of the program’s activities come from the county’s Think Make Create trailer, which is a mobile makerspace featuring several STEM lessons offered by several partners including UI Extension 4-H Youth Development. Local high school sports teams and clubs volunteer to help run 4-H Friday Friends, as do community volunteers. For example, the local fire department recently showed off a fire truck to the students, an AmeriCorps representative teaches a monthly lesson in robotics and a local baker gave them a demonstration in pastry decorating.

The Extension office employs a part-time program coordinator who oversees the Friday sessions and works additional hours earlier in the week planning curriculum and shopping for snacks. The program also has a part-time assistant who works on Fridays.

Some area home-schooling-based charter schools count 4-H Friday Friends curriculum toward their educational requirements. Robertson has also worked with parents and stakeholders in Priest River, which recently adopted a four-day school week, on creating a similar program.

The program has received funding support from several small grants, including through the Equinox Foundation and The Idaho Community Foundation.

4-H Fridays in Oneida County

Eighth-grader Lyndee Nimer, of Malad, spends Friday afternoons during the school year boning up on equestrian skills, judging livestock and studying the ideal structure of sheep, horses and cattle.

The lessons, offered through a UI Extension 4-H Youth Development program in Oneida County known as 4-H Fridays, are especially valuable to Nimer given that she’s set a goal of becoming a veterinarian specializing in livestock.

It’s been several years since her rural school district implemented a four-day school week to cut costs, and Nimer acknowledges she’d probably be on the couch watching TV all day on Fridays otherwise.

“I look forward to Fridays. I get to do different activities all day long, and I can broaden my knowledge on animals,” Nimer said.

Since 2022, UI Extension in Oneida County has hosted 4-H Fridays at its office located within the county fairgrounds at 459 S. Main St. in Malad. Having a dedicated day for 4-H clubs and activities to meet — and providing parents an opportunity for their kids to do something constructive — has resulted in significant enrollment growth in the southeast Idaho county’s 4-H program. Since 4-H Fridays started, Oneida County’s average 4-H enrollment has ballooned from 120 youth to well over 200 youth.

Youth may also participate in classes on teen leadership, wildlife and artistic activities such as scrapbooking and crocheting. Youth must be enrolled in 4-H to participate in the Oneida County program, and their participation is covered by general 4-H fees.

“The parents have truly appreciated more information being taught to their kids,” said Kelly Sorensen 4-H assistant and UI Extension office manager in Oneida County. “A lot of parents still work on Friday and that leaves youth if they don’t play sports with nothing to do.”

Several community volunteers help run the club meetings and activities, making 4-H Fridays possible.

“I’m a mom who likes to keep my kids involved and engaged in things that help them progress to become better adults,” said Alaina Schrenk, who has four children involved in the program ranging in age from 6 to 13. “There are parents always in here helping with these different activities. There is a community helping to raise your children, and this kind of creates that environment.”

Published in Catching Up with CALS