Every year the girls' 4-H club dedicates at least one meeting to something GPS-related and usually I'm the "teacher" for that meeting simply because I have a bit more experience with the technology than the other parents in the club (I have to qualify here that my knowledge is limited; I am definitely not an expert). I always ask my girls to be my guinea pigs so I can practice explaining each of the activities I plan to do with the club. Sometimes an activity sounds like a good idea in my head but in practice I've found things can be trickier to explain (or execute) than I expect. Once in a while my girls will assume a leadership role in a group with our GPS activities but I'm usually within earshot. If the girls get confused by a task or are asked a question they don't know the answer to, they can run over and ask me for help.
But when we heard from Susan there would be 14 kids at the geocaching meeting I had planned to teach at Wolfe's Neck Farm for her club, my strategy for teaching the group had to be tweaked. In order for each of the kids in her 4-H club to get a chance to actually use a GPS unit, we needed to break in to smaller groups. And in order to do that, I needed my girls to step up to the proverbial plate and assume a key leadership role with a group of their own.
I wasn't sure how things would go with the girls leading their own groups out in to the woods to find geocaches because I would definitely not be within earshot (we hid the geocaches prior to the club arriving and the four boxes covered about a one-mile radius). But the feedback from the parent helpers that went along with each of my girl's groups once the class was over, was that each of them managed to answer questions and explain the game and GPS unit.
This experience confirmed my believe that multi-age learning environments are great. I think both the younger kids as well as the older ones get a lot out of the experience. And based on my experience with my own children, just because the child's chronological age is one year, doesn't mean they have the educational ability and/or maturity of that particular year. My older daughter, G., has had some learning challenges that were identified when she was younger so she struggled for years to "catch up" to her chronological age in relation to her academics. While L. has not faced the same challenges academically, she has had difficulties with her physical development that had her in PT for several years at a toddler/preschooler in order to "catch up" to her chronological age in relation to physical development.
When G. was 7 I heard about 4-H and their multi-age learning opportunities and knew it was something that had the potential to work well for her and our family (even though she has always been interested in animals, she did not join an animal-based club her first years involved in the program).
The general clubs my girls have been a part of through the years have included kids that range in age from 5-19 years old. The older kids are challenged in different ways than the younger ones and the natural learning opportunities that arise from such an experience as each child grows is really wonderful.
So to watch my girls assume a leadership role with a group of children only a few years younger than themselves was immensely satisfying for me to watch. My girls seemed to simply take the knowledge they had about the GPS unit and the geocaching game and did their best to explain it to people in their group. If it hadn't been for all those 4-H kids through the years (both older and younger than mine), I'm not sure if my girls would have been as comfortable in this situation. But to them, being around kids of all ages is normal. It's what they have grown up with in 4-H.
I agree there are situations, formal school education and organized sports teams for instance, where age-specific groupings is necessary to establish order and/or level the playing field based on physical development. But when it comes to fun, youth-orientated activities outside of school and organized sports, to my way of thinking, there is a whole lot more benefit to multi-age learning environments for everyone involved (and the whole family can be involved which is also a big plus in my book, especially as it relates to the family schedule).
So I have to give a shout-out to Susan and all the kids in her club for giving my girls a wonderful leadership opportunity last week. We all had a great learning experience and were happy to be a part of helping your club start their new 4-H adventure this year!
I am sad to say that I have only two pictures from our day at the farm! My girls and I were so focused on teaching our groups, we never did pull out the camera. I did manage to snap a couple of photos with my phone at our last geocache find of the day though. My group of four boys did a great job following directions and finding all the geocaches.
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