DAY 1 - March 16, 2020
Web Resource: McHarper Manor in Milford, Ohio (Cincinnati) is offering a free online art tutorial for kids everyday at 1:00 pm! They post a list of supplies you need and then go-live to work with them on an art/craft project! So neat! No need to sign up, just tune in to their Facebook LIVE! And if you can't join them, they plan to post the videos so you can view them later! Creative expression is very important to share some of our feelings during this time of transition! We encourage you to check it out.
Recipe: 5-Minute Mug Cakes - The kids are home and want a sweet treat. Why not teach them some baking basics during their math (measuring ingredients) and science (chemical reactions of baking powder) lessons! It's quick, easy and the best part is everyone chooses their favorite flavor. Birthday Party Mug Cake Chocolate Cake in a Mug
Activity: It's SLIME TIME! - What's better than good old fashioned slime? Oh, yes EDIBLE slime that's what!! Caution: wash hands and potentially still don't eat. With these recipes you can make sticky, tasty, moldable slime! Chocolate, Marshmellow, Laffy Taffy, even Static Slime!
DAY 2 - March 17, 2020
Web Resource: Did you know the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is offering daily virtual tours? Yep, it's true come meet Fiona the hippo and her many friends during the daily virtual tours!
Recipe: Homemade Fruit Roll Ups! Get in the kitchen with your kiddos! Just berries, honey and lemon juice!
Activity: Mystery Food Test - don't forget to document the process! Work on writing, reading and trial and error at home!
- Gather your family together
- Place a variety of fruits or vegetables on a plate
- Blindfold one person and choose another person to be the leader of the first taste test round.
- Have one person cut a small piece of the fruit or vegetable for the blindfolded person to try (make sure to ask if there are any food allergies before starting)
- Ask the blindfolded person to guess what type of healthy food they taste. If they guess correctly, they earn one point.
- Repeat with each person in the group for as many rounds as you'd like. The person with the most points wins!
Day 3 - March 18, 2020
Web Resource: How to talk to your kids about any anxiety related to COVID 19 - OSU shares best practices
Recipe: Easy (and Health!) Banana Pancakes 
Activity: Environmental STEM: Oil Spills! Whether in the ocean or on roadways understanding the challenges that come with clean up is important. Check out this great activity to help your kids be more aware.
Day 4 - March 19, 2020
Web Resource: Check out Google's virtual tours of some of the most incredible museums in the world. Both inspiring and educational!
Recipe: Stuffed Cheese Shells
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 (12 ounce) package jumbo pasta shells
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 (32 ounce) container ricotta cheese OR mix 1/2 with cottage cheese
- 1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
- 8 ounces grated Parmesan cheese, divided
- 1 Tablespoon dried parsley (I use fresh)
- 2 Teaspoons salt
- 1 Teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 (28 ounce) jar pasta sauce OR make your own
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat over to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
- In a large bowl, mix eggs, ricotta, half the mozzarella, half the Parmesan, parsley, salt and pepper until well combined. Stuff cooked shells with ricotta mixture and place in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, stir togehter pasta sauce, and reserved mozzarella and Parmesan. Pour over stuffed shells.
- Bake in preheated oven 45 to 60 minutes, until edges are bubbly and shells are slightly set.
Activity: Bursting with energy? Here's some great balloon games that are easy to modify for all ages!
Day 5 - March 20, 2020
Web Resource: The Cornell Lab features 15 different LIVE BIRD NEST CAMS! How sweet is that! Check out sounds, feather patterns, beak shape, feet and movements! The website also has song recordings for thousands of birds, and tons of resources to enhance your bird ID skills! Check out their website to build your bird knowledge. They also have info on building bird boxes!
Recipe: French Toast Roll Ups
Activity: Apple Science Experiment - Why do some fruits and vegetables brown after being cut? Can we prevent them from browing? Using regular apples conduct this experiment and find out!
Day 6 - March 23, 2020
Web Resource: Great Plant Escape - An elementary program for 4th and 5th grade students but easily modified for younger audiences. Each of the lessons in this program is designed to introduce students to plant science and increase their understanding of how foods grow. Youth can click through different "case" files to explore learning about plants! At the end there is a brief quiz about each section.
Recipe: Hibachi Chicken - 
Activity: Cloud in a Jar - Don't you just love looking at clouds in the sky, especially the white puffy ones? Learn how to make your very own cloud in a jar!
Day 7 - March 24, 2020
Web Resource: Arts and Culture from Google-Whether your a history buff or not Google offers boat loads of contend categorized by historical event! Sit down with your youngster and check out some of these major moments in history: attack on Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, May of '68, Normandy Landings, Watergate Scandal, Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagaski, Battle of Gettysburg, Hurricane Katrina and a whole lot more! Believe it or not we are making history everyday!!
Recipe: Homemade Pop Tarts!
Activity: Fitness Dice - Getting Antsy? How about trying some fitness dice! First, brainstorm 6 physical activities such as jump-roping, jumping jacks, squats etc. Make a chart assigning each physical activity to a number 1-6. For example: jumping jacks could be 1 and squats could be 2. Take turns rolling two dice. The first dice is which physical activity you will have to do, the second dice is how many times you have to that activity. Example: 1 and a 6, so the player would have to do SIX jumping jacks! If you don't have any dice download and print this template.
Day 8 - March 25, 2020
Web Resource: That's right folks! The CIA (legit government website) has a games section for kids! Breaking codes, observation skills, and more! Check it out and explore skills needed to problem solve like the CIA!
Recipe: Rainbow Fruit Kabobs - Nothing says Spring like Rainbows and fresh fruit. Put the 2 together and you've got a yummy snack! AND Salad in a Jar - did someone say "I'm hungry"? Assemble your ingredients and everyone can make their own custom salad!
Activity: Eating Nails for Breakfast? Check out this activity that explores the iron in your typical breakfast cereal! Includes video plus step-by-step instructions!
Day 9 - March 26, 2020
Web Resource: I BORED! Here's a link that provides indepth science-based short videos on a wide variety of interesting topics: How do you go to the toilet in space? Step into the Orion Nebula! Meet the Titanosaur--one of the largest creatures to walk the Earth!
Recipe: 11 Carton Cake - No measuring + Easy Clean = Yummy Cake!
Activity: Classic card games that are fun for all school-aged kids: Rummy, Crazy 8's, War, Slap Jack and Memory. The key to making any of these fun is to do them WITH your kids. We've likely been craving some relaxed sit-downs with you for awhile! If you forget how to play these games you can read up on the rules.
Day 10 - March 27, 2020
Web Resource: Look for a simple FREE old school computer game? Remember Atari Breakout? Go to google images and type this in! Welcome to endless hours of fun! Same thing goes for just searching Pac-Man and Zerg Rush.
Recipe: Tangled Twisters - What do pretzels and the 4-H project "Not Just Knots" have in common? Well, pretzel twisting is kinda like making a knot. So-practice your tangled-up knot skills and then enjoy the delicious finished product!
Activity: The easy science project shows kids how dendrochronolgy and tree rings give us a look into the past! We like to do a lot of tree activities for a few reasons -- trees are easy to find :), the activities you can do are super easy and inexpensive and trees can teach us so much about science topics, the environment and even history. Today's project is going to allow your child to be a naute detective -- and all you needs is an old stump for this one!
Day 11 - March 30, 2020
Web Resource: Let's go on a virtual field trip! Muskingham County 4-H has been creating videos for both livestock and place! They've toured a fire house, a jersey farm and a physical therapy office! They also have brief videos on every major species! Check them out!
Recipe: Pizza Pasta Bake
Activity: Dice games are some of Katie's favorite to play! Check out the following website for 9 simple dice games that will get your kids laughing, thinking and interacting for as long as you'd like! If you don't have any dice, download and print a template tomake your own at home!
Day 12 - March 31, 2020
Web Resource: Into biographies but more into screen time? Check out Google's catelog of historical people--featuring hundreds from presidents, presidential wanna-bes, Ghandi, Thurgood Marshall and more!
Recipe: Fish Tacos - An easy recipe to prepare for a quick meal and a yummy way to eat up all the fish you catch when you dive into your 4-H Fishing Project!
Activity: Egg drop challenge - Students are first given the description of the challenge - to protect a raw egg from a high fall, and it's their job to design some kind of container or contraption to protect that egg using materials brought in from home. There are many variations to the egg drop challenge but be sure you are working through the process--brainstorm, document ideas, gather potential resources, build, test, modify, test. You can even turn this into a friendly competition! Maybe build and test and then challenge a friend on social media!
Day 13 - April 1, 2020
Recipe: Bug Snacks - Tell your mom and dad that you want to eat some bus for April Fool's Day! They get creative building and eating these delicious, tasty bugs! For more about insects check out the 4-H project: Insects Adventures
Activity: April's Fools! Does your kids want to learn some magic tricks to celebrate this day? Check out this website for a wide variety of kid friendly magic tricks!
Day 14 - April 2, 2020
Recipe: Taco Sticks - Make today Taco Thursday! Teach the kids how to properly cook the hamburger! Add some seasonings, cheese then bake and eat!
Additional Recipes:
Bacon and Egg Lasagna - “This year, the kids may have had the opportunity to color LOTS of Easter eggs! Don’t let those eggs go to waste – try this yummy recipe!” 
Macaroni Salad - recipe “What? You still have leftover Easter eggs? Let the kiddos get crackin’ to peel some eggs and make up some Easy Macaroni Salad!”
No Bake Fruit Tarts - Get your kids 'egg-cited' to be in the kitchen! This recipe includes several STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) skills by teaching fractions (measuring ingredients), physical changes (oats into flour), creativity (fruit designs) and nutrition (healthy snacks). And, the finished product tastes delicious! Check out these great 4-H projects - #493 Science Fun with Kitchen Chemistry, #487 Fast Break for Breakfast, #150CEP Chicken, Egg Production: Hens & Pullets.
