When my two were younger (this is my daughter in the above photo when she was younger) we lived in another town about 25 mins from here on the other side of the Kaipara coast. They have always grown up with pets so they're no stranger to animals, however farm animals are a different story. At one point they told the ex husband and myself that they wanted to give calf club a go, some of their friends had gotten into it. So we put their names down and along we went - what fun they had!
Each of the kids there were given a calf to look after, this meant that each week they had to groom, brush, clean theirs and get to know their new friends. They were taught how to train their calf, lead it around a ring and when Spring came they repeated the process on the day of Calf Club at their school. Sometimes the calves because they were little were stroppy, strong willed other times the more the kids got to know them the more they learned to behave.
On the day of calf club they competed against other children from farms around the region and ended up winning some ribbons for their calves. It's fun valuable times like this that make me look back and wish we could do it all again...
7 comments:
Where abouts did you live at the time?
Calf Club is so much fun, and it's quite sad when we get too old to compete! My siblings and I did it when we lived in the Waikato and as you'd imagine it's very competitive down there. There was even a time when my older brother and sister made it to the champion ring over all and were competing against each other. So it was a little dubious how the other one would take it - losing to their sibling of all people! But once we moved up this way it's definitely quite different and there's a different range of kids.
It's a good way for kids to learn responsibilities though!
hi kayger, I never did calf club when I was growing up as I lived in the city not in the country like my three do. But yes it is a good expereince to get into :-)
At the time of this photo we lived in Maungaturoto.
Cute!! :)
What a great experience that so many kids that don't live on farms never get to try.
thank you, yes it is a good experience. We didn't live in a farm at the time, this farm was about 10 mins drive from where we lived.
Last week I went to a rural county fair to see my great-niece show her pig. Very much the sam experience as calf club I think. Pretty amazing stuff to a city girl! ~May
aww how cute, thanks for your comment Will :-)
Post a Comment