Kody Hanner
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Do you ever wonder if pursuing a homestead lifestyle is resonating positively with your children?
I have wondered this on numerous occasions myself. Do my kids understand why we are growing all our own food? Are they on board with feeding our livestock at 7AM when it’s freezing out? Do they think I’m crazy when I make them drink water and use essential oils for a headache? Well probably, but maybe I’ll discuss that another day. And one of the most important to me, can they teach this information and speak confidently about it in settings outside of our home?
They aren’t couch potatoes
To clarify, my kids aren’t laying on the couch whining that they don’t want to help. They are up on time (most mornings) to feed, they get excited then we start new projects, love helping in the garden, and enjoy having homecooked meals. We have a rule in our house that “everyone helps”. This translates as we all eat the food, we all help grow the food or we all wear the clothes, so we all help with the laundry. Some days this is “forced compliance” and some days we have full buy in.
Homesteading might be working
Over the years with my kids doing 4-H and helping with our YouTube channel, I have heard them give talks and presentations that have told me that they are learning. They are absorbing the information that we learn in homeschool and on our homestead. When we have friends over or family come to visit, I am definitely beaming with pride overhearing them explain advanced nutrition protocols with someone that really just wanted to pet a cow. So, from this I can feel confident that learning is happening. Now to decide if they are taking ownership in our endeavors.
Are they buying in to the homestead concept?
What is buy in to me? Buy in, is that they are on board. That my kids want to eat whole foods, that they believe in the health benefits of raw milk, and that they understand the importance of animal husbandry. This encourages them to help, to join in, and to spread the word.
How do you get kids to buy in?
Before I tell you my “buy in” success rate, I’d like to discuss some of the things that I have implemented in our home. This is also something that I am going to be elaborating on more in the future as well because I think that it’s a topic that isn’t addressed enough or is even considered taboo.
I should also probably state that we have not always been a homestead family. We are a blended family that before my husband and I were married led a pretty different lifestyle. One thing that we both had given to our children was gardening and a love of hunting. When we met, our lifestyle allowed us to expand on those interests by adding chickens and butchering a couple of farm raised pigs a year.
Now we run a full-blown farm. We have chickens for eggs and meat, cows for both milk and beef, a moderate sized pig operation, large garden, orchard, and hay fields. And what homestead wouldn’t be complete without some goats with a livestock guardian dog watching over.
Some of the ways we positively involve the kids on the homestead
- The everyone helps concept
- Seasonal family meetings to discuss farm goals and changes
- Having the kids invest a portion of their 4-H auction proceeds every year into something they’re interested in on the farm
- Having the kids work on neighboring farms to see how other operations run
- Teach homesteading and agriculture in our homeschool
- Encourage the kids to research any issues happening on the homestead
- Listening to and implementing the kid’s ideas and goals
Where we buy all our homeschool curriculum!
Is our homestead lifestyle resonating positively with our children?
Drum roll please…
I was cooking dinner the other night and my 13-year-old daughter wandered into the kitchen looking like she had something to say. When I asked her what was on her mind, she in formed me of probably the best thing that I have heard her say.
“Before we started homesteading, I never even thought of where our food came from. Now I want to know where everything comes from.” – Savannah’s Realization
“Before we started homesteading, I never even thought of where our food came from. Now I want to know where everything comes from.” – Savannah’s Realization
Is this full buy in?
I don’t know. What I do know is that in the difficult world of parenting, that day, I had a win.
Want to teach Homesteading to your children?
Build Your Own Homestead – Little Learners Edition is an interactive homeschool curriculum that will introduce your child to small scale farming. This one of a kind homestead curriculum is designed for pre-school through to 3rd or 4th grade depending on your child and whether this will be used as a full curriculum or supplemental to another curriculum.
Build Your Own Homestead is designed to give your child a better understanding of where their food comes from. This allows them to take ownership in providing food for the family whether that’s understanding what they are choosing at the grocery store, helping you tend to the garden, or gathering eggs from your chickens.
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Letting our kids get enough play and how to provide the best type of play.
The question of letting our kids play enough might sound strange coming from such a strong advocate for kids working on the farm and personal responsibility.
