Homestead Education Team
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I share all the time about how a believe a solid education for everyone includes understanding where our food comes from. Food and agriculture is the foundation of all humanity. And for better or worst, we cannot live (literally) without it. But yet, only 1% of our population farms to feed the entirety of the rest of the world including themselves. It’s also important to remember all the other agricultural careers required in order to market, transport, sell, teach, and support agriculture.
When our family started homeschooling several years ago, I was excited to share my love of agriculture with my kids. And honestly, it was a necessity when we fighting for my husbands life through the food we were growing. You can read more about how we made these changes here. Growing and processing enough food for a family of eight is a full time job, so our lessons HAD to fit in to what we were doing on the farm.
I dug up everything I could find from all my resources and connections to integrate what we were doing with the how and why of what we doing (ie. the science, business, and problem solving behind the chores). Sadly, everything I found fell short of the multifaceted education I was invisioning. I’m not saying there aren’t resources, there are amazing textbooks out there for high school and college vocational programs. But many times agriculture at that scale left me with blank stares from my kids and for a parent that doesn’t have an agriculture background, the integration to a small farm could be hard to implement. On the other side, I found lots of 4-H or summer activity books that had great hands on projects, but no context of the science or decision making. So, I began putting together lessons that eventually led to the creation of The Homestead Education and Homestead Science Curriculum.
It was a hit from day one (even as we worked out the kinks)! Thousands of people have seen the value in teaching kids where their food comes from in a way that gives them ownership and self-confidence. Even for children who don’t life on a farm, this curriculum gave them a window into the generational skills that our society has so quickly begun to forget.
The only problem I began to see right away, is that people wanted more! And I’m only one person and can only write so fast. But on top of that, they wanted other core subjects that integrated with Homestead Science. I immediately saw the value in this request and began working on history, advanced skills, and life skill curriculums as fast as I could. But one subject I know I will never we able to do justice is English.
Well, I was in luck! No more than a few months later at a small homeschool conference in Idaho I met a couple of ladies who have become some of my most cherished colleagues and friends! How did we meet, you ask?!? They had a booth with their newly released ENGLISH curriculum called “Exploring the American Food System.”
It is an 8-week Novel Set that pairs with Joel Salitin’s book “Folks, This Ain’t Normal” and I could have imagined a more perfect agriculture based literature curriculum than what Bethany and Kelsey from Prairie and Pine Curriculum have design. They are former English teachers that had reached their max with the public school system and wanted to share their amazing vision with us over in the homeschool world!
We immediately teamed up to share a well rounded, high school level, food and agriculture based combination that between the two, your child (or for that matter, you) will learning how to grow food, why you should do it with science, English, literature, history, sociology, business, and so much more worked into it. When the two are combined, you truly get an applicable, common sense education!
But, oh my gosh! It gets better! As we both continue grow and expand our businesses we have more and more overlapping products for every age group. Even their units that aren’t specifically agricultural based, they focus on life skills, economics, adversity, strength, and associated politics.
Check out these amazing combinations!
Introduction to Homestead Science & Harvesting Hope
Middle School
Introduction to Homestead Science & Exploring the American Food System
High School
Little Learners Homestead Science & A Change of Pace
Elementary School
Survival Basics & Surviving the Unknown
Middle School
Survival Basics & Wilderness and the Human Spirit
High School
Homestead Economics & Voices of the Past
High School
Raising Self-Sufficient Kids & Voices of the Past
Adults
Plus all these other amazing units they offer!
With every Homestead Education Curriculum purchase, I will send you a coupon to get 10% off to grab an associated unit from Prairie and Pine!