Real Life Homeschool on a Farm

This week I’m participating in a Blog Hop with several other blogs.  We’re going to be talking about Real Life Homeschool!  For me today I’m being a bit more specific, so we’re going to chat about Real Life Homeschool on a Farm.  

We live on a farm.  We may not have cattle and a working ranch but we do have several animals that need daily care.  My children have chores around the farm and they have to get them done in the mornings and evenings.

Some of the farm chores that my children have to do are feed and water the chickens, bottle feed the two baby lambs whose mothers didn’t care for them, care for the outside farm cats, outside dog, grain the small pen of horses(we have two pens for horses), water horses, water sheep, water goats, and gather the eggs.  Some of these are morning chores, some evening chores, and some have to be done twice.  These chores are essential.  If they don’t get done then our animals will die and no one wants that!

We also have things that happen that interrupt our school like lambing and kidding season.  We don’t normally have to assist in birth but do have to check several times a day to make sure our animals are doing okay with birthing and that the babies are cared for after  birth.  We also have a ferrier who has to come trim the horses hooves.  And then there is shearing time for the sheep in the spring when the whole family helps shear, trim hooves, worm, and give shots to the sheep.

Some people wonder how I can homeschool on top of all these chores that we have to do(that doesn’t even factor in the garden during season).  A lot of people think I’m crazy to try or should put my kids in public school so I can have a break.  For me though, I am perfectly content to raise my children on our little farm and teach them how to care for others whether they be friends in need or animals.  I believe we are building life skills just as much as we are learning how to read and do math.

A large part of our homeschool is life skills.  Learning to do their chores and knowing that others depend on them for survival prepares them for being out on their own, owning pets of their own, and having children someday.  Learning how to do their chores in a timely manner and learning that chores come before play is also a great life lesson to learn.  We can’t always do what we want when we want it.  

So how do we schedule around this stuff?

Well we do and we don’t.  For daily chores, we do outside chores before breakfast or right after we eat.  Then we can do our morning school.  Feeding lambs happens three times a day and is around meal time s we’re not doing school then.  We can do any school we need to do in the afternoon without interfering with chores that happen at 5 in the evening as well.  The last bits of chores happen after dark when the chickens are shut up.  

For major farm events like lambing and shearing, we just work around them the best we can.  If my kids miss some subjects a few days because they’re watching a lamb be born or helping with all the shearing commotion I know I can mark down that they learned things even if it wasn’t in the house or in a book.  It’s real life.  It’s homeschool.  It’s our life and it’s perfect for us.

Whether we learn by feeling and doing or by reading or by seeing, everyday we’re learning.  That goes for adults as well as children.  

My kids also have inside chores but we’ll save those for next post!

Day Two:  Real Life Homeschool on One Income

Day Three:  Real Life Homeschool Year Round

Day Four:  Real Life Homeschool with a Toddler

I hope you’ve enjoyed our Real Life Homeschool on a Farm!  Now discover real life in other homeschools with the Schoolhouse Review Crew bloggers! Join the blog hop to read more!

Here are a few specific blogs you should visit for today’s posts!

Every Bed of Roses
Ben and Me
Footprints in the Butter
Mountain of Grace Homeschooling
Raventhreads
Counting Our Blessings
Homeschooling for His Glory
Ozark Ramblings
Chestnut Grove Academy
Only Passionate Curiosity
Farm Fresh Adventures