How are you all doing today? My son is having a great day - his homeschooling for the day is discing the fields around us with the neighbor this morning. Now they are planting soybeans. He rides in the tractor cab with the farmer & they listen to the weather and talk about the equipment, soil and a myriad of other things. My daughter overseeded the pasture and did the barn chores. She & her dad put up electric fencing this weekend, to keep the llama from mashing down the fence & the sheep from jumping out! She's also working on her square-foot gardening plots, two for her and one for her brother. I'm getting the little onions plants in today, and maybe the carrots & beets. If it doesn't rain. It's dry here though, so we need a good soaker. We may not get to the school books today, but days with such learning opportunities come around now & then and we try to take advantage of them. Hope you are having a great homestead day too!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), May 08, 2000

Answers

Jean, My children are now pretty well grown,at ages 23 and 19.We homeschooled our daughter from the second grade on ,with her choosing to experience a year of highschool only to decide that she had more opportunities for learning at home than what the school could offer,and so once again she returned home to learn. Our son never attended a conventional school. We spent many days working on projects much like what you described and I have to say that I never regretted the times when they never picked up a school-type book for the whole day, but chose instead to learn and experience first hand, real life work. Likewise, I wouldn`t trade for the world all the times we spent just talking about a variety of things. Those conversations, and the time we spent together are priceless. I hope it is as rewarding an experience for you and your family as it has been for ours.Never take it for granted!

-- Linda Foster (rcfam@csinet.net), May 08, 2000.

Coming from a homeschool mom myself, I know exactly what you are talking about! My girls have for years planted our vegetable garden. This year, we are trying raised beds. My one daughter is into 4H this year with a steer and loves working with our new horse! Hands on experience can't be replaced, that's for sure! We find that even taking the books outside on a sunny day, gives school a whole new outlook. I guess I'm trying to teach them more than my own mother taught me. (and that's not just homesteading!) Everyone does what they do for a reason. ENJOY them while they're home! The one thing I continue to hear over and over again is how well my girls relate to adults. When company comes to visit, they don't run off and hide like I did as a kid. They enjoy being with people of all ages, not just their peers. I'm sure, many of you have experienced the same thing. For those of you who send your kids to public school, please don't get all bent out of shape over this section. We're not bashing anyone, we're just sharing our experiences. Believe you me, even we have our days!!!!

-- Pat (pmikul@pcpros.net), May 08, 2000.

Just wanted you to know I enjoyed reading about your family! Our last, our son, graduated from homeschooling last May so I really miss that!!! Raising kids and homeschooling on a farm to me is the ideal situation!

I wish now that I could have done a lot of things differently through the years but I believe my kids received a much better education through homeschooling than they ever did in public school! I'm a newspaper reporter so I cover lots of school board meetings and that kind of thing and I know the public schools are generally all in pretty much of a mess...even the ones that appear to be doing well are trying to take more and more influence from the parents and let the government control what our kids think, learn, etc. etc. etc.

So I hope you and your children have a beautiful day of homeschooling today!!! I don't think you'll ever regret investing your time in your children's lives in this way!!!

-- Suzy in 'bama (slgt@yahoo.com), May 15, 2000.