Homeschooling: Year One Special Project

I‘ve alluded to our desire to grow some of our own food, to hide chickens in our backyard, and perhaps a goat. We’ve been reading the Little House books, and become quite aware of our own incompetence when it comes to self-sufficiency. After all, in By the Shores of Silver Lake, Pa digs his own well.

In time for lunch.

Ahem.

So it is clear that I know nothing about anything when it comes to survival or even perhaps keeping a potted plant alive.

Enter the Year One Special Project, known to my son and I as the Homestead Binder. My son is always asking questions about farming {he says he wants to be a farmer, and we will see what happens in time}. He wants to know what chickens eat, how to know when the corn is ready to harvest, and how to keep bugs off his zucchini plants. Most of what he wants to know is information that is readily available on the Internet.

Now, I’m not about to let my six-year-old start surfing the Internet. However, the idea of learning what we can is the skill of a lifetime. He is already an avid reader, and he is the son of an avid researcher.

Enter the Homestead Binder.

Basically, I am going to begin printing off articles whenever I see them. I’m going to invite family to send us little snippets as they come across them. Short, simple articles are what I will choose {he’s not exactly ready to read Logsdon’s All Flesh Is Grass or Phillips’ The Apple Grower yet!}, and hopefully they will focus on one specific topic {like raising chickens or something}. I’m going to teach him how to highlight or underline important things he wants to remember. Like many other skills, we will do it together until he proves he is ready to go out on his own a bit.

I’ve already come up with a variety of divider titles. After all, he has shown desire for both breadth and depth of knowledge, so I plan to feed him in both directions. Here are the subject areas I have so far:

• Ducks
• Chickens
• Goats
• Vegetables
• Herbs
• Fruiting Trees
• Berries
• Composting
• Grasses
• Flowers
• Beneficials
• Preserving the Harvest
• Tools of the Trade

We can always add more areas if we find we have an interest in something. I know this seems like a big list, but I figure we will build this binder the way we do everything else, step by step, one little bite at a time, over many months and months.

As I was thinking about this project, it dawned on me I could do something like this with any of my children {once they can read} concerning any subject they are interested in. Does my daughter want to learn to sew? We could build a binder over time as we study stitches, fabrics, patterns, and the like. I have a feeling that this is a great way to teach the children that they can learn about anything they are interested in.

Of course, the ultimate way to learn about farming would be to meet real-life farmers. A friend and I have already discussed a possible field trip to the urban homestead in Pasadena, whose owners grow over 75% of their own food using organic/biodynamic methods. As we find bits of inspiration around us, and meet the experts in our path, we’ll be sure to interrogate learn from them whenever we can.

And, finally, the binder, like everything else, will be preparation for real life. We will try and implement whatever we can that we learn {again, in small steps and over time}. We’ll improve our tomato-raising abilities. Maybe we’ll get a pet Khaki Campbell duck. We’ll try to act on what we learn, which will lead not just to knowledge, but to wisdom {or, some would say, skill}.

And I’m finding myself romanticizing homeschooling once again. Sure, it is hard work. Some days, I’d really like to ship the little ones off to an institution and have successive cups of coffee and reading time. But nothing can compare with the time we get to spend, living, learning, and growing together. It is the little things that tie our hearts together, the willingness to say that if something is interesting to you, there must be something there worth loving and knowing and why don’t we learn together? It’s not just filling heads, it is binding lives and growing souls.