I am as guilty as the next parent of turning on the TV when I need an emergency mental health break. However, living on a farm has shown me so much about how and why screens became popular. A farm offers endless opportunities for kids to create, play games and discover the world around them. As city life became the norm, and fewer families farmed, it was no longer safe to just let kids roam around unsupervised, and screen time became the convenient babysitter. In moments where I feel the impulse to turn on a screen, I remember that I do not have to be an activities director. Kids have an innate, God-given capacity to create. On this particular day, I was feeding the chickens when I saw that they turned a hay bale into a slide. It reminded me that I can send them outside with no plan - and they will never cease to amaze me with their discoveries.
And I should add, both kids take their fermented cod liver/butter oil like champs! They have no autoimmune issues, rarely get sick and have tons of energy. If your kids need a dental health boost especially, go get some from https://www.greenpasture.org/ and you’ll get 10% off with promo code “ALISON” at check out.
Remember when herding animals required manual labor? Actually we were shooting video but the animals thought it was the end of the world and ran straight for the barn. It was the fastest feeding time on record, maybe we use the drone more often?!
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I wasn’t a committed homeschool mom from the second my first child was born. I did quite a bit of research because I wanted to learn more about how kids learn - and truly what kind of environments are not just best for learning ABCs but for overall health and development. I wasn’t even sure I would be a good teacher. After reading many books written by education “experts”, we landed on homeschool.
I really had to unravel quite a bit of what I thought was “school” before I could even begin. I went to the same private school K-12 and equated learning with perfect exam scores. As a student, I forgot a lot of what I crammed into my head because I wasn’t learning for the joy of it - I was learning to survive.
I have come to see how much a child learns through simply living - and being bored! They are innately attuned to art, nature, science, nutrition, play, language - if only we give them a chance. I have truly loved homeschooling my kids, especially all the time we get to spend...
I lived for many years with the idea that I would be a career woman first and someday get to kids.
Biologically, this makes little sense as it gets harder to have kids as a woman ages. But even more mind boggling, I didn’t really even think much of it, like the way one considers what he or she is having for dinner. Actually I probably put more thought into dinner. Being a mom was a complete afterthought. One day a friend and I were eating lunch in downtown Seattle and she smacked some truth into my noggin. I decided, ok what the heck. What do I have to lose? We had our first when I was 38 - I found out I was pregnant the week I resigned from my TV news job. Our second came when I was 41.
If I could talk to younger me, I’d tell her that no career is worth delaying or sacrificing motherhood. It has been the most incredibly humbling, soul-stretching, heart-throbbing, belly laughing adventure I’ve ever had.
And don’t forget to grab the fermented cod liver/concentrated butter oil from...
