Homesteader Depot

Tag: Kids

  • How to Get Your Kids Outside With a Natural, DIY Playhouse

    How to Get Your Kids Outside With a Natural, DIY Playhouse

    When I was a kid, to play out in nature for hours on end wasn’t just a privilege–it was my natural inclination! Over just a few short decades, we’ve domesticated our kids and planted them firmly in front of glowing screens and in school desks, and we wonder why so many problems crop up. For the cooped-up kid, a day outside is the best medicine. Here’s a great little project to turn a small patch of land into a seasonal, living, and edible playhouse, and it’s even easy enough for your children to help you build it!

     

    The Runner Bean Teepee

    What You Need:

    1) 8 – 10 long bamboo canes (6 to 7 feet minimum, all the same length).

    2) Gardening twine or zip ties.

    3) A packet or two of runner bean seeds.

    4) A large spool of gardening twine or a roll of chicken wire (optional).

     

    How to Build It:

    1) Choose a spare area of garden, either on a border, or on the lawn. Choose a spot where you’ll be okay with the kids playing.

    2) To create the circular frame of your teepee, push the bamboo canes into the ground, starting with four equidistant canes and filling in the spaces between. Leave a large gap between two of the canes for an entrance. Secure the tops of the canes together using the twine or zip ties. At this point, it should look like the frame to a teepee.

    3) For best results, reinforce the teepee frame with either chicken wire, or a network of gardening string.

    4) Dig one square foot (12″ by 12″ and 12″ deep) around the base of each bamboo cane.

    5) Add compost, aged manure, or seed-starting soil.

    5) Sow two runner bean seeds approximately 1 to 2″ deep at the base of each cane.

    6) As you sow each seed, fill the hole with water. Once the water has drained, gently cover the hole with soil and water once more. Depending on your climate, you may also start your runner beans early in 3″ pots and transplant when they reach about 6″ tall.

    7) The bean plants should find and cling to the bamboo naturally. If they don’t, you can carefully wrap the main shoots around the first part of the bamboo canes or chicken wire until they start to climb on their own.

    8) Keep weeds down and moisture in using grass clippings or bark chips around the young runner bean plants. Water frequently. You may start to see slugs preying on your seedlings–no matter! Remove the slugs every evening until the bean plants are about 6″ tall. Once the plants start producing, harvest the beans regularly to encourage growth!

     

    Now you and your children can watch as the beans quickly grow and cover the frame to create a living playhouse! Your kids will love the “job” of harvesting their own beans, and the satisfaction of having built something so fun! Start growing early in spring, and this playhouse will last ‘til the end of summer.

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  • Benefits of Homesteading for the Kids

    Benefits of Homesteading for the Kids

    Kids today are very different from kids a hundred years ago, and the idea of homesteading and sustainable living might seem very foreign to them. This is especially true if you are introducing this sort of lifestyle to a child who has already passed a couple of years old. However, living sustainably is very important, and you need to be the one to guide the children.

    One of the first things you have to do is show them the importance of sustainable living. Explain to them why it is so important that they learn to reuse items and to learn to eat from the garden rather than the grocery store. Kids will learn a number of valuable skills when they are part of homesteading family that they would not have otherwise.

    There are many practical skills about living and survival that are no longer taught to children. Kids don’t know how to plant and grow food. In fact, many have no idea where their food comes from. This is especially true when it comes to meat.

    In addition, children tend to learn responsibility in homesteading households. They are given chores – just like children hundred years ago – and they are expected to complete them. If they don’t, it could mean that the family doesn’t have enough food that night on the dinner table.

    By having the homesteading life, children will become more respectful of the things that they have. In addition, because everyone has to work together to make this type of lifestyle work, they tend to have a much closer family life.

    As you can see, kids who are learning the homesteading life can find quite a few benefits. In the beginning, it can be difficult to get some of the older children involved, but with perseverance, they will come around.

     

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  • Age-Appropriate Farm Chores for Kids

    Age-Appropriate Farm Chores for Kids

    If you’re getting started with a family homestead, one of the things you’ll have to learn very quickly is how to delegate. Even a small farm takes a ton of work, and one person can’t do it all. Whether you pay an allowance, or simply make chores a part of learning life skills, yourfarmChore kids should be a part of caring for your family homestead. If you have younger children, there are still plenty of ways that they can help out around the farm.

    Pre-School Aged Children

    While you may have to help 2- or 3-year-olds with some of the delicate jobs, getting kids started young is a great way to help them get interested in the world around them. Doing simple chores beside you as you do your own allows them to learn, develop motor and language skills, and spend some quality time with you. They can:

    •    Pull weeds (with direction)
    •    Collect eggs
    •    Plant seeds and help water plants
    •    Help feed and water smaller animals (calm family pets are a good place to start)
    •    Pick up sticks or rocks from the yard or garden
    •    Sweep leaves or dirt off the walkway or patio

    Elementary Aged Children

    As children grow past the age of five, they can often begin taking on more responsibility with less direction. Anything listed above should be chores they can do on their own by now. Additionally, they could also:

    •    Feed and water animals
    •    Rake the yard
    •    Assist with laundry
    •    Clean small animal pens
    •    Bathe animals
    •    Harvest vegetables

    Middle School Aged Children and Up

    By the age of 10, children can:

    •    Mow the yard
    •    Help build or repair fences or enclosures
    •    Milk animals
    •    Clean large animal pens
    •    Hang laundry unassisted
    •    Assist with medical care for animals
    •    Operate machinery

    Every child is different, so it’s important to allow your child to move up in responsibility only as their development allows. These lists should give you a good idea of how easy daily homestead management can be when your whole family pitches in.

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  • Books To Teach Your Kids Self-Reliance

    Books To Teach Your Kids Self-Reliance

    It’s often much easier for adults to embrace the homesteading lifestyle, because they are able to look at their life as a whole picture and consider the benefits. But children don’t have the same perspective, and their point of view tends to be more immediate. In order to help kids learn to love a self-reliant lifestyle, there are many ways that homesteading families include them in their decisions and dreams for the future. One of those is to give kids survivalist role models to look up to, and there are many classic children’s books that can offer just that.kidsbooks

    From The Swiss Family Robinson to My Side of the Mountain, many of us remember reading these classic stories of survival against the odds. Here are a few other great stories that your kids may love:

    •    Island of the Blue Dolphin: This book by Scott O’Dell tells the story of a young Native American girl who must survive on her own for more than 18 years on a deserted island.

    •    The Hunger Games: While this YA trilogy by Suzanne Collins covers a far greater story than just a tale of survival, older children may find this story more relatable. Katniss and the other Hunger Games participants are forced to use what they know to survive in an enclosed wilderness with almost no supplies.

    •    Hatchet: Published in 1987, this Gary Paulsen book is one of the quintessential Newberry books that tells the story of a teenage boy who must survive in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash. The series includes adventures such as learning to create his own shelter, and even fighting a bear.

    With books like these to fill your child’s library, homesteading parents could easily get their children just as excited as they are about their new self-reliant lifestyle.

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  • Campsite Chores for Kids

    Campsite Chores for Kids

    Running your home efficiently takes effort from everyone. In the same way, a campsite is set up and maintained much easier if everyone pitches in. But when you are only camping a few times a year, it can be hard to know exactly what chores you can assign to children, and which you should handle yourself. This list will help you find duties that your children can do based on their age or relative ability level:kids

    Younger Children…

    They can help remove rocks, twigs, and leaves from the campsite area. Be sure that they focus on the fire pit, getting any kind of debris away from where you’ll eventually be lighting a fire. They can also help pick up small kindling, or collect rocks to weigh down tarps or tent corners. Any chores that they do at home, such as helping collect dirty dishes after dinner, can also be performed while camping.

    Older Children…

    They can collect firewood, help put up the tent, hang up wet clothing or gear, set up chairs, and begin learning how to start and maintain a fire. If your children are already learning to cook at home, campsite cooking is a great skill for them to learn. They could also collect water, and even filter it through your filtration system.

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    Adults…

    Certain chores, such as gathering trash left by previous campers, or having the ultimate responsibility for putting out the fire, should be left to the adults. Trash may have dangerous glass or other debris, and campfire safety is too important to leave solely in the hands of a child, no matter their age.

    With everyone pitching in around the campsite, you’ll find that you can avoid the dreaded “working vacation” syndrome. Instead, you’ll enjoy the trip as much as anyone else, and return to your daily life relaxed and refreshed.

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