Today’s guest post is by Angi Schneider, of Schneiderpeeps.com. I have reviewed her eBook The Gardening Notebook here on Homestead Honey, and enjoy reading her posts about gardening, recipes, crafting, and more. Today she shares her perspective on a topic that is near and dear to my own heart – involving children in the work of the homestead. Welcome, Angi!
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One of the things I love about visiting Homestead Honey is seeing how involved the children are in the homesteading process. As a mom of older children it’s really exciting to see young parents allowing and encouraging their children to be by their side as they go about their work.
Their abilities don’t just help us, they also help them. My boys are regularly called on by men in our church to work for them. In fact, one man hired the 17 and 15 year old to cut down a tree. When a friend found out that they were using a chainsaw and neither my husband or the man was there, she asked, “Is that even legal?” I don’t know, but they’ll be fine as they’ve cut down lots of trees with their dad. They’ve been taught how to properly handle a chainsaw.
But it’s not just in the area of work that these things happen, it’s also in the area of crafting. As I type this my 4 year old is working on a woven hot pad. It’s hard work for a 4 year old. She still needs help making sure she goes over, then under. She wants to make something useful and is proud every time we use one of her hot pads.
I want to encourage you that if you aren’t used to having your children work or craft beside you that you gently begin to encourage it. I think you’ll both be glad you did.
Angi Schneider is a minister’s wife and homeschool mom to 6 amazing children. She writes about their adventures at SchneiderPeeps and is the author of The Gardening Notebook.
I think it is not safe for 15-17 year children to operate a chainsaw. Be it legal or not, but you should not allow your children to play with that tool. Believe me that this could be really dangerous. Please make sure that you do not hand over a chainsaw to your children unless some elder is there.
Wonderful to read this. We get our children to help out with many things. Lately we have had them work on the land by picking rocks, branches, holding tools, etc and we ask ourselves if this is too much but deep down we know it’s not. These tacks will help them in the future and they feel wonderful once the day is done. Thanks for the reminder.
It is good for them. In our family we work hard, but then we play really hard, too. I think that’s the key, our children know that we don’t always work, there’s plenty of time for goofing off and just relaxing.
Such a great read, Angi! I love the part about how we baby our kids and then wonder why they grow up to be childish adults. I agree that it’s really important to involve kids in everything that you can, even if it’s more work for you, it gets them in the habit of doing chores and makes them feel like they’re contributing to the household.
That was my favorite part too, Meredith!
Thanks, Meredith. The younger they are when you start, the better. But I believe that even teenagers really do want to feel like they contribute. So it’s not too late even for teens.