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Homeschool

Homeschooling

May 5, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Since we homeschool and it is a huge part of our daily life and routine, I wanted to talk about the reasons why we choose to homeschool. The list is too long to discuss every single point, but I wanted to explain our thoughts and why we made the leap and chose to do this.

Jaxson and George

Why We Started Homeschooling

The list is endless but it comes down to our boys. We figured out pretty quickly that both our boys struggled in school. It wasn’t necessarily what they were learning about, but how they were being forced to learn it. Neither one of my boys want to read what they are forced to read. They also hate doing busy work. So when they were put in a position to do both of those things, they failed. Miserably.

The school system told us that both of our boys couldn’t read, write, or do basic math. I was ready to come unglued. How could this be? It wasn’t until I took my boys out of public school and let them decompress that I figured out that they could both read. Math was pretty easy. They did very well in fact. Writing was definitely a problem but not that bad. So what was the problem?

Public school is about doing the most good for the most amount of people. If you or your child don’t fit the mold, they will get left behind. And unfortunately due to certain legislation, you may not realize that they are that far behind until it’s too late.

How Did We Start

When we started homeschooling we started with “deschooling” which is basically letting their brains and bodies reset from public school. They do NOTHING until they say they are ready to learn. This can take a couple of weeks to a couple of months. We “let” our boys have four months of deschooling before we started introducing unschooling.

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Unschooling is when the child directs what they want to learn about. No matter what it is, they get to dive as deep as they want to with it. I wanted to go this route when I talked to Chase about his ability to read. According to the teachers, Chase couldn’t read. He wasn’t even on the scale. But I literally watched the child devour Captain Underpants and could tell me everything about it, while he was still in school.

Jaxson, was so afraid to read because he was afraid to fail. He wouldn’t even try because he thought he was stupid. This was heartbreaking and something that we are still combating even three years later. He really struggles with the idea that he will get something wrong, so he doesn’t even try. Which ends up being frustrating for all of us.

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Thinking of Homeschooling?

If you are thinking of homeschooling your kids, I would highly suggest it. You don’t have to be the most intelligent person. You just have to love your kids and want what’s best for them. We have found out just how far we can push them before they shut down. We know that Jaxson is incredibly smart, but would never show it on a test. He can build just about anything, but that doesn’t serve him in a classroom.

Chase will make you think he can’t do anything for himself, but properly motivated can move mountains. He will out work anyone for a little extra screen time. Teachers wouldn’t and couldn’t know that because they have so many other kids, with so many other personalities, that they could never keep up.

But if you can? I would definitely pull your kids and start this process.

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Filed Under: Homeschool, The Homestead Tagged With: deschool, homeschool, Homestead, unschool

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Homestead Daily Schedule

April 28, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

On our homestead, this looks a little different than most. Due to our work schedules, one of us is gone 48 of 72 hours. Sometimes more. However, the goats still need to be milked, fed and let out. Chickens and ducks still need feed, water, and be let out. Dogs are also hungry and need to go to the bathroom. And all the other chores need to be done. So regardless of who is home, the daily schedule looks pretty much the same.

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What Is Our Daily Schedule?

Most days start around 8am. Earlier for the one going to work. Blu gets her morning meds and mom needs coffee. The first set of dogs are let out and showers start. Jaxson gets his bandages changed and the boys start working on their chores. I will usually start a load of laundry and work on it throughout the day.

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Each kid rotates chores for the month. One has chickens, dogs, cats, counters, and bathrooms. The other has goats, dishes, cars, and dragons. They will flip every month unless they really like a chore. Jaxson really likes the chickens and ducks. Chase really likes the goats. If they want to switch they can, if not they keep it.

Now we also make sure that they have fed, watered, and let out all of the animals as well as check to make sure bedding is good and everything is picked up for the most part. We start our chores for the morning, which generally includes helping whichever child needs the most help. Since Jaxson is currently injured, he needs more help with the chickens.

George

After everyone is done and animals are fed, we start working on school work, this is usually around 930-10. Jared and I have different views on this. Usually I let them unschool and Jared is more structured. Unschooling is when the child directs what they would like to learn about. I feel like this gives them the opportunity to learn about the things that interest them and helps them learn better. Jared prefers to help them with “normal” school work.

Neither way is wrong and the boys seem to enjoy having the flexibility. Win Win.

After eating lunch, we usually start working on whatever projects we have for the day. It could be finishing the chicken coop, canning, working on the garden, or firewood. Earlier this month we got our new buck and Jared had to rush to get the buck pen finished, so having the flexibility to get these things done is pretty awesome.

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This still counts as their schooling since they are learning things like how to follow the instructions on how to put together a metal shed. Or how much firewood makes a cord and then measuring the stack that they’ve made. They also get crash courses in animal husbandry if an animal gets sick and needs medications. They’ve also been a huge help in the garden and ask a ton of great questions. Most that I don’t have an answer to, so we ask google a lot of questions.

Around 5 or so, the garden gets watered. And as long as no one gets hurt, JAXSON, dinner is around 6-7. After dinner chores are much the same as morning chores except in reverse. Animals get fed, watered, and put up.

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The boys are allowed to play on their electronics until 930 and then it’s showers and start getting ready for bed. Currently, Jaxson gets bandage changed and then lays with his foot propped until bed time.

That’s about it. Every homestead is different and come summer/fall there will be a ton of canning in there as well but for the most part the day to day life is pretty mundane. Though the occasional trip the the vet, doctor or ER is not out of the realm of possibility.

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Filed Under: Animals, Canning, Chickens, Garden, Goats, Homeschool, How To's, Kitchen, Pigs, Projects, The Homestead Tagged With: Canning, cast iron, Chickens, Chicks, cooking, Eggs, Goats, Homestead, kitchen, Welcome

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My name is Leigh and I am the lead chaos creator here at Steel Raven Farms. You will see throughout this blog that I am the crazy goat lady.

I am married to my high school sweetheart, Jared and we have two amazing boys.

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My name is Leigh and I am the owner of Steel Raven Farms. I am also the mom of two wonderful boys, wife to a pretty nifty man for the last 15 years and paramedic to boot. We want to bring you along on our crazy journey of Homesteading and all that entails!

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