Country Homesteading: Raising Farm Kids

Inspired by my family's farm-stay vacation on a working farm in Vermont, this week I am presenting a series of posts by guest-bloggers who live and learn on country homesteads and farms.  Most of these guest-bloggers are homeschoolers; all are committed to a life that is more self-reliant, homemade, connected to the land, and focused on family.  Thank you to the fabulous guest-bloggers! I hope you enjoy this series! 

Today we welcome Michelle, a homeschooling mom of four forging their way to a farm-life in Eastern Iowa. Michelle blogs about her homeschooling, homesteading life at Simplify, Live, Love.
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One of the first books I read when I started seriously considering homeschooling was A Patchwork of Days: Share a Day With 30 Homeschooling Families, by Nancy Lande. This book is a compilation of chapters written by 30 different families, with 30 different approaches to homeschooling - some structured, some eclectic, some unschoolers, some religious, some secular, some rural, some urban. I loved seeing how other families approached education and realized the possibilities were endless. 


The vast number of choices available to homeschoolers was eye-opening to me, and that's ultimately what clinched my decision to give it a shot. I loved "seeing" how other families approached homeschooling and lived their lives. The vivid, sometimes funny stories made me laugh and gave me hope that I could pull it off. This book, probably more than any other book I read, is the reason I finally decided to give homeschooling a shot.

When we first started having children eight years ago I never really thought I would end up homeschooling. My husband was a "career" officer in the Air Force with a teaching appointment at the US Air Force Academy, his alma mater. We were happily living a suburban life in the concrete jungle of Colorado Springs. At some point, though, we became disgruntled and decided to make a big change.

So we gave up the career in the Air Force and moved back to my husband's hometown in rural, Eastern Iowa. We decided we really wanted to raise farm kids and didn't see how we could do that if we were following the military around. At the same time that we gave up the military life, we also gave up the security of employment with any other company and became self-employed. These were huge changes for us to make and, I'm not going to lie to you, it's been a turbulent six years since we left the military. Four kids in six years. Starting a home building/remodeling company literally weeks before the housing market evaporated. Living a non-mainstream life in a very mainstream part of the world. Living in a remodel in process. All of these challenges have been very difficult to live with at times.





The good news - I can honestly tell you, we are on our way to raising farm kids! We're not quite living our farm dream yet, but we're well on our way. We're learning about topics we're interested in. We have the freedom to travel when we want. We have a big organic garden and eat well on a tight budget. We play in the dirt and learn about nature. We read a lot of books. We complete projects we're passionate about, like barn restoration and preservation!

Has it all been easy? No. Some days aren't pretty. I constantly question my reasons for choosing this path. I re-evaluate and make changes as needed. I have to remember that I'm doing this for the best interest of my entire family - me included {I find my priorities often come dead last}.

We take homeschooling day by day andpursue alternatives as needed. The reason I initially wanted to homeschool was for flexibility and I have to remind myself that flexibility means considering alternatives and making changes. The best advice I can give anyone considering homeschooling is to be flexible! Don't be afraid to make changes. Don't be deterred by nay-sayers and unsupportive family and friends. Realize that there's a lot more to life than the few facts found in textbooks. Follow your passions, even if that means living differently from everyone else. But find some like-minded people to help you on your journey. It will make a H.U.G.E. difference.

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Michelle is a homeschooling mom of four children working toward their dream of a farm-life.  You can follow Michelle's homesteading and homeschooling exploits at her blog: Simplify, Live, Love.