Category Archives: Farm School

Our family doesn’t homeschool full-time so we call our committed to home learning and hands-on learning throughout our days farm school. From picking up construction and engineering skills in our chores; to hands-on service opportunties; to spontaneous nature study; our days are filled with books, movies, and moments that we use to enrich our crew’s love of life and learning!

Key topics: Book lists and reviews; family field trips; history lessons and unit study ideas; learning with movies and audiobooks; nature study and wildlife experiences; service projects and community outreach opportunities.

Farm Reads Book List for February 2021

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I’ve always been a bookworm. Really, from childhood. Those Pizza Hut Book It! challenges were my bread and butter growing up. (BTW, did you know Book It! is still around and runs a great summer reading program?!) I go through phases now where I have a lot of time to read, and then less time (or motivation). But I always have a book list to be read and usually stacked up on my night stand. I go through spurts where I’m reading a lot of young adult fiction to preview … Continue Reading…

20 Picture Books of Amazing Women in History and Science

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As you might have seen, The Engineer’s Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood was on my recent Farm Reads list from February. Great book! I’ve also been working on some picture book manuscripts of my own and reading a lot of current picture books as research. So it was really cool to come across the Secret Engineer: How Emily Roebling Built the Brooklyn Bridge. This lead me to a wonderful rabbit trail of new picture books about amazing women in history! So many of them I wasn’t even familiar with before … Continue Reading…

10 Book Series About Library Adventures for Middle-Grade Readers

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Are you a book lover, or have a book lover in your home? Or are you hoping to make a bookworm out of a more reluctant reader? I’ve stepped out of my historic fiction box lately and found a couple of new middle-grade series that are all about BOOKS. Library adventures, book characters coming to life, the hunt for a famous author, falling into the book’s world…fun fiction adventures to give the kids a mental break between assigned reading. The Book Scavenger Series. By Jennifer Chambliss Bertman Mr. Lemoncello’s Library … Continue Reading…

25 Adventure Series Chapter Books For Young Boys

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Well, it’s been 70 degrees for a few days, so we’re starting to think about summer plans around here again–and part of that is summer learning plans. Summer is a great time to work on some fun family unit studies as well as some local field trips. I was also spurred on by finding 16 books in The Sowers Christian Biography series at our local thrift store for only $4.00!! What a treasure! The kiddos can’t wait until we dive into a few for read-aloud! I’ve started reviewing our little playroom … Continue Reading…

DIY 50 State Passports…with FREE Printable

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One of the special projects I did when planning our spring break trip was making fun 50 States passports for the kiddos to get “stamped” as we traveled. It wasn’t that hard, and I’ve got a free printable for you if you’d like to try it yourself. I found a lot of ideas and a few awesome templates on Pinterest, but I didn’t want to mimic a real international passport too much. The Ladybug just got back from a mission trip and we spent a lot of time emphasizing (and re-emphasizing!) … Continue Reading…

Reading Log Book Selfies Printable for Summer Reading

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Do you have a daily reading requirement for the kiddos over the summer? Or even during the school year? We do. So after reviewing a ton of book lists and reading log options on Pinterest, I came up with these fun printable Reading Log Book Selfies for our kiddos to use. Based on Instagram and good old-fashion Polaroids (which are all the rage, again!) they are snapshots with either book spines to be completed or blank to insert an “actual” selfie or draw a picture. Then they can be posted … Continue Reading…

Daily Learning Routine for Non-Homeschooling Moms

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Boy, the world is quite a mess lately, hmm? Our kiddos are home full-time until September and Mr. Fix-It and I are both Essential workers at our off-homestead jobs, so our house has been kinda reeling lately. A little bit of organization goes a long way! We have always done summer home-learning activities, but I had to look over my previous activities and make some adjustments for this new phase of Crisis-Schooling. It’s not really the same as homeschooling. I’m not trying to cover a complete school year or curriculum. … Continue Reading…

5 Days of Summer Reading {Books You Need on the Homestead}

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This week I’ll be part of a 5 Days of Summer Series and I’m talking about 5 Days of Summer Reading. Each post comes with recommendations for how to choose good books, tips to encourage a love of books, and ideas for how to enjoy reading as a whole family–as well as a book list, so be sure to check them all out! MONDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Homestead} TUESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Boys} WEDNESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Girls} THURSDAY: … Continue Reading…

How to Make a Paper Mache Shark for Shark Week

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If you’ve been following us on Facebook, you’ve probably seen some of our Shark Week activities. We’re doing a summer unit study on Marine Biology (along with our unit on Archaeology) and Discovery Shark Week has been a great fit for some hands-on family fun learning! We’ve had some ocean-themed food, some shark games, and our big group project of building a paper mache shark! This is a very simple project with no special supplies needed. We had everything on hand already. I’ve shared it here in a lot of … Continue Reading…

Kids Need More Than Book-Learning

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Ok, we’re not even a month into the school year and I’m already over the homework. Sheesh. I’m just the Momma, it’s not even my homework! And the more I read and think and pray, the more oppose to homework I am, except for two cases… The child is not being diligent and getting their classwork finished and has to bring it home to work on it. This would go hand-in-hand with a student with a specific learning challenge that needs extra work. (Um, we have one of those. Maybe two. … Continue Reading…

Sign of the Beaver…the Daily Farm Adventures {103}

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No, not the book by Elizabeth George Speare (although we like that too!). I’m talking about the real thing. Brown. Wet. Big flat tail. Makes ponds where there should be no pond. Beavers. He was here… And here… We’ve got beaver problems at the tree farm. We’re not immediately ones to campaign against the local wildlife. We try to have a live-and-let-live philosophy. We only target wildlife that is specifically damaging our resources. For example, we know there’s coyotes around here–but none have ever bothered our stock, so we don’t mind sharing … Continue Reading…

Visiting Fort Boonesborough State Park in Kentucky

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About 2 weeks before leaving for our road trip, the boys and I watched the premiere of the new Men Who Built America–Frontiersmen series. Episode 1 was about Daniel Boone leading the first group of permanent settlers through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. The settlement was called Fort Boonesborough, and it played an interesting role in the Revolutionary War. Since we were getting ready to leave for our trip, and Kentucky was already on our route, we Googled “Fort Boonesborough.” Turns out there’s a state park (with camping!) at the … Continue Reading…

How to Plan a Family Unit Study for Fun Summer Learning

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A book, a movie, and a field trip about the same topic equal an easy summer family unit study!  Summer brain drain–ugh! For 3 months the kids run around from camp to craft to sleepover wanting fun and games and play time all day, every day because SCHOOL’S OUT so we don’t have to do any more of “that learning stuff.” Um…not around here! So what’s a busy, working mom to do besides frantically shuffle the kids from one STEM camp to another and continue to spend her nights tracking … Continue Reading…

The Night-Stalker…the Daily Farm Adventures {66}

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Well, I posted on Monday asking how everyone felt about pictures here on the blog–do you mind my sometimes blurry, sometimes grainy, sometimes shady pictures? Or would you prefer for me to find only good photography to share (which would probably not be my own!!). All the comments and emails I got were “yes, we like your pictures!” so here’s some more! {smile} I mentioned on Monday that we’ve got an owl in the neighborhood that seems to have made himself quite comfortable and is settling in. Well, he’s taken … Continue Reading…