Why don’t they teach these things in school? 

Or .. why aren’t they learning these things at home? Probably because the parents don’t know how. Or are too busy …or just don’t realize … or 

Regardless of what others are doing, homesteaders, at any level, are connecting children to “the knowing”.

What a wonderful gift we give our children and grandchildren when we teach them how to grow food, cook food, source food, appreciate food, and know where their food comes from. 

What a wonderful gift we give them when we teach them the responsibility of tending to crops, even if it is just a potted basil plant growing on the windowsill, or by helping to feed the chickens every day. 

Homesteading - for now and the next generations.

Sometimes we forget the impact that we have or could have, just by growing a plant or canning some tomatoes. Sometimes, we forget that we ARE teaching the children, that we ARE their first teachers. Sometimes we forget that we know more than we know. Sometimes we forget what our grandparents knew and tried to teach us. 

And that is where the modern  homesteaders fit in: the remembering, the (re)discovering, the trying, the choices … and the teaching. As we learn so do our children. 

I thank you for sharing your stories with me, your trials, and your lessons, so that I can learn and remember and, hopefully, pass something down to my grandchildren.
- Debbie