Home Schooling and Raising Chickens

[Sutton5]

We homeschool too! Our children are ds11, dd7 and ds2. Our hearts desire is to live the homesteading way of life, though we do live in the city. The cost of buying a home in the country is NOT in the budget right now. We use raising chickens for all reasons mentioned and as 4-H project too. Our garden services as the same purpose too.

Rachelle ~Kansas

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

Homeschooling mom of 5.
Chickens in our lives mean/teach:

Mathematics: coop building, pen building, egg production amounts, counting/calendar for the younger ones, cost of feed and care required to make profit from eggs and chicks sold, plus more.

Health and Hygiene and Science: safe egg handling, proper temps for fridge and cooking, clean eggs for incubating, clean hands for handling eating and incubating eggs, washing hands regularly after contact with chickens and pens, education about diseases, pest control (parasites) in the pen and external chicken , internal parasite control, amounts (measuring/dosing) of either medication or vitamins, study in the function of different vitamins necessary for good health, benefits of homegrown eggs and meat as opposed to store bought, repairing injured bids and applying first aid, excersize when bulding, cleaning, and maintaining coop-plus more.

Social aspects: Teaching how to compassionately and humanely care for living beings, and the difference as represented by the mass producers of chickens. Teaching how to follow local laws and ordinances, also teaching a good balance of how to interact with neighbors that may agree with, or disagree with our owning poultry.

Shop Class: The coop and run construction alone can teach confidence in building/creating skills and a sense of accomplishment/success which is necessary for success in the future college or workplace.

More Science/Biology: Identifying different breeds and characteristics of chickens, mating/reproduction (self explanitory

), candling eggs for developement (biology), examining dead embryos and problem solving the reason for death.

The benefits of owning chickens are probably too numerous to mention. But my favorite aspect is that it slows us down and causes us to enjoy watching the chickens outdoors, and just to enjoy and appreciate one of the simplest, most basic, yet majestic of God's creatures.

 

[AccidentalFarm]

All I can say is WOW! This is just the type of thing I was looking for...you hit on several things I hadn't thought of yet. Thanks!

 

[65browneyes]

Accidental Farms.....

You mentioned fractions. I remember when my now 22 year old was learning fractions in school. He was having such a hard time figuring out how it was that 4 fourths was the same as 1 whole. I was getting as frustrated as he was trying to figure out how in the world I could help him "get it".

We happened to have wafer cookies at that time, and I rarely ever buy them. He and I sat and broke up cookie after cookie. Having that visual made ALL the difference. It was so rewarding for both of us (and he got to eat his fractions after he learned them).

I've volunteered in their classrooms since our 7th grader was in kindergarten. I LOVE it and have seriously considered a teaching degree. Just never thought I would come to be a teacher in this way.

We're looking forward to it, though. And, reading all these tips from all of you makes me even more eager!! I'm SO glad you started this thread!

 

[dlhunicorn]

this might be helpful to you:
http://www.juliantrubin.com/fairprojects/zoology/eggchicken.html

 

[keljonma]

I didn't homeschool; but my daughter homeschools her 2 kids, Cara who is 9 and Ri who is almost 6. Kel started homeschooling with American Sign Language books and video and audio tapes she got from library book sales when Cara was less than a year old. Later I gave them the Signing Times dvds and music cds. After that, she based her curriculum on materials from book and craft stores and the internet. To this day, Cara and Ri use sign language more than English when talking to each other.

Like many of you, Kel uses everyday life situations for teaching. Time in the kitchen and grocery bring up discussions/lessons about food safety, money, cleanliness, math, and science.. and probably some others I haven't mentioned. One internet site she does like for curriculum ideas is Oak Meadow.

My son-in-law is a cross country trucker, so homeschooling allows the family to travel together occasionally without worrying about missing school. In their travels together, the family has seen most of the US, including Alaska, and a great deal of Canada. So Kel uses those trips for history, geography, biology and zoology lessons.

At Grandma's house we learn about about farm living, especially barn/farm safety and raising healthy animals.

If you are in the US, here is a link to find out the homeschooling laws in your state: http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp

Other sites mentioned....
http://www.signingtime.com/
http://www.oakmeadow.com/

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

Just a few more homeschooling concepts lol!

Crafts or art projects-look at this thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5507

Chickens also teach research skills. We went to the library initially for our information on coop and pen building, fencing ideas, breeds of chickens, and other related subjects. This was an oportunity for the kids to really use the Dewy Decimal system, reasearch and lookup the books on the library computer, and request a book order when the books were not available immediatley.

My children also use computer skills by navigating this site, which in turn helps them with typing skills and spelling. I always check what they post (they have their own collective ID that I helped them set up) and have the oportunity to confirm correct language usage/typing, or to correct it.

If you involve your kids in activities you normally think are just for older people, you will be so surprised at how much they learn naturally-"homeschooling" will then be an easy, natural activity that they don't even realize they are learning from because it is so interesting to them.

PS: You can involve them in photography, and picture editing skills also if they are allowed to help take photos, upload them, and crop/edit them.

 

[AccidentalFarm]

Ooh, I like the photography angle...they'd love it!

Another thing I thought of: Researching natural indigenous predators, their food and habitats, ways to protect the flock, etc.

All of these ideas are so great! And so many of them are great for fine tuning problem solving skills. I can see software involvement, too. Excel is great for spreadsheets-keeping track of breeds, ages, laying record, cost vs. return, etc..a good way to get some practice with a very useful piece of software.

 

[Betsy]

I was homeschooled K-12, as were my two brothers. My parents didn't incorporate the chickens into our schooling, partly because getting chickens was something my Dad abruptly decided to do. However, I did learn many valuable lessons on my own from my chickens and am grateful my parents decided to start raising them.
Should I ever be blessed with children, and be blessed to be able to raise poultry, the poultry will definitely be part of our "school curriculum" .

 

[Sharisr32]

I teach Pharmacy Technology - I use my birds alot -
My students mix antbiotics - use eye ointments mix lytes all kinds of projects to utilize they calculations prior to being turned loose on real people--- It also gives them insight as to vet meds otc being just as important as people meds although they are not the same priority --
We have a good time-