Schooling Three Little Piggies

Welcome to the September Carnival of Natural Parenting: We're all home schoolers

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared how their children learn at home as a natural part of their day. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

***

My three boys aren't actually little piggies, when it comes to food. They love to roll around in the dirt and make noise, but they don't eat like pigs. In fact, my older two were particularly picky eaters for quite a few years and I was at a perpetual loss as to how to spark some interest in the joys of food.

And, although my children attend public school, I consider myself and their father to be their main teachers in life. Some of the values we want to instill in our kids include a sense of connectedness with the origins of food, an appreciation for preparing food, and the type of family connectedness that grows when we eat together.

I stumbled across a way to spark interest in and teach about food purely by accident. I had a conversation with another mom about how, in order to tame the chaos in her house while she prepares dinner, she involves her young children in preparing the meal. When I first heard this, I thought to myself, 'That sounds like something I would classify as a holy, bad idea..." By which I mean: the idea is so Supermomma it has divine holiness written all over it, but it sounds like torture. But at the time, I was just learning how to cook, and the thought of involving the kids was pretty overwhelming. One night when I was making a recipe I felt confident about and my boys were running around my legs like tasmanian devils at war, I decided to try it. Not only did they love helping me, stirring things and pouring things and setting the table, but Ayden actually put a small slice of red bell pepper inside his mouth during dinner, because he had helped slice it.

While we cook, natural questions evolve.

"Mommy, are peppers plants or animals?"

"Why do you like mushrooms?"

"Do you have to kill the cow to get its milk? How about to get its cheese?"

"Why do you make brown pasta, and gramma makes yellowish white pasta?"

The kids also learn how to wait patiently, take turns, avoid a hot stovetop, which are the hot and cold taps on the faucet, the importance of washing our hands, the existence of germs, the need for a variety of whole, healthy foods, how to use a paring knife safely (after a certain age), and how to clean up after cooking and eating. While we cook, we don't usually talk about the origins of food, but when we pick lettuce from our garden, go grocery shopping, or pick berries on a local farm, the kids make the connections between our dinner plates and the farms and factories our food comes from.

I have to admit, this isn't the most relaxing way to cook. If I am particularly tired or distracted or rushed, I shoo the little piggies out of the kitchen. I know I should invite them to help me cook more often, because they learn so much by doing an activity alongside me. But it's hard! There are spills and messes and dropped measuring cups, and squabbles and chatter and it takes a lot of talking on my part. But when I do it, I'm usually surprised by how much they enjoy it, and how I can teach tidbits of math--"See this line here? It tells you the measuring cup is one cup full. That is the same as 250 milliliters, see?" Or counting. "Riley, we need two eggs. Can you give me two eggs? One, two?" Or keeping our hands out of the way (that's Matthew!) "Don't touch please, use your words if you want to stir the pot." Or patience (that's me).

Trying to teach my three roll-in-the-mud, make-lots-of-noise boys about food with language alone is pretty futile. But letting them help me cook, teaches us all.

Riley helping me scrub jars for canning--I also had him wash tomatoes

and measure and pour lemon juice into each jar

***

Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be updated September 14 with all the carnival links.)

• A is for Apple {But right now it's more fun to pick apples!} — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment has a four-year-old who wisely knows she must forgo the worksheets for now and do things with her mother if she's going to learn.


• Baby Talks — Amy at Anktangle talks, talks, talks all day long to her preverbal baby, about simple things and complexities. (@anktangle)


• Baby University: Little Man, My Teacher — The ArtsyMama shares how her relaxed and patient "teaching" at home resulted in a confident little one when she returned to work.


• Creating a Sensory Garden — A sensory garden has given Marita at Stuff With Thing and her girls practice in math, science, budgeting, fine motor skills, and more. (@leechbabe)


• Despite the Big Yellow Bus — Seonaid at The Practical Dilettante has surprised many friends by sending her kids off to mainstream schooling — but their learning doesn't stop there. (@seonaid_lee)


• Down on the Farm — Megan at Purple Dancing Dhalias describes the multitude of skills her children learn by homeschooling on a farm.


• Early Childhood Education — First Do No Harm — Laura at Laura's Blog provides an incredible list of tips to facilitate learning at home.


• Education Starts At Home — Luschka at Diary of a First Child was happy to realize that learning at home isn't limited to older children. (@lvano)


• Every Day Is A School Day — Summer at Finding Summer lists the ways her family learns in this poem of a post. (@summerminor)


• hands on — the grumbles at grumbles and grunts read her little one Sherlock Holmes in utero. She'll continue to make learning fun now that he's on this side of the womb. (@thegrumbles)


• Have a Happy Heart — Erica at ChildOrganics has days of poop on the couch and oatmeal down the pants when sending her children to school seems like the perfect solution — until she regains her perspective. (@childorganics)


• Home Sweet Home Schooling — Check out CurlyMonkey's Blog for a photo montage of how her kids are learning anatomy, architecture, and more — all at home. (@curlymonkey_)


• Homeschooling — My Needs? — Do you homeschool for the kids, or do you do it for you? Read some thoughts from Home Grown Families. (@momtosprouts)


• Homeschooling: A Way of Life — Kimberly at Homeschooling in Nova Scotia has children who meet learning with enthusiasm and are becoming self-sufficient at a young age. (@UsborneBooksCB)


• How We Homeschooled — Deb at Living Montessori Now details in retrospect how her two lifelong learners spent their homeschooling years. (@DebChitwood)


• Learning at Home With a Preschooler and Toddler — Need some inspiration? Michelle at The Parent Vortex shares her tips and resources for lifelong learning. (@TheParentVortex)


• Learning at Home: Are We All Homeschoolers? — Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings incorporates homeschool ideas even though she plans to send her kids to school. (@sunfrog)


• Learning From Life — Mamapoekie at Authentic Parenting doesn't even have to think about how her daughter learns. She just does it. (@mamapoekie)


• Learning Through Play — What better way to learn at home than through play? Dionna at Code Name: Mama lists the many ways children learn through play, whether they know it or not. (@CodeNameMama)


• Learning With Savoury Pikelets — Deb at Science@Home breaks down how cooking facilitates learning. (@ScienceMum)


• Lessons Learned by Bowling (Yes, Bowling) — What life lessons can you learn from bowling? Ask Jessica from This is Worthwhile. (@tisworthwhile)


• Life is learning, learning is life. — Kristin, guest posting at Janet Fraser — Where birth and feminism intersect, defends the truth that children are hardwired to learn. (@JoyousLearning)


• life learning... — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children found that structured schooling is about teaching, whereas unschooling is about learning, and her family resonated with the latter.


• Live to Learn Together — RealMommy at True Confessions of a Real Mommy knows that children learn in all different styles, so only one-on-one attention can do the trick.


• Natural Parenting and the Working Mom — Jenny from Chronicles of a Nursing Mom shares how natural parenting in the Philippines — and learning at home — includes "yayas" (nannies). (@crazydigger)


• Not Back to School: How We Learn at Home — Denise at This Holistic Life has learned to describe what unschooling is, rather than what it isn't.


• Our Learning Curve — Andrea of Ella-Bean & Co. has a special bookshelf set up where her daughter can explore the world on her own terms.


• School at Our House — Where is learning happening at Kellie at Our Mindful Life's house? It is pouring all over the floor. It is digging down deep in the earth. It is everywhere!


• Schooling Three Little Piggies — Despite the mess and the chaos, Melissa at White Noise lets her children into the kitchen.


• SuperMom versus The Comic Books of Doom! — Mommy Soup at Cream of Mommy Soup realized that if "getting the kids to read" was the goal, it didn't matter what the kids read. (@mommysoup)


• The joy of learning at home — Heather at Life, Gluten Free has a daughter who sees magic in the stars and understands the honeybees. (@lifeglutenfree)


• those who can't teach — Do you need a superiority complex to homeschool? Stefanie at Very, Very Fine wonders.


• Too lazy to unschool? — If unschoolers aren't lazy, Lauren at Hobo Mama wonders if she's too lazy to live her dream of free-form education. (@Hobo_Mama)


• Unschooling the School of Me — Rachael at The Variegated Life considers what she's teaching her son about work as a work-at-home mother — and the extreme work ethic she doesn't want him to emulate. (@RachaelNevins)


• What We Do All Day — Alison at BluebirdMama discovered that it's easier than she thought it would be to quantify how her child learns all day. (@childbearing)


• Who taught that kid ‘exoskeleton’? — Nervous about how you will facilitate learning at home? Don't be - they will absorb things on their own! Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma shares her story. (@kitchenwitch)