5 Ways To Inspire Young Kids To Love The Homesteading Lifestyle

1. Get small animals.

When people think of farms, they usually envision the iconic large farm animals like horses, cows and big fat pigs. There is nothing wrong with having these animals on your homestead, of course, and I know that I thoroughly enjoyed having them growing up. However, large animals can be intimidating to kids, be a safety concern and limits their opportunity to interact with them independently.

Small animals are a great way for your kids to be able to take care of an animal, hold it, feed it and be around it safely.

If a child can interact with an animal independently, the more likely they are to be inspired to take care of it.

Some ideas of kid friendly animals are chickens, ducks, rabbits, kune kune pigs and cats. Of course children need to be taught to interact with animals safely and lovingly and have appropriate supervision for their maturity level.

2. Ask their advice and listen!

This tip is inspired by something I heard Joel Salatin say in a talk about how to inspire your children in farm entrepreneurship.

All too often, adults don’t consider that children can come up with unique and creative ideas. They don’t have the years of experience doing things a certain way and can see situations in a completely different light than us “advanced” people.

If you are designing a space or trying to overcome a challenge or hiccup and need some fresh ideas, ask your child! And after you ask their advice, shut up and listen! Sure, some of their ideas might be straight out of a sci-fi movie and not bound by logic or physics, but chances are they might help you achieve a perspective you hadn’t even considered before.

3. Let them make decisions.

This one is hard for a lot of people.

Yes, you are the adult and you pay the bills, but what incentive does a child have for participating in and loving this lifestyle you’re creating if everything is yours and done your way?

Take some of your own parenting advice here and share.

I certainly don’t mean to let your children run the place or make big decisions they aren’t physically or developmentally ready to handle, but there are so many little things that they CAN be in charge of that really don’t need to be in your complete control.

Here are some examples.

You decide that you want to grow beans in the garden. Cool. Can your child decide which variety of beans to plant? Lay out all the seed packet options and let them decide. Or better yet, give them the seed catalog and a marker and let them pick out a few varieties to try.

What about having each of your kids decide what to make for dinner one night a week? Not only will they feel like they are contributing in a valuable way, they will be more likely to eat said dinner and, better yet, help you make it!

One thing I really like to do with my kids is to take them to a nursery or garden center and let them loose. Sure, they might not pick out what I would have picked out, but I can’t even tell you how many times they have introduced me to new plants that I ended up loving, simply because they were able to think outside of the box and take a chance on something that my adult brain overlooked or was skeptical of.

Kids need to feel like they are a valued member of your family and that their ideas and decisions matter to you. And what better way for them to learn to make good decisions than to actually practice making decisions?!

4. Create yes spaces.

Even though we love their ideas and appreciate their decision making and help, there will be times and spaces that it is not appropriate for them to participate and have influence over.

Nothing takes the wind out of a child’s sail faster than being told NO all the time.

Don’t touch that, don’t be there, don’t say that, no you can’t, no, no, no!

So, create a space that is theirs, that they can do whatever they want in, can make all the decisions about and are responsible for. This is their YES space, anything goes.

I think this is especially important for toddlers and very young children, who need more supervision and have more “no” spaces.

Maybe their yes space is their own garden or a designated play space.

They want to plant 500 cabbages in their garden? Go for it! They want to make a giant mudpit and sit in it? Sounds fun! They’re going to take some scrap wood, a hammer and nails and create a replica of the Enterprise? Alright, alright, alright!

The greatest gift you can give your kids is trust and the freedom to execute even their craziest ideas.

5. Let them see your passion.

You can talk and talk and talk till the cows come home, but nothing speaks louder to children than your example. If you just grumble all the time about the chores, about the weather, about whatever…guess what? THEY ARE LISTENING. And watching.

Same goes for the flip side.

Let them see you love putting your hands into the earth and stewarding your garden.

Let them see you come alive tackling your latest farm project.

Let them see you enjoy making dinner and serving your family.

Let them see you living your passion everyday.

Sure, there will be hard days, sad days, exhausting days, frustrating days, and it’s totally authentic to let them see that too.

But they should also be seeing you loving what you do, whatever it is that you do.

Being passionate is contagious, and seeing your passion for this lifestyle may inspire them to love it too or to pursue whatever it is they are passionate about.

So there is it folks, five ways to inspire your kids to love the homesteading lifestyle.

I hope you found these ideas helpful. Of course this is not a complete list, ideas are infinite! If you have another tip on how to inspire kids in this way, share it with others in the comments below!

Until next time.

~Kristin