Homestead Education - High School Projects

 

Our son, Xander, loves the farm life!  I'm sure you'll see him many times over the course of our journey here at Homeschool On the Range.  If you love his work, click on the Xander tag at the bottom of this post to find more!

This year for science, I have been using Homestead Education.  (Mom says you can see all about it on her review thing.) 

Middle / High School Learners

Created for upper grades learners, Introduction to Homestead Science contains 18 interactive units that teach agriculture science, life skills, applied mathematics, and character lessons.  Each of those units includes eight lessons, spanning two weeks, for a total of thirty-six weeks.  Each lesson has accompanying workbook activities and projects.  The curriculum also includes tests, quizzes, and six homestead projects (no acreage required).

Anyway.  I like it.  There is a lot of hands on stuff and while I have to still read and write and watch some videos, I also get to build things and make better stuff for the farm.

We had to build a new waterer and make a better fence so that we can get more cows.  This is what we are working on here to add on to the barn.

Part of having a chicken coop is having to keep it clean.  The chickens have made a mess!

This is the winter house I made for our goats out of an old motorcycle trailer.  It keeps them safe from the wind at night and has lots of hay.  I let them out during the day time.

Whether it's stuff we grew ourselves or got at the store, it is important to know how to cook.  It saves you a lot of money more than going out to eat all the time.

Grilling is very important because it's an easy way to cook the meat we raise.

Moving hay is a regular chore on the farm, but usually it's something my dad does.  Here I am learning how to use the hay spike.

Here I am learning how to fix the dryer.  It turned out that it just needed a good cleaning!

Butchering the Hog

Our son, Xander, loves the farm life!  I'm sure you'll see him many times over the course of our journey here at Homeschool On the Range.  If you love his work, click on the Xander tag at the bottom of this post to find more!

Wintertime is when you want to butcher your hog.  This is because it gets hot and stinky.  First you have to kill the hog quickly.  My dad did that.  Then we used the tractor to hang it so we could start the process.  We skinned it because that makes it easier.  He was really happy when we were able to start working in the garage where it wasn't as windy.

We had to use a hacksaw and it was a lot of hard work.  It took a lot longer than we thought it was going to, but then we put the pieces in the fridge to rest for a little while.  Then we put some in the freezer and kept out a little bit for the weekend.  It was really tasty!  If you can get a hog, you should definitely because it is better than the stuff at the store.

Spring on the Farm

Our son, Xander, loves the farm life!  I'm sure you'll see him many times over the course of our journey here at Homeschool On the Range.  If you love his work, click on the Xander tag at the bottom of this post to find more!

 

One thing you may not know about me is that I like to take pictures.  Here are some pictures I took this spring that I think you will like.

Here we are taking the compost pile to my mom's garden and plowing the garden to get it ready for the spring.

Below are some of our chickens, and the one in the back is a Polish Silkie.

My mom is shoveling cow manure for her garden.

Here are our cows.

Lucy is one of our goats.