Home school groups are starting to come visit us now on Fox Trot Farm and we are really enjoying these groups. They are small groups of children of all different ages, from toddlers to young teens, and I tailor their tour to their age levels and the topics they are studying. It’s so much fun observing how each child relates to our farm and animals, and every single one of them learns something and has fun in the process. There’s nothing like hands-on when you’re learning about animals. There’s also nothing better for children than to be able to run down a grassy lane in the clean, fresh air of the country just for the pure joy of running. Up hills and down, swinging and jumping, yelling and somersaulting….there’s a time for learning and playing and not getting fussed at for burning off some energy here at Fox Trot Farm!

Here’s our 18th century log cabin, and that’s where the tours begin. Everyone wants to look at the bunny rabbits first, and then, when they are close to the cabin, I tell them a bit about how our ancestors lived way back when.

Children have a hard time imagining a whole family living in a one room cabin…with no running water, or electricity, or TV!

On this field trip the children were to learn mostly about sheep and honeybees. They visited our two tame bottle-fed lambs, Claire and Avery. These lambs are very friendly and the children learn to be slow and gentle and quiet around farm animals…and that their bathroom habits are, well, not like ours!

There’s a tree swing on the way to the dairy goat pen, and some of the children always take advantage of that!

Our goats are very friendly and have great personalities. They are so large that we don’t take little children in with them because they might get bumped and knocked over, but Rosie and Daphne always come close to the fence to say hello while the children ask good questions and I tell them a bit about dairy goats.

We visit the chickens and, once I know the children understand not to run around and chase the hens, we go inside and they pick up eggs. They are very good at picking out which chickens are the roosters, and they love watching them jump up in to the holly tree.

We use the buddy system when we’re walking across the foot bridge to the back pasture to see our breeding ewes, and little children hold hands. These three didn’t want to let go, and aren’t they so adorable? It was a beautiful day and especially for taking a stroll down the lane holding hands with your friends.

Before we started our “classroom” lesson on honeybees, I gave the children carrots to feed the bunnies. 🙂

I look at this picture and boy, do I have to upgrade my farmgirl clothes! LOL  Anyway, this is the “classroom” where I put quilts on the floor for the children to sit, and taught them about honeybees using a great educational hive filled with close up photos of the inside of a hive. The kids were very interested and asked good questions!

This is a piece of virgin honeycomb that our bees made. They were filling it with colorful pollen and sticky nectar when I took it out of the hive and saved it. Even the smallest children seemed fascinated by what our honeybees made, and they were very gentle handling the fragile, wax comb.

What’s a lesson about honeybees without tasting honey? I have honey-filled straws called honey sticks for each of the children on our tours, and a hand washing station for cleanup afterwards! 🙂 

If you would like to schedule a an educational (fun) tour of our farm for your group or class, just give me a call at 803-804-3541 and we’ll tailor the tour to your group needs. The cost is just $5 per person over 2 years old, and we have public facilities, a hand washing station, and picnic tables for snack time. There are free honey sticks for the children and you can stock up on our farm products at our small farm market if you like. We schedule tours by appointment only on any day except Sunday, which is our farm market day. We appreciate all our visitors and really do enjoy sharing our farm!

EIEIO!

Debbie