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  ·  7 years ago (edited)

all im going to say is, WE had several children living in our community. One of them, Ula who lived with us when she was 6-12 years old, was brought up basically in the jungle out here, with very few restrictions!

Today, Ula can climb huge tall trees barefoot without any issue, you can barely see her up there. In fact their whole family are quite happy to walk around barefoot on muddy paths with leeches and snakes! We are all FINE!

I'll leave you with with an image that I think says it all! (she was muddy because we were building an earthship hut and she was learning how to do some cob work.

ula.jpg

Ha, i find my daughter everywhere lately :-)

Wow! Thats amazing... oh my leeches and snakes... We have them here, but in limited numbers or seldom seen...

Yes, exactly! And this is why I let my kiddos dig in the dirt and pick up chickens, among other things :) Your kiddos are so cute, I enjoyed all the pictures.

Aww, thank you! Got me daydreaming about a village- a whole gaggle of dirt loving kiddos!

Love seeing the little ones outdoors and in the garden. I can remember when my grandma would have me help her in her garden. Always such good memories!

Thanks @goldendawne!

I love this! My children love to plant and get dirty and dig and get in the creek. This is what makes life fun. The joy they have exploring and living out on the land is wonderful for my memory. I hope they feel the same one day.

Yes, me too... I think they will :-)

I know that I had two very different settings as a child, partially in an urban place, and partially in the country, I bet you can guess where my favorite place was!

Sounds like you are doing a great job with your children. No better place for kids to grow up then around animals and the farm. I might be biased though;)

Haha I think we both are! Thanks for stopping by and reading my post!

Oh I just loved seeing pictures of your sons when they were little! We have had similar experiences with "helpful" relatives. My daughters know the names of the plants in our garden and eat Egyptian walking onions straight from the earth all summer long (they often have onion breath when they come inside from playing!) They never wear shoes in the summer and it is funny when visitors say "Wait you have to put your shoes on!" as my daughters are running outside. We also take this approach with insects. Teaching them which ones can bite or sting and which are safe.

Ahhh.. now I am dreaming of summer days....

Sounds like our kids would get along quite well... Wow they eat raw onions!? I can't even get mine to eat cooked ones, haha. But then again everything tastes better straight outta the garden...

Thanks for stopping by!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

awww your children are such cuties !!! schoonercreek thank you

With love,

harj : ) xoxo
Abstract artist

Thank you for reading

Thank you! schoonercreek great to get your interpretation on my last art post called "Attachment" your insight would help us : )

With love,

harj : ) xoxo
Abstract artist

Thanks for sharing this. I see so much value in being as hands off as possible and trusting in our children’s learning process.

Yes to an extent they learn very well on their own... Thanks for stopping by!

Wonderful!! Wishing I had more of my own tribe...times were different when I was raising children in the garden. Enjoy these memories you are creating!

Thank you! I do very much

Lovely post and photos! Sounds like a balanced and natural way of raising children.

Thank you for reading!

I can relate to all you share, as you know very well :) It's amazing how many commonalities exist between people so far removed... I especially like the first photo, that happy determination is able to brighten even my darkest day! And the goats are beautiful! Some day, some day...!

Ahhh thank you so much, it is true indeed! Who knows maybe in the far future we will visit Bulgaria! The goats are fun, it's been a little bit of a learning curve for us!

Wonderful and important message! Children that are too sheltered or have everything done for them are being done such a disservice. I love this! It's how we raised our son and we have no regrets (neither does he).

Indeed. Glad to hear it! How old is he now?

He's 22 ...eep. I can hardly believe it.

These photos are just too cute! You are a good mom to let your kids enjoy nature and learn for themselves!

I enjoyed showing my niece the sheep last week but as we were feeding them they all crowded around and suddenly I thought.. oh man she is so small and they could crush her by accident... I steered them away from surrounding her with more food so she could still feed them.. luckily mom, my sis, trusted in the experience with no fear and so she could enjoy the activity. She was probably way less worried than I was :)

ahh, yes that is a real concern. I like to take my sons in with me to feed the sheep, I just keep the littlest one close- But my boys also know to never enter the area when the ram is in with them... We have a sweet ram, but he is still a ram!

Thanks for reading and for the compliment!!

Oh my! So precious! I love the bushcraft fort by the creek! I think it is so important to teach kids about nature and how we connect to the earth. We moved to the homestead and don't often get to be barefoot due to unseen rusty nails 😑

Thanks! My husband and the kids had a blast building that, it was so strong! I agree, and ahh shucks thats a bummer about the nails....

Yeah, we razed a cabin when we first moved here...now we have land mines haha

Oh I see, well that is a tradeoff, how wonderful to have your hand built home though! Hopefully over time when the land around it naturalizes and the nails have been mostly gathered up, you'll be able to go barefoot again :-)

that's exactly as it should be, free to roam. We instil too many off our own fears when we interfere. Children are not stupid, we really need to stop treating them like they are. They are so good at problem solving if we just let them do it. great post @schoonercreek x

Thank you very much @trucklife-family!