Farm Love

“Steeler and Oreo are kind of like you and Dad.” My six-year said about the tom cat, Oreo, mounting our mama cat, Steeler. He described it further as hugging and kissing like mommies and daddies. While my husband and I watched the cats have sweet, sweet kitty love in the driveway, my mind raced to come up with an explanation that didn't require any detail.

My mind went another way, “Seriously! How many litters is Steeler going to have this year? Based on the last kittens colors, I would say Oreo is the baby daddy. Oreo isn't even ours, he isn't tame, and he is only around at dawn and dust, typical tom cat. They couldn't even wait until dark when the kids would be asleep! Effing Cats!!”

I had forgotten how unfettered a farm can be. Now combine that with little boys that think poop is hilarious, and a chicken's butt is watched more than Caillou on public television. So how do you explain farm love to kids? Just keep quiet, let them draw their own conclusions, and hope for the best or be very technical and when they get a little older get out the diagrams.

Keeping quiet and letting them come to their own conclusions is pretty difficult for me, but the technical method hasn't worked out very well. I tend to over explain things and put a different spin on it, which is one that I feel is acceptable for them. I explained chicken butchering to death (pun intended), but I was at a loss for words about sexing animals and reproduction. I taught inappropriate high schools about the different penis shapes for animal species, actually an entire unit, but I avoid explaining the difference between boy pigs and girl pig.

“The boy pigs have penises by their bellies, and that's where the pee comes out. The girl pigs pee by their bottoms.” My husband informed the kids while we were all standing by the gate watching them. I guess it wasn't too difficult. I don't even think my husband paused to think about what he was going to say.

When my son compared cat copulation to my husband and I, I was pretty concerned that he had seen something he shouldn't have. Then I realized that he really didn't know what he was seeing the cats do, so hugging and kissing was completely acceptable. He only knows what he sees and then relates that to what we tell him. We just need to be the first ones to tell him things and not TV or other kids at school.

I am thankful that the boys can see how animals act, which triggers questions which otherwise wouldn't be thought of until they are tweens and too embarrassed to ask. I guess this is one of the perks of living on a farm.

June: Gone too Soon

It has been one month since summer vacation started and, surprisingly, I'm not counting down the days until they go back to school. I deliberately did not enroll my kids in any summer programs. “Why?” You might ask. Because I wanted to cherish a quiet summer together without rushing around to their activities. What would you do with four little kids during the long summer days?

I'm a believer in boredom. When the kids get bored they come up with the best games and pretend play. I get the pleasure of seeing their imaginations. (However, mud slide runoff wasn't a pleasure to clean-up.)

I love having all the kids together. I gave them the best gift in each other, so why wouldn't I make them spend all summer together? I want them to have memories of playing with each other. I'm also forcing them to problem solve their own squabbles, which usually involves my 2-year old girl yelling at her older brothers.

I want my kids to think of summer break as summer recess. I want them to do things that are completely different from school. So it might surprise you to hear that I do a calendar each day. The calendar is more for me to keep from turning on the TV. It doesn't take much imagination to turn on the TV or iPAD, so when I write science on the calendar I plan things like putting Coke and Mentos together. Things that they haven't seen at school yet, but might in the future. I want to be the first person to show them.

When we moved to this homestead last year, I didn't realize the great opportunity it was for our children. I can't imagine what our summer would have been like living in town. The exploring means they find butterflies, caterpillars, toads, deer tracks, and sprinklings of flowers. The pig, chicken, and kitty chores every morning and night is just icing on the cake.

My kids are growing up fast enough, I don't need to enroll them in summer activities to speed that along. Once they start activities there is no turning back. I'm not prepared to start at the age of 6. They will have plenty of time for that in the years to come.