Hoard’s Dairyman – Our Kid’s Summer

This is my latest post for the Hoard’s Dairyman Blog – HD Notebook

Tomorrow Little Farmer, our oldest son, “graduates” from Kindergarten. We can officially say that we survived the first school year. I am not going to lie that this season of life with balancing school responsibilities and farm duties has brought it’s own set of challenges. We are definitely looking forward to the next 2 ½ months of freedom. But also trying to be mindful of finding the right balance between summer fun and farm responsibilities.

Being 6 years old we are really trying to incorporate our oldest child’s help this first school summer vacation. Being in school was a difficult transition for him away from farm work. Looking at being back full time for these summer months we are trying to engage him in conversations about what chores he would like to take on as his responsibility. Among his list was bottle feeding calves, cleaning the milk cow stalls, help with daily robot cleaning and halter breaking one of the bull calves we have awaiting an A.I. contract. It was fun to see what chores he choose on his own.

Returning from the school environment, which he loved, to a full day farm work schedule is also an adjustment we are trying to keep in mind. So we made sure to balance the responsibilities with a list of the fun things he would also like to enjoy this summer. Topping this list is a requested trip to the beach. Also daily activities he has missed like playing with his little brother, time for bikes rides, going for adventure walks on the farm property and a summer favorite of getting the pool out.

It is all a balancing act between engaging our kids in farm duties, but also remembering they still need some time to let loose during summer vacation……{Read the rest of Our Kid’s Summer “Breaks” here}