November 12, 2022
Visiting a Historic Farm Fieldtrip

Visiting a Historic Farm Fieldtrip

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Today our homeschool kids were able to take a fieldtrip to see how a farm works up close and personal.
Farm Fieldtrip #homeschool #fieldtrip #farm #preschool

Farm Fieldtrip

My kids love visiting farms. They enjoy wandering around the fields, visiting with the animals, and getting to help out with farm chores. We have several historic farms in our area including an 1850s farm that was one of the first in the area.

Today we visited a 1930s historic, and working, dairy farm. In a 1930s dairy farm horses were still used for pulling equipment, but tractors were also being introduced as well. So it is a really interesting peak at an old fashioned and semi-modern farm at one time.

Meet the Animals on the Farm

Meeting the sheep on a historic 1930s dairy farm
With young children in the house, visiting the animals is their favorite part. They love petting the animals and even getting to help feed them. My girls love the sheep.

Apparently, male sheep (rams) can be stubborn and hard to deal with. The one that they kept ran through their barn wall. Plus the process of birthing sheep is tough and many may end up dieing int he process. So the farm we visited currently only had three female sheep.

Farm Uses for Sheep: Besides using lambs for meet, their wool coats are sheered at least once a year to get wool which can be spun into yarn.

Meeting the chickens on a homeschool farm fieldtrip

The farm we visited had a large flock of 30 or so Columbian Wyandottes. We learned that these chickens lay about 5 eggs a week reliably for 2-3 years. You can tell how old they are by looking t their toe nails.  We learned that chickens are some of the most expensive animals to keep on a farm because of the amount of food they eat compared to their body size.  The chickens need to be locked up at night or local predators like raccoons or coyotes would kill them.

Chicken & the Egg Class

The kids were allowed to collect the chicken eggs they saw and we got to take them home to try farm fresh eggs. My husband & I also took a chicken butchering class at the farm (without the kids) before we decided to get our own chickens (see our backyard chickens).

Farm Uses for Chickens – The heavy bodied chickens are great for dressing and they lay brown eggs (about 5 a week)
Hogs on a farmWe also got to visit the farms Yorkshire Hogs. The pigs were sure excited to get the milk from the cows we brought. Apparently these pigs would nibble on you looking for food, so we kept our hands back! In the fall the farm offers the chance to see how a pig is butchered and roasted.

Farm Uses for Hogs – Eat lots of scraps and more importantly to butcher and eat in the fall.

Visiting a historic dairy farm

The most important animal on most farms are the cows. This farm had Jersey cows which produce less total milk that some more modern breads, but have a higher fat content making them great choices for making cheese and cream. These cows grow to be 8—1200 pounds – they are so big. But this breed is very docile and apparently, easy to manage.

We got the chance to visit the cows up close and personal we well as hand feed them. My three year old was terrified at the idea of feeding the huge cow, but everyone else thought it was great.  On one of our visits we had a little excitement when they let the cows out to pasture and they had forgotten to close a gate. All 15 cows got out and were wandering around – a couple even made it to the road. Luckily within about 15 minutes all the cows were back in their pen.

3 week old baby Jersey Cow on homeschool fieldtrip
During one of our visits we got to see a 3 week old colt. Unfortunately for the him there is little use for male cows on a dairy farm so he wasn’t going to be sticking around very long (if you know what I mean).

Cow Milking Class

Milking a cow on farm fieldtrip

One of our favorite classes we’ve taken at the historic farm is the Cow Milking Class. Kids were able to learn how a cows is milked and then actually milk a cow by hand. Then were we shown how more modern equipment makes the process go incredibly quicker. It was a memorable experience.

Farm Uses for Cows – Milk (about 22 liters a day) and meat when butchered

Lastly we were able to meet the two farm horses that help them pull the heavy equipment. These horses are Belgians and are not for riding. These large horses are one of the heaviest breeds weighting over 2000 pounds each.

 

Farm Uses for Horses – Pulling farm equipment, moving barns, etc. Other breeds of horses might be used for riding.

If you’d like to visit a historic farm in your area, here is a huge list of historic farms in the United States listed by state.

 

Where are you going on your next Homeschool Fieldtrip?

We’d all love to know where you’ve been this week. Please tell us about it in the comments!

 

Farm Books for Kids

          

            

Check ou these fun farm books for kids

Your  child will love this playful farm cutting practice activity to help toddler, preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten age children improve coordination and hand muscles as they learn to use scissors. There are a variety of cutting activities for preschoolers using these cutting practice worksheets. From plowing the fields to helping farm baby animals getting to their moms, shape cut and sort to a cute farm cut and paste worksheet - these are as cute as they are FUN! Simply print pdf file with free printable cutting activities for preschoolers and you are ready to play and learn with cutting activities for kids. farm worksheets Your  child will love these playful farm cutting worksheets! This cutting practice activity is a FUN way to help toddler, preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten age children improve coordination and hand muscles as they learn to use scissors. There are a variety of cutting activities for preschoolers using these cutting practice worksheets. From plowing the fields to helping farm baby animals getting to their moms, shape cut and sort to a cute farm cut and paste worksheet - these are as cute as they are FUN! Simply print pdf file with free printable cutting activities for preschoolers and you are ready to play and learn with cutting activities for kids.

Farm Activities

Looking for more FREE farm printables to help kids learn a variety of skills? You will love these resources:

Oink, Moo, Baa.....kids have a natural fascination with farm animals. These super cute, free printable farm animal puzzles are such a fun way for kids to learn science vocabulary about animal baby names and work on visual discrimination and reasoning skills. Grab these Farm Animals and their Babies Printables for toddler, preschool, pre k, kindergarten, and first grade students. These are perfect for a farm theme or Are you my Mother book themed activity for children.  farm-hidden-pictures farm seasons flip book counting farm animals worksheet

Farm Worksheets

Explore Old MacDonald's farm, the tractors, equipment, and all the cute baby animals with this Farm Scavenger Hunt. This farm scavenger hunt printable allows children to search for different farm themed items such as a chicken, barn, hay bales and goats. This farm animal scavenger hunt is fun for toddler, preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade students as it contains not only the name, but a cute picture too.  Simply print pdf file with farm printables in color or black and white and you are ready to play with this printable scavenger hunt that is an outrageously fun farm activity for kids.  animal tracing worksheets farm activities for preschoolers farm writing numbers in words worksheets

Farm Printables

 



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