January 17, 2024 – Homesteading and Self-Sufficiency

Yvie Field

Self-sufficiency Through Homesteading

Homesteading and homeschooling . . . both embody the lifestyle of self-sufficiency and give parents the opportunity to instill a strong work ethic, teach through hands-on learning, and develop resourcefulness in their children.  Homeschooling families often have lives centered around the home, which blends well with the homesteading routine.

Emergency preparedness, cooking, woodcarving, gardening, camping, first aid . . . I feel like I’m listing Boy Scout badges here, but these are all life skills that kids need to learn in addition to reading, writing, and arithmetic, and homeschooling affords the chance for many families to intermingle these. 

Biology lessons come through animal husbandry or gardening, and engineering and physics lessons through building and maintaining fences and other equipment needed around the property. Math skills combine with graphic arts and public speaking in any small business venture, such as those seen at the farmers market.

In The Word of the Year: Self-Sufficiency blog post, we delve deeply into several different methods of combining homeschooling and homesteading for everyone from beginners to seasoned naturalists. Covering a wide variety of expertise, from cooking and canning to building fences and raising animals, these ideas, resources, and projects will give you a starting point for incorporating these skills into your daily routine. We’ve also included literature-based unit studies and booklists for families who prefer a more Charlotte Mason-style approach to learning.

In our classes at Sparks Academy, we often have students ask how they can write an entire, long research paper.  Our answer is, “How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time!”  Whether you want to dive in head-first, or simply dip your toe into the world of self-reliance, and whether you have elementary- or high school-aged students, you’ll find a project at both you and your students’ levels.  If you’re anything like we were at first, you might be a bit intimidated by all of the different directions you can take, so if this is you, start with a cooking or herb-based project. 

Homeschooled children often have the flexibility to explore their interests, set their own pace, and learn through hands-on, real-world activities.  It’s an educational model that fosters critical thinking, creativity, and a deeper understanding of subjects than can be gleaned from textbooks, rote learning, and a traditional classroom experience.  Homesteading while homeschooling is just one more way to augment these life lessons, setting children up for future self-sufficiency, independence, and success!

About the author

Yvie is a veteran homeschool mom and teacher at Sparks Academy who enjoys helping other families on their homeschool journey. When not teaching or counseling, she enjoys reading, spending time in her garden, and traveling the country with her boys. You can find her on Homeschool on the Range, on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

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Heather Vogler

It’s Winter on the Homestead. Now What?

Sneaking in one last farmers market for the season, we gathered with fellow homesteaders and the local community for one last event right before Christmas. The common theme echoing from booth to booth was how everyone was looking forward to hunkering down and resting on the homestead. With shorter days and cooler weather on the horizon, I couldn’t agree more.

It had been a busy season from the moment the first tulip bloomed early spring until the Christmas market. Frost wasn’t too much of an issue this year. It was our first year with a high tunnel greenhouse and we were able to extend the growing season for some of our smaller items for the market such as herbs, succulents, aloe, and some flowers. Our season was extended for about a month, which was a blessing, but now is the time for rest.

For the most part, we are in relaxed mode with seed catalogs and our garden planners in hand. Winter is a great time to slow down, reassess, and plan for the upcoming year. Seeds can be started indoors with grow lights fairly early so the break isn’t long, but it is welcome—and savored. It gives our family a chance to learn new cooking or baking skills or pull out a few board games that we haven’t seen in a while. The rest of the year, the evenings are long, busy, and filled with activity. This is the time to shift gears.

While my husband and I brainstorm, the wheels in our kids’ heads are turning, too. What can we grow next year? How can we improve our soil? Do we need to readjust our grazing schedule for the animals? Homesteading doesn’t just happen. It takes planning and preparation, and winter lends a wonderful opportunity to take a step back and make sure that happens.

About the author

Heather, her husband, and five kids homeschool and homestead in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In addition to writing on her blog, Thrift Schooling (ThriftSchooling.com), Heather has been published in several magazines including Focus on the Family, War Cry, and Brio. Heather holds a BA in Christian ministries and currently works in the marketing department of The Old Schoolhouse®.

Jenny Underwood

Homesteading and Self-Sufficiency

Homesteading has become incredibly popular once again, and a very common word you will hear about it is self-sufficiency.  So, what exactly is that and how do you apply it to your life? 

First off, homesteading has molded into a very flexible term.  It used to mean you lived on 160 acres that the government granted you and in return you had to be able to live “off the land.”  That, of course, is not what it means now.  In fact, it means something different for each person.  For example, my family of six lives on 70 acres in a very rural area.  We grow huge gardens which produce a significant portion of our food, forage for medicinals and edibles, and hunt to provide our meat.  However, we are definitely not 100% self-sufficient if that means providing for all our needs directly from our land.  I’d love that, but, right now, my husband works a full-time job and I freelance write for extra income.  We are blessed to be able to do a lot on a pretty minimal budget.

So, homesteading for someone else may be cooking from scratch and growing a garden on a small suburban plot or even using a community garden and learning all the skills necessary to say goodbye to convenience foods.  Really, homesteading can be done anywhere and by anyone.  Of course, it’s easier if you have land, but honestly, the thing you need most is a self-sufficient mindset.

What is a self-sufficient mindset?  Is it the thought that you don’t need anyone or anything else?  In my opinion that’s a resounding NO!  Self-sufficiency is simply the idea that you will work hard to provide for your family’s needs.  Do you ever need help?  YES!  Do you ever give help?  YES!  However, you must determine that you will do whatever is in your power to place a wall of protection around your home.  To me that looks like a stocked pantry, extra supplies, lots of skills, and an openness to learning new ones. 

So, if you’ve been intrigued by this newly popular “homestead” idea, I encourage you to do some research, pick a new skill, say goodbye to something you usually buy but can make yourself, and maybe next year you’ll be describing yourself as a homesteader!

About the author

Jenny Underwood is a homeschool mom to four lively blessings. She enjoys reading, gardening, and learning new things. She and her husband have been married for over twenty years and live on a fifth-generation homestead in the rural Missouri Ozark foothills. You can find her at www.inconvenientfamily.com, blogging about homeschooling and parenting.

Pillar of Hope

Stephanie Morrison

Living God-Sufficient in a Disconnected World

Self-sufficiency (or what I like to call God-sufficiency) isn’t all about growing your own food and getting off the grid. I’m going in that direction—and getting closer to that lifestyle each year—but I want to encourage you in a God-sufficient lifestyle that gets you and your family more connected to the food you eat and seeing more possibilities to producing your own quality food.

Unfortunately, the global food system, where the majority of your grocery store food comes from, is disconnected from the heart of how the body is fueled. It is tainted by the priority to make food last longer and taste better. Growing your own food, or knowing who the small-scale farmer is that grew your food, is more crucial than it was just 10 years ago.

You can’t know if your food is proper fuel for the body when the origin of your food is unknown. God provided all the food we need in plants and animals and not much processing is needed to have a diet that’s based on His provision and still satisfies our taste buds.

So, where’s the good food?

I read a survey report in my latest issue of Small Farm Canada that was about community food producers in Newfoundland and Labrador. This small province on the Atlantic coast of Canada had 750 participants in the survey who produced 6.2 million pounds of food. Through the breakdown of how these people were producing food, notice the diversity of ways you can get quality food:

• 700 people were gardening
• 650 people were foraging
• 170 were raising animals
• 310 people were hunting
• 500 people were fishing

Maybe none of these lifestyle choices work for your family right now, but you can still connect with people who grow or gather food to sell. One of the overarching ethics of permaculture is to create a surplus, so keep that in mind if you’re already a home food producer or consider the friends and family you know that are growing food that could pass along their surplus.

About the author

Stephanie, her husband and two boys are perfectly placed in the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada. She has educated her two youngest boys, ages 14 and 11 since birth. Pursuing her calling to help parents enjoy the responsibility of educating their children, she works for The Old Schoolhouse® in the Canadian division and in sales support helping to connect parents to the materials and programs that help them teach. She loves being a homebody, growing food indoors and out, and building up her permaculture property.

What is homesteading all about, and how can you get started? Our Homesteading course introduces families to the usefulness of doing it themselves. Instead of depending on society, students learn practical life skills that enable them to live healthier lives that are more budget friendly. What will your family create together?