After we were finished with all of that, Grant and I talked about chickens.
We looked at some of the wonderful drawings from this book:
Grant also made this chicken page in his lesson book:
Afterward, we went up and spent some time with our 30 chickens.
This is Grant with his favorite chicken, Big Foot.
This is Flower, one of three chickens we raised from chicks.
On Tuesday, Grant went out with Cory to help him with the morning chicken routine. Later in the school room, we went through our regular routine, and this was a math review page that Grant did:
We talked about planting seeds and looked at some more of the drawings from the above farming book, and then we headed outside where the kids planted seeds in garden boxes that Grandpa Paul made for them. Grant chose to plant watermelon and strawberries in his box. The girls planted an assortment of flowers along with carrots and beans, and they each want a cherry tomato plant,too.
On Wednesday, after our regular school work, Grant and I talked about animal management, specifically about pigs and goats. Grant drew made a page about it in his lesson book.
On Friday, Uncle Jeff was kind enough to accompany Grant to our neighbor's farm who have a small collection of animals. They went up in the morning to watch them milk their goats. Grant also got to help mix the food, and then help feed the goats.
This little goat, Belinda (or Lindy for short), was rejected by her mother, so she gets bottle fed with her mother's milk twice a day. She follows Holly (that's her in the photo below) around everywhere!
Here is Belinda with two other kids. They have another due to arrive soon.
Grant and Jeff came home with a 1/2 gallon of goat's milk for us to try. You can't get much fresher than that!
Jeff and Grant went back in the afternoon to watch Holly take care of some of the other animals. Grant took the following photos:
(I love this one!)
This billy goat is in a pen by himself, and wants attention from anyone passing by. There is a chicken in the pen who likes to hang out with him. Grant was told that she will sometimes perch herself on the goat's back while he is eating.
Jeff took these photos:
(That little calf was born just three days ago.)
Grant said he learned that sheep shed just like cats and dogs, and that calves cry. Grant and Jeff were told by Holly not to make the calf cry, or all the bigs cows would charge at them. Needless to say, he kept his distance!
Grant really enjoyed his time at our neighbor's farm, and we're hoping to set up another field trip for him next week with a different farmer who runs a much bigger operation. He is really looking forward to that!
