How to occupy or entertain children without screens

[milkmansdaughter]

@HomesteaderWife I remember the chores too. I don't remember them as being things we didn't want to do as much as just things we did. Caring for the animals; planting, weeding, and harvesting the garden; mowing the lawn; working in grandma's garden; mowing grandma's lawn; shoveling snow; putting up and taking down snow fences, cutting and stacking wood; covering the drain lines with hay in the fall and uncovering them in the spring (we didnt actually use hay. We drove the pickup truck to local roads where the county had cup the'fall grass. When this dried we'd go get load after load of it to cover our drain lines for the winter.) I remember when the hay in the fields was cut and drying, a vunch of us would go out with empty pails. We'd walk on those lines of hay to scare our mice. Then we'd step on them and put them in our buckets. Im not sure if we honestly ever made a dent in the mouse population but it sure kept us busy for several hours at a time! I remember handpicking mustard out of the fields. Sometimes crops would come up and you could see all of the yellow in them. We'd go pull those up by hand. In late fall or early spring, we'd burn the fields to keep the weeds down and clear the land for planting. We'd all have to watch to make sure the fire didnt get out of hand. If there was a barn fire or tornado or snowstorm (I don't ever remember calling them blizzards as a kid...), we'd be at someone's farm helping with cleanup. In late summer, we baled hay. In the fall, we'd harvest garden vegetables, and make huge crocks of saurkraut for the winter. Canning, baking, packing in sand... Hanging clothes on the line, and bringing them back in; washing cars by hand; scrubbing floors on hands and knees; cleaning gutters in the barn and spreading lime; filling the wheel barrow with feed and putting some in front of every stantion so when the cows came back in the barn for milking, their feed was ready... Washing and putting up storm windows for the winter and replacing them in the Spring. We worked hard and played hard.

How many kids today have chores??

 

[NH Homesteader]

Most of the kids I know have chores ... but we do surround ourselves with abnormal folks like ourselves...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

My grandkids have chores! I'm pretty sure the kids next door do too. But, my daughter and her DH are awesome parents and so are the folks next door. 'Course the chores are age appropriate. I think most responsible parents understand that it's a good thing to give a child responsibilities.

 

[CrealCritter]

All my kids had chores, and if they broke whatever it was they were using to do the chores they worked with me to fix it. I had one son who if he didn't like doing something like weed whacking he would break the weed wacker. By having him work with me to fix what he broke that stopped him breaking things real quick.

I had another son who had a temper. Every time my wife or I saw he had one we would make him pound a spike into a big oak 6x6 with a 3 lb hammer. Once he got to the point where he had no more room for spikes in the 6x6. I took him out to go look at the 6x6. I only had to say one thing to him "look at all the time you spent being mad and for what, was it really worth all this time spent?" He couldn't answer me, because he forgot all most all of what he was mad about originally. Now he is the most level headed of all my sons.

 

[Junebugaboo]

These posts about kid chores got me thinking about an article I recently read in Mother Earth News: https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/childrens-chores-zm0z17aszsor

Whenever I'm folding laundry, doing dishes, cooking, baking, cleaning around the house, my 3 year-old jumps right in. I always give her a little something to do--she loves folding the dish towels. She also really likes to help me weed. Both of my girls like spending time outside when I'm in the garden: one of their favorite things to do is root through the compost for worms and bugs and feed them to the chickens. It's been pretty wet here recently, and I had them pick off all the slugs on the beans, which they collected in a jar...then they served them up to the chicks. I also have a lot of big containers outside that I fill with water, and that'll keep the girls occupied for hours. I got them a "bug kit" too, and they love collecting specimens. My oldest loves to draw like me, and I got her a special sketchbook that she draws in all the time.

Anybody have any experience with 4H Club?

 

[Britesea]

My DH was involved with 4H and FFA from 10yrs to adult (he eventually became a leader). He raised Toggenberg goats

 

[Junebugaboo]

I really want to put my daughters in 4H, probably when they are 8-10 years old....I have a little more time yet.

 

[tortoise]

I cut my kids off from screens (mostly) about a month ago. DS4 occasionally gets to watch a TV show on my computer or play on DH's phone, but these are rare treats now rather than the norm.

Things to do? Much of the day taken up by harassing the cats. We have two exceptionally patient "barn" cats. I removed most the toys because he wasn't playing with them anyway. Today he has tagged along on gardening and outdoor chores, fencing. He helped clean his room, helped pick dandelions for tea.

 

[Britesea]

4H is a wonderful organization, but sometimes some of the leaders can be, well... a problem. However, even that can be a good learning experience for children as they learn how to deal with difficult people