Family Farm Friday #37: Through a Child's Eyes

“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.”
~Walt Streightiff

I've always known that growing up on a farm teaches kids important lessons. Shoot, it was farm lessons that I wrote the very first Family Farm Friday about. I said later that my idea of Heaven would be a childhood memory from the farm. Clearly it's something that I am aware of, but take for granted because I was raised on a farm my whole childhood.

But over Thanksgiving, I got to take a step back and see farm lessons through the eyes of non-farm kids.

First, farming teaches kids about the circle of life. This weekend, I got to watch the birth of a baby calf through the eyes of a three year old. At three years old, he learned that the baby came out of the mommy's tummy and was all gross and yucky, and he learned that the calf would stand up pretty soon to go drink the mommy's milk.

Second, farming teaches kids to problem solve. Two of my "city kid" (if you can call Jal, New Mexico a city) cousins were cruising around on the four wheeler when my dad caputured them and gave them an important assignment. Those of you who know my dad see the humor in this...since I was a kid any time a friend came over to my house for ANY reason, they got put to work by my dad! Anyway, he told the kids to go down to the field and open the gate to let the sheep go back up the lane into the barn. My cousin, Baby Einstein told his sister, "This is going to be hard."

So off they went on the four-wheeler. First, they ended up at the wrong gate. But they figured that out and went to the next one. Which was also wrong. But they figured that out and finally ended up at the correct gate. They went to open it, but figured out that they probably needed to get the four-wheeler out of the gate first. So they did and then they opened the gate and in came the sheep. To celebrate this problem solving effort, part of the family formed a victory line as they drove back to the house.

And a total side note...Baby Einstein said the funniest thing ever when they got back. He asked if they did it right, my dad said yes, and Baby Einstein said, "I don't know about you guys, but I sure hope those sheep don't come over here and mock us." (I have no idea!)

Third, they learn to care about the animals. You put a kid on a horse and let them ride around, and there will be an instant bond. The same when you let a kid hold a puppy or let them name baby lambs. They want to help take care of these animals and they will ask about them YEARS later.

It's always nice to take a step back and look at your way of life through the fresh eyes of a child. After doing that this weekend, I sure did like what I saw!

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