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A podcast for homeschool families brought to you by Sequoia Grove Charter Alliance. Encouragement, tips & tricks, interviews with HSTs and curriculum help.
Rebecca: Hello and welcome to the Sequoia Breeze Podcast, a breath of fresh air for your homeschool. I am your host, Rebecca Losavio. Thank you for joining me today,
listeners. I'm pretty excited about today's episode. We're going to be talking about animals in your homeschool and we're going to bounce all over a little bit with a lot of different voices and I think you're really going to have a lot of fun and feel pretty inspired.
Anna: Hello, my name is Anna Lasavio. I am Rebecca's daughter. I'm 17 years old and I am a senior in high school this year.
Rebecca: How many animals do you have? I know. You never know. I know. Explain, explain.
Anna: So I breed and raise rabbits for 4h.
So the number is always fluctuating because just like the number of babies, babies I currently have and then I sell them and then I have more babies. So it just,
I never know how many I have at the moment.
Rebecca: But just to clarify, you breed them for show, like to show what a nice shape they have and stuff. These are not eating rabbits?
Anna: Not these particular ones, no.
Rebecca: I know a lot about animals now and the only reason is because you are my daughter.
So you, I feel like were born looking for animals anywhere you could. So talk a little bit about that.
Anna: So I was born here in the States, but then when we were,
When I was 2,
we moved overseas and over there is. Has a very different culture. So they,
they didn't really have pets. That wasn't a thing they did. So there were a lot of stray dogs and in the villages there were some pack horses and stuff like that.
I just remember I was never afraid of the wild dogs and I would try to befriend them. And there was one that lived specifically on our street that I just became buds with because I liked him.
I remember one time going out to like a dairy farm in the village and I know I just always really enjoyed being. Being around animals. And when we got back to the
Rebecca: States, you almost immediately wanted chickens and even rabbit. I don't even know how you knew that was a thing.
Anna: Yeah, I'm not really sure either. I initially wanted chickens and I got some of my very own.
Rebecca: And you immediately knew all the breeds. And I was like, it's a chicken.
Anna: But then we moved. So I sold that little flock I had and then later we got a new flock just as the family. And I'm not quite as involved in the chickens as I was before,
but I really wanted to join 4H.
And since we live in town, I Didn't really have the opportunity to raise large animal livestock like sheep, goats, and cattle.
And so the other option I found in 4H was to raise rabbits.
So I started out with a little tortoiseshell Dutch book.
His name is Toffee, and he was my first rabbit in 4H. And it kind of just snowballed from there.
Rebecca: A lot of rabbits have come and gone.
Anna: Yes.
Rebecca: But Toffee is still here.
Anna: Toffee's still here. He's about five years old now.
Rebecca: I want to talk real quick about the sort of project side of animals and then real quick about the emotional side of animals. So project side of animals,
you fairly quickly saw some business opportunities within.
Within animals. I mean,
you,
you wanted to raise eggs, you were open to selling them.
You,
you know, had to sell that first flock, but you were, you knew what the market value was for those hens.
Rebecca: And.
Rebecca: And then as you've grown. So I am impressed with you that we have never ever bought you a rabbit, a cage, food.
Anna: Yeah.
Rebecca: Nothing. You've done it all. Even in an environment where sometimes kids have much better setups because their parents have invested in it.
Anna: Yeah.
Rebecca: And so just talk a little bit about the, the business side of things.
Anna: Well,
to start off, you're never gonna make money off of,
like,
animals unless you have like a large scale production such as a dairy farm or something like that. But raising show rabbits is definitely not lucrative.
Rebecca: So why do you sell them?
Anna: Well,
there is a.
To start off, there is an organization called the American Rabbit Breeders association,
and everybody who competitively shows rabbits in the US Shows under that umbrella.
And they have a standard called the Standard of perfection. And it's this little book. And each individual breed has its own standard of what it should look like. And my breed, the Dutch,
they're what's called a marked breed.
So their coloring is very specific. And if their coloring is not correct,
then it's either a disqualification or a fault on the show table.
And so the reason I sell my rabbits is if they don't quite meet that standard or if they have disqualifications, I often try and sell them as pets or also just their body type itself.
If it's not up to standard, I sell them off as pets.
Rebecca: And then the money that you get from selling them goes back into feeding.
Anna: Yes.
Rebecca: Upgrading.
Anna: Yeah. As well as it's. It doesn't come full circle. I have to put money into it from my job and other stuff too.
Rebecca: As your homeschooling mama.
One of the things that I have observed through the years is that it is a rare day that you don't do school with an animal.
Danielle: Yeah.
Rebecca: Talk a little bit about that. Like, why to me, it would never occur to me. I, I barely even pet our cat. So it, it. That's not something that would ever cross my mind as a person when I was a kid even to want to do school with an animal.
Yeah.
Anna: I don't know. There's just something about having an animal in my lap or if I have a baby bunny, I can just put it on my desk and let it hop around.
It just somehow keeps me, like, grounded and more focused. Just having almost as a fidget to just pet.
And it gives me just enough of a distraction to like, not get distracted by other things, if that makes any sense.
And I don't know, they're just adorable. They just bring so much joy and it just lighten my mood when they're around.
Rebecca: Do you feel like because when you raise baby bunnies, you also suffer losses?
Anna: Yes.
Rebecca: How do you feel like that has contributed to who you are?
Anna: It's definitely shown me the harder side of raising livestock or animals.
There's a saying in the animal raising community where if you have livestock, you're gonna have dead stock. And I know when I started out as a 12 year old, I was like, oh, it'll.
It'll be fine. Like, sure, I might lose one or two, but I've lost whole litters. I've struggled to have litters. Sometimes the does don't take.
Anna: So.
Anna: So it can sometimes be frustrating.
But to me, the reward of having a successful litter that does well on the show table is rewarding enough to go through the losses.
Rebecca: And last thing I want you to tell me a little bit about, you finally got to branch into large livestock. Yes. With sheep last year. So,
I mean, you've always, you're also taking horseback riding lessons and you've always kind of been around the other animals, but you actually got to choose lambs, raise them, sell them.
Like, just talk for just a minute about that experience.
Anna: So our 4H club,
I was able to use a barn to raise my lambs. Since we're in town, we don't have space for them here. So that was our main obstacle in the past was we couldn't have them here.
And it felt like too far of a drive to the nearest available property to us. So this barn was right outside town and that was a good opportunity to be nice and accessible.
And so I joined the 4H Lamb group and I learned a ton from my leaders and other 4H members who have done it a lot more than I did.
I contacted a bunch of different breeders.
I got three lambs from two different breeders and I raised them. I just had to learn about feeding and exercising and handling and training and just so much that I think going into the project again this year, I will go in with that knowledge that I already have.
I think it'll make this year a lot easier.
Rebecca: Are you glad you did it?
Anna: Yes, I'm. I'm very glad I did it. I had a lot of fun,
was a lot more work than Rabbit's for sure, kind of more than I was expecting.
So it was a little bit overwhelming at times.
But I think going back into it this year, I will have that mindset.
Rebecca: I won't.
Anna: I'll already know. So I'll be able to find more joy in it this year.
Rebecca: Thank you.
Anna: Thank you for having me,
Rebecca: listeners. As you heard, that was my daughter, Anna, and it was a real treat to have that little interview with her. It was a fitting place for me to start this topic because if it wasn't for her and all of her interests, I probably wouldn't be doing this episode.
I wouldn't know very much about animals. I probably wouldn't know anything about livestock. I wouldn't know much about fair animals.
So much of my knowledge and now interest in those things came because of her. I wouldn't have had the courage to go catch a chicken until she helped teach me how to do it.
And now our family owns sheep and meat rabbits and we've got all kinds of things going on with animals that we never would have done if it wasn't for her.
And her need for animals, her encouragement from them, her fascination with their genetics and interest in creating business opportunities around it has opened my eyes to a whole world out there that I never knew existed.
And so in the interest of seeing how animals are affecting other kiddos and how they benefit other kiddos, homeschools, we are going to hear from a few different students from around our Sequoia Grove family today.
And I'm so excited to share their messages with you.
They just make me happy. Let me introduce you to Maddie and she is going to tell you all about mutton busting.
And if you've never watched mutton busting, you should YouTube it right now. But it's a whole bunch of little kids riding sheep, holding on for as long as they can.
And it's one of my favorite events at our county fair.
Maddy: Hi, my name is Madeline and I'm six. I went mustin busting mustin busing is when you ride a seep.
I was not sailed.
I had a really fun time.
My favorite part was seeing my family watch me yell and was a little Chad and the widow inside it.
Mom: Did you learn anything while you were mutton busting?
Maddy: It's a little hairy and you can get a little bit hurt.
When I did it last year I did one time and then I didn't get hurt but other time I did get hurt.
Not too bad though.
Mom: But were you brave and did you try again?
Maddy: I tried again and I was brave.
Mom: If you could do it again, would you do it again?
Maddy: I would do it again if I could but I'm too big now.
Mom: Thank you. Bye.
Maddy: Thank you. Bye.
Rebecca: Listeners. Now we're going to talk to you to an HST with our schools. Her name is Danielle and you will hear how much her love for animals and her love for students just oozes out of her.
It's such a fun conversation and I think you'll learn a lot about the ways that you can integrate the animals that your kids already wanna spend time with into meaningful homeschool experiences.
Thank you, Danielle Baumak for coming to talk with me today about animals. I can't think of a better person within our schools to talk about anim with you.
So I'm excited to hear what you have to say today. Welcome.
Danielle: Oh, thank you. I mean that's something we've always kind of shared especially with your daughter joining, you know, Sequoia Grove Agricultural Club. It's just so fun to see an extension of you and some of our conversations that we've had in the past.
Rebecca: So tell us a little bit about you and your family and like what is the role that animals have played in your family's life, in your life?
Danielle: Oh my goodness. Well,
so animals have always been a big part of my life.
I was an only child.
They,
you know, they weren't just pets. They were my built in siblings.
They, they listened to my stories, they kept my secrets and you know, they followed me around and this is kind of funny but I used to play like teacher and student with like my cat and you know, my stuffed animals and just that early bond and just honestly that just,
it just never went away.
And then that naturally spilled over to my family life because you know, we homeschooled from birth to eighth grade with all of my kids.
They didn't just have pets, you know, they, they grew up fully emerged with animals and we didn't just stop at dogs and cats when with Our first one,
we took the plunge and went into laying hens when my oldest was three.
And, you know, her name is, coincidentally, it's Birdie.
She was. She was one when we gave her that name. But it's funny, she always loved birds and chickens.
So I guess the chickens were inevitable.
Homeschooling.
It just gave us a freedom to slow down and let animal care become a part of our everyday life.
And one of the best parts is we weren't rushed to jump in the car before school or squeeze it in after school.
It just fit right into our rhythm.
The feeding, cleaning,
observing them, building cages,
it all became a normal part of our family life and daily responsibilities.
And then, you know, we took a turn for into the world of livestock, and we joined. This was beautiful.
We had a local homeschool 4 age group.
It was magical.
And you will know this as a homeschool mom that we can meet during the day.
We could protect our evenings as a family and protect. We could fully commit to our projects without that burnout.
Another program that we joined was Grange.
And that's just. With both of those programs, we just really expanded with pets and livestock.
You know, those chickens were the gateway animal. They're kind of sneaky like that. I've seen it with our students.
You know, I'm sure you understand.
They, you know, then came the broilers, chickens,
the ones that you use for market, and swine and turkeys.
And as I was talking before we accident, we actually just picked up our turkeys for this year's fair,
all the way at an angel's camp. And Amador is such a beautiful county to visit. And I was just thinking as I was driving there, this trip is actually educational because there's so much history just driving to go pick up our pets,
which is fascinating.
Uh, it's just a wonderful family tradition of, you know, raising livestock and then embracing the pets that we have at home.
It just the rewards of consistency,
responsibility, and not being rushed and just taking the time to enjoy them.
Rebecca: So talk to me a little bit about how you said that when your kiddos were homeschooling when they were little, that you weren't.
Animal care was. Didn't have to be rushed. And it could be just part of your day and what you were doing.
How did that feel like it was fitting into their educational plan?
You know, when you think about school, you think math and reading and science and history.
Where does animal care fall in there? How does that. How does that enrich those things? Or. Or does it make those Other things feel squished.
Danielle: That's a great question because you don't even realize with pets and animals of all kinds that you're like sitting on a gold mine of learning opportunities.
You really are.
Rebecca: Because.
Danielle: So you have to ask yourself, you know, what can I learn from this? Almost anything we do with enrichment, you know, why are we bringing this to our family? Why is this part of our,
our homeschool plan?
And you can just go down the list of those four content areas, especially for K through 8. Of course you can dive in more for high school,
but I mean, if I'm being specific,
science,
I mean,
you can study life cycles, anatomy,
nutrition, habitats. That all just goes in, goes in order with some of our ICAM statements, you know,
and you're learning what animals eat.
Science in regards to pets and research and livestock, it just becomes alive more. It's tangible, it's hands on with math.
I, I instantly think like feeding animals is fractions. It's cost,
it's time. What time did I get up? What time did I last feed the animals? For those of us that are expanding into chickens,
you know,
you can sell eggs, you can count eggs,
you can raise chickens.
And then I just have to talk about.
So for Adventure Academy, we actually made a bar graph on our favorite pets.
So you can even encourage,
you know, your student or your child at home to collect data on their friend's favorite pets or, you know, what's their favorite zoo animal. It's just such a great way to incorporate collecting data and graphing and then language arts that flows naturally.
We have so much access to literature as homeschoolers. We can go to the library.
You can use our library resources within Sequoia Grove.
You can tackle both fiction and nonfiction equally.
For fiction, there's beautiful novel studies that you can dive into.
Avenger Academy.
Over the last four years that I've been there have had six week novel studies on books that are just based on pets. From James Harriet to his vet stories of the English countryside to Margaret Henry in all of her horse tales like Misty of the Chicotique tribe.
And then we have Sounder and because of Winn Dixie,
those have been some great novel studies.
And then conversely, like, you can research what a great thing to do if your child wants, let's just say, what's a pet that's kind of hard to see us do?
I don't know, guinea pig or what
Rebecca: do you think that's hard to say yes to? Maybe like a parrot.
Danielle: Oh, yes, that's
Rebecca: so.
Danielle: I mean, asking your Student to research either online or at the library before even considering purchasing that pet gets your student involved in, you know, nonfiction or informational text.
And even you can do a how to writing project or an argumentative essay on why you need that.
Rebecca: I think sometimes geography can come in in that like understanding,
you know, rabbits are meant for cold environments. We aren't a cold environment.
So what are they going to need that we can't provide? Or how do we need to make adjustments for them?
Or which breed of a particular animal might be more well suited to our hot climate? Or you know, sometimes understanding where a creature this is very true for plants, but where a creature comes from originally can help them understand better how that creature is going to want to be comfortable.
Danielle: Absolutely. Researching is I. That's another way of the responsibility component comes in.
You are responsible for the care of that animal and homeschooling allows that time for that extra research that not having rash decisions and being fully educated before you take the plunge of a particular pet ownership like a parrot.
I mean I, I have a funny story.
Of course you do.
Rebecca: You always have funny stories.
Danielle: Share.
Okay, so I would see this one student,
she, she's so cute.
I've seen her in the homeschool community and a little bit on the offside like personally and she's with Clarksville and I would call her my favorite herpetologist.
And so for those of us that you know, that's a zoologist who specializes in amphibians and reptiles.
And so yeah,
so as a homeschooler she was so fun to talk to because she had the freedom to completely dive into her passion for reptiles.
Like so she would be on child friendly youtubes and she would have following certain zoologists or herpetologists that have a aquariums or her. I don't know what the word is for.
Is it hepaquarium?
Just scratch
Rebecca: environments.
Danielle: Yes.
Rebecca: Habitats. There we go.
Danielle: Yes. So, so she would follow those and then for a year I would talk to her.
I mean over a year probably she would enthusally,
enthusiastically tell me about her dream of owning a hognose snake. And I'm like, what is a hognose snake? So of course I looked it up when I was sitting next to her.
So think of them as like designer reptiles of the snake world.
They are various varieties of color,
they're dramatic, a little sassy and they're just full of personality.
So I was like, huh, she really wants this. She's well researched.
I wonder why her parents aren't saying yes. I mean they have the time, they have the flexibility in their schedule, and they have, you know, the means.
And so I casually asked her parent about her daughter's strong wish for a hognose. And the mom was like, oh, they're great.
They're just mildly venomous.
Rebecca: Oh.
Danielle: So I guess apparently their fangs sit back in their jaw,
so, you know, they're relatively harmless. And I, I had to laugh because I remember I let my kids have fire belly toads.
They're, they're like an, they're, they're like a, they're an aquatic amphibian toad, which I would say, why are they not frogs? But they are considered mildly venomous too.
They have that bright orange and black pattern. So I was like, okay, who am I to judge?
This is the best part.
In the middle of summer, in the middle of summer,
I get a text from mom because there was a reptile show at the Cal Expo Center.
And in that text there is a picture of this sweet girl beaming ear to ear because they bought her her very own hognose snake.
I mean,
so I guess homeschooling really does give these kids like a passion and to pursue what they really love. And even if that passion happens to be slightly venomous,
Rebecca: even if their passion
Danielle: is mildly venomous,
but I mean,
also taught her patience,
you know, and to wait. And she really earned that snake.
She earned it and she had that delayed gratification.
And I love that, you know, I love that responsibility and follow through and that real learning that she took ownership of.
Rebecca: Yeah,
that's a very cool story.
So you, you've talked a little bit, sort of specifically and sort of around the, beating around the bush a little bit. But I think one of the, the benefits of animals that kids sometimes realize and sometimes don't realize is the character piece.
Right. There's,
there's a lot of character that goes into taking care of animals.
So talk, talk to us a little bit about.
You've alluded to some of it, but let's be, let's be real specific about it.
Danielle: Sure, absolutely. So it's, it's a lot to get up and to care for an animal and to feed it to, to know it relies on you.
It's, it's, it's a power. It's learning at a young age that something depends on you to care for it.
And,
and what happens if you don't care for it? The kiddos are directly responsible for,
you know, for the lack of feeding, and they see the consequence and it can be humbling,
you know, and when A mistake is made if it, you know, there's, there can be consequences. And the lesson is real.
On the other side of that, the empathy piece that animals teach kids is beautiful.
I love seeing those stay at home kiddos that really need to stay at home,
but they need companionship.
And especially with Adventure Academy,
you can tell those kiddos because those pets, that dog, that cat is in their lap,
it is there that that animal knows its job.
It's beautiful relationship.
So that empathy, that compassion, that unconditional love while you know, while you're at home is a beautiful piece of to pet ownership.
Rebecca: While being homeschooled and learning to clean up after somebody else's messes may help you be a little more aware of your own messes or what it takes for mom to take care of you.
Danielle: Oh my gosh. Right?
I mean, yes. Especially if you have something large,
I guess even small, keeping that cage clean and being homeschooled. So you're going to be around that cage, you know,
you can't escape it. You're not going off to school.
You need to take care of that piece of pet ownership or animal husbandry.
Rebecca: So you've mentioned that you have some Adventure Academy classes that have to do with animals.
Talk about a couple of the other opportunities through our schools where people could plug in if that's an interest of theirs or if they want to learn more about it.
Danielle: Oh, learning about pet ownership or just dealing with animals.
Rebecca: You mentioned you alluded to the club earlier.
Danielle: Oh my goodness. Yes. This is a beautiful budding program that's developing in our school with Briana DeMello.
She is our new ag content specialist, I guess, and she's our dual enrollment teacher. She's our h, our virtual academy and HSVA ag teacher while she teaches those classes for our High School 9th grade to through 12th grade.
She also hosts this wonderful club called the Sequoia Grove Agricultural Club on Wednesdays through Zoom at 3:30.
And while this for the most part of this year has been Zoom,
the plans have been expanding. She has some remarkable field trips for sixth grade through 12th grade. That is the age range.
Some of the field trips that she has planned are to go to Loomis Basin Equine Facility as well as the Loomis Basin Small Animal Vet Hospital.
And those definitely address,
you know, our pet ownership,
livestock from livestock and small animals.
The neat thing about that opportunity with the Sequoia Grove Agricultural Club is that students get to,
you get to see their passion shine through the screen.
So we're talking chicken sharing,
rabbit Sharing.
Kids have shared about their horses online. And then, of course, you know,
as they're there, they're talking about their dogs. We had a wonderful presenter who's a Clarksville mom who was talking about dog breeding and showing dogs and just the actual content of dog food and things to look out for.
And that was so informational because a couple of us just weren't really aware of the ingredients in particular dog foods.
And we just learned what to look out for.
So she covers the gamut. So while it is targeted, it says agricultural club.
You know, pets are a commodity, too. And so that's kind of what we study in agriculture is commodities and resources in California particularly.
Rebecca: So, Danielle, what are some other ways that,
you know, if kiddos aren't in a place to have animals of their own, whether it's where they live or just their family situation for right now or allergies at home or something,
what are some other ways that they can get involved in. In caring for animals?
Danielle: I love that you asked this because there are so many needs at local shelters and larger facilities.
You can run collaboratively with your adult at home.
You can run a toy drive, an animal toy drive, and drop them off at an animal shelter.
You can run like a fundraising for a horse rescue facility. And we have several along the span of our counties that Sequoia Grove serves.
If you are, are able to, you can volunteer in your right age. You can volunteer with an adult at an animal shelter.
And if you are brave, where you just, you don't. You're not in the situation to keep a pet like a dog or a cat, but you can volunteer to foster kittens in the spring.
You can foster dogs when shelters are crowded.
And then there's something as simple as if you have elderly people in your neighborhood,
you can volunteer to and they have pets.
Maybe they're not moving like they used to and their pet still has the same energy.
You can volunteer to walk their dog or take care of their cat or do their litter box.
So those are just some ways, you know, if you're looking to. To dive in without the commitment.
Rebecca: And are there any other resources you want to tell parents about for things that tie in homeschool with animals?
Danielle: Okay. Well,
I have to tell you, one of my first purchases, when my kids were tiny, tiny, tiny,
we purchased X rays and a veterinary kit from Lakeshore Learning.
And, oh, my, I still have them.
I'm like, and then we purchased zoo books, which are a magazine subscription, but you can also check those out at the library.
There's Ranger Wick magazine subscription just to dive in to animals in general.
Teachers pay teachers has so many unit studies and ones that are really project based and that incorporate cross curricular. So math, language arts, science, such as let's build an animal shelter.
So if you start going on to it's teachers pay teachers. There's lots of units where you can kind of dive deeper into knowledge about specific species and breeds. Or I'm creating a research project of your student's choice.
My last suggestion would be 4H has curriculum.
Rebecca: They do. And it's not very expensive.
Danielle: No.
Rebecca: And you don't have to belong to 4H to get it.
Danielle: No you don't. And guess what? As an hst, Shameless pug really great work samples.
Rebecca: That's true.
And they have like it's not they've got all the animals, but they also have gardening and a lot of home art stuff. Like there's a lot of different kinds of things in there too.
Danielle: Oh yes. One of my students, when I first started as an hst, I used their photography curriculum for a high schooler.
It was beautifully laid out, systematic, explicit.
They have pet science too.
So it's not just livestock. Like you said, the gardening is there. Pet science, veterinary science,
beekeeping. I mean what a fun pet would that be. Beekeeping, the pet that gives back?
Don't tempt me. Oh no.
Right.
Rebecca: Okay. So two other things I want to talk about real quick. The first is this isn't even really a question, just the observation that as a person who did not grow up with a lot of animals, it was not a particular animal person I did not know.
And so perhaps others out there don't either that if you are interested in a particular animal,
there is probably a very large rabbit hole you can fall down.
And there is probably a whole culture surrounding these things out there. For instance, you mentioned the reptile expo.
Or my own daughter is heavily involved in rabbit shows.
Never knew that whole world and culture existed out there.
You start when you start looking,
you discover that there are similar things for most animals out there. You can spend a lot of money on a very fancy sheep. You could.
There are chicken shows, so.
And then of course there's the dogs and the cats and all of the different. So there's. And there's different activities with those things. So maybe they're doing shows that just show how well formed they are.
But maybe they're performing special tricks or.
Danielle: Oh my gosh. It's true though. There's so much out there.
Rebecca: And then the other thing was One of the things that comes with animal owners ownership and the empathy that you learn is the fact that most animals don't live as long as we do.
Danielle: Oh.
Rebecca: And so we also have to deal with that reality. Do you think that that is a reason to not get animals or what would you share about that?
Danielle: My first answer would be absolutely not. Because I mean, what's the old adage? It's better to have loved and lost, to have not loved at all.
Rebecca: Right.
Danielle: Oh my gosh. To know.
I mean it's very healthy to front load your child too.
Why don't it would be very healthy to research the age span of your animal.
You know, if, if your family's going through a loss,
I definitely would not get,
you know, a very fragile animal or if you get a fragile animal, just knowing that the elements it can be subjected to could shorten its lifespan.
Chickens,
while they seem like everyone has them.
Oh, the heartbreak of knowing just one day you go in the coop and a chicken is gone and you're like, what happened?
We have a beautiful coop, we have feed, we have water,
we take care of it. And there was nothing you could do about it. But it opens up a conversation to discuss loss at.
I don't want to say low stakes because remember, I do have a daughter named Birdie and she loves chickens and she's 22, she still loves chickens, you know, but it opened up the conversation to discuss loss at a younger age, to discuss grieving,
to discuss,
you know, why did it happen?
To discuss pathology, you know, why if disease,
you know, you can take the learning forward further while you're being compassionate.
And I, I just seeing this as my kids grow up, sometimes it's,
oh my gosh, my kids have seen a lot of loss,
you know, with raising livestock for competition. That means when you raise livestock for competition, you love on that animal a lot as you know,
you know, you're raising those sheep,
the amount of decoration they need and time and you know, knowing that you are contributing to the, the food market with that animal and then having pets, knowing like dogs and cats and knowing things happen to them,
I don't think it hurt any of them in the end.
I think it made them more compassionate.
I think it made them appreciate life more, it made them appreciate animals more and knowing that their time is limited and not to take them for granted that they have them.
Rebecca: Do you think it builds resilience?
Danielle: A hundred percent Gritty kids, That's my favorite. If you're around me, you'll know I'll use That word, grit,
gritty kids. Because loss happens to all of us in different ways or forms and to experience it. And I, I mean, I know chickens are with, in a low stakes way builds, it builds character.
It builds compassion,
empathy, strength,
and just the thought process of something dying. And how do you grieve and recover from that?
And not to be insensitive, but carry on
Rebecca: to learn, you can't, you can't be handicapped by the loss of a chicken. You, you do need to be able to find a way to process that back up and keep going.
And,
and a lot of the lessons, I mean, you talked about a lot of really concrete lessons we can learn from animals and through our homeschools, but also a lot of the intangibles that are maybe more important.
You know, we've talked about character,
we've talked about resilience and grit,
we've talked about empathy and perspective.
And if our kiddos leave our homeschool with those things intact,
they'll learn the math they need to know.
If they leave our homeschools with those skills,
then if there's a hole in their other knowledge somewhere,
they can fill it in.
Danielle: Absolutely. Those life skills, I mean, I.
That life also patience, you know, patience. And we talk. You talked about it earlier, like cleaning up and feeding. And it's that consistency being consistent for something that depends on you and showing up every day because something depends on you that does that builds that character that's hard to replicate.
It's not in a textbook.
Rebecca: Thank you, Danielle, for sharing your enthusiasm and your wisdom and experience and funny stories with us. I'm so glad that you joined me today.
Danielle: Thank you too. It was a great time. Thank you so much.
Danielle: Hi, thanks for joining me today. And what's your name?
Kylie: Kylie.
Danielle: Kylie, so I've heard you're into some special animals. What's one of your most favorite animals?
Kylie: Any type of reptile reptiles.
Danielle: And do you have any reptiles of your own?
Kylie: Yes.
Danielle: What do you have?
Kylie: A hognose snake.
Danielle: What is a hognose snake?
Kylie: It's a snake with an upcurved like, nose like a hog.
Danielle: Oh my goodness. And what's your snake's name?
Kylie: Jack.
Danielle: Jack. And would you recommend other homeschoolers getting or any other kids getting these type of hognose snakes?
Kylie: Yes, but they are mildly venomous, so don't get it if you're allergic to like bites.
Danielle: Oh my goodness. And then does homeschooling help you learn more about your favorite animals? How does it help you learn?
Kylie: Yes, it does. Because I watch a YouTube channel that helps me learn about them. And my parents read to me about snakes.
Danielle: Love it. Anything else you want to tell us about the wonderful world of reptiles?
Rebecca: The YouTube channel you should watch is Snake Discovery.
Danielle: Snake Discovery. All right, thank you. Kylie and her hognose snake. Jack.
Lula: Hi, I'm Lula. I'm in. I'm nine years old and I'm in fourth grade. I have 37 chickens, two goats,
two. Four ducks,
two cats and two dogs. I've had animals ever since I was born and. Well, except my goats. I got my goats around when I was like 5 ish for a 4h for 4h for a showmanship.
And last year I got a market land.
I enjoyed having a market land. Well, I mean,
not the getting rid of him part, but I mean I really did enjoy like the shamanship art.
I love showmanship, it's my favorite thing.
But I think homeschooling is much, much better with animals around because they're cute,
they're adorable, they're fluffy and yeah, I just love animals.
I learned their personalities, who they are like, what they like and who's different.
And my dog will always wake up at 6am in the morning,
6am when I'm sleeping,
and he'll go. And he'll go to my stairs and start scratching at them.
And my dog will just start barking and barking and barking to come and snuggle me and then all of it. And then I'll go downstairs to get him and then I have to build a whole barrier by the stairs to my room because we don't want him falling off because he's so cute.
I do. I have a lot of responsibilities for my animals,
but I don't really do them.
If my mom asked me to feed my cats and my dogs, of course I'll do it.
And I mean, I would go out there every day to go feed my chickens and my goats, but I can't feed my chickens. Cause we have this one rooster that, well,
he scares me.
So I don't go out there. And I love having baby chicks. Cause I love taking care of baby animals. I just love baby animals.
I love anything. I love any baby animals.
They do attract me when I'm doing schoolwork because,
well,
they're cute and they like scratching, playing and fighting and all that nonsense. Whenever I'm trying to do my schoolwork,
even when I'm in my core classes, whenever I'm sad, my animals do comfort me. And I just love having animals because they're just so comforting.
I Love it. Well, every morning,
my cat Oreo, he'll go to the door and start meowing like, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow for like, for so long. And then we have to let him out at 6am in the morning when it's still dark and my dog is scratching out my stairs, like, let me snuggle you.
And it's just crazy in the morning,
just cray, cray, cray, cray with those animals.
And then my rooster is cockadoodooey.
And then my goats are like, let me out every single morning.
And that's what it's like having animals.
Hi there.
Jewel: My name is Jewel and I'm an eighth grader.
I've been homeschooled since second grade,
so for about six years now.
For me,
regular school was really hard.
We moved really quickly, and I didn't always understand what we were learning about.
I'm a very visual learner and I understand things better when I can actually do them. In real life.
I don't learn well just from books or being told how to do something.
I have to experience it for it to really stick.
And that actually leads into what I'm talking about today,
how animals help me in my homeschool experience.
At home, we have an Aussie doodle named Ruby,
and I also have a horse named Leroy.
He stays at a barn about 30 minutes away,
and I've owned him for almost three years.
It'll be three years on March 14th.
He's my partner in hunter jumper riding.
Leroy is definitely a character.
He's a little mouthy and always in your business,
but honestly,
that's one of the things I love most about him.
Ruby, on the other hand, is the sweetest dog.
She's always happy.
She loves barking at people when they walk by,
going in the car for a pup cup.
But her favorite thing is going on walks.
For me personally,
animals have taught me responsibility.
You can't just skip feeding,
grooming, or riding because you don't feel like it's.
They depend on us.
They can't do it themselves.
Taking care of Leroy has taught me to stay consistent and pay attention to small details.
And that honestly helps with school too.
In school,
small details really matter.
Even something simple like using flashcards can make a big difference.
A couple years ago,
I really struggled with fractions,
but over time,
I became pretty good at it. And now it's actually one of my favorite things to do in school.
It became easier because I stayed consistent every single day.
Yes, it took a while,
but Leroy has taught Me that progress comes if you just keep showing up.
Horse shows have taught me a lot too.
Sometimes my rounds don't go the way I planned in my head.
Sometimes I don't win,
and sometimes I don't ride the way I pictured.
I used to be really hard on myself about it, but honestly,
why does placing matter that much?
Yes, it feels great to win,
but I've learned to focus on the positives instead of the negatives.
Instead of thinking about what I did wrong,
I try to notice what went well,
like a great distance,
a good jump or strong support.
That mindset has helped me in school, too.
Grades can feel stressful and overwhelming.
Sometimes you study hard and still don't get the grade you hoped for.
Instead of beating myself up, I ask myself,
did I try my hardest?
If the answer is yes,
then that's what really matters.
Animals have helped me emotionally too.
If I've had a stressful school day or a hard ride,
just being around Leroy or Ruby helps me calm down.
Animals don't judge you.
They just show up for you the same way you show up for them.
Sometimes it's honestly easier to talk to animals than people.
I know they don't understand my words, but but they can sense how I'm feeling.
After spending time with them, I always come back feeling calmer and a little more motivated.
I've also learned a lot of science through animals.
With horses, you learn about nutrition,
muscles,
veterinary care and behavior.
For me, it feels way more hands on than just reading about it in a textbook.
I'm not just memorizing information.
I'm seeing it happen in real life.
Riding has also helped me build confidence and community.
I'm naturally a pretty shy person,
and I'm usually not the first one to start a conversation.
But through the horse community,
I've met people of different ages and even one of my best friends.
Being homeschooled can sometimes feel a little isolated.
But at the barn, you're surrounded by people who share the same interests.
That has helped me grow more mature and become a little less shy over time.
For me,
Leroy isn't just a horse.
He's part of my life and part of my education.
Homeschooling with animals has taught me responsibility,
patience, and how to not give up.
Learning doesn't just happen at a desk. For me,
it happens with my animals and at the barn, too.
Rebecca: What's your name?
Zuri: Zuri.
Rebecca: How old are you?
Zuri: Six.
Rebecca: You're six years old? What kind of animals do you have, Zuri?
Zuri: Four cat, four cats and a bunny.
Rebecca: Nice. Do they help you with school?
Zuri: Penelope does.
Rebecca: Is Penelope a cat or a bunny?
Zuri: A cat.
Rebecca: A cat. How does she help you with school?
Zuri: Yeah. Because she pollinates the lemon tree. She gets pollen. Sometimes she gets pollen on herself and she rubs it on the pollen. She rubs it on the lemon tree.
Rebecca: So she helps the tree make fruit. That's very cool. How do you take care of them, Zuri?
Rebecca: What do you do?
Zuri: I clean up after them.
Rebecca: Who feeds them?
Zuri: Me.
Rebecca: What do you feed them?
Zuri:: Cat food.
Rebecca: What does the bunny eat?
Zuri:: He eats bunny kibbles.
Rebecca: Does your bunny live in the house or in a cage?
Rebecca: In house.
Rebecca: Really? He hops around?
Zuri:: Yeah. We only put him in his pen at night. So he do mischief?
Rebecca: No. Mischievous bunnies at nighttime. Can you tell me about the time that you raised a bullfrog? Do you remember that or were you too little?
Zuri:: I remember.
Rebecca: Tell me about it.
Zuri:: First he was a tadpole, and then he became a frog.
Rebecca: All at once. Like, you woke up one morning and he was a frog. How did it work?
Mom: Remember? First he started to lose his tail.
Zuri:: Tail.
Rebecca: And what did he grow next?
Zuri:: He grew feet.
Rebecca: Yeah. Yeah. And then he looked like a fish with feet for a little while.
Zuri:: Yeah.
Rebecca: Did he grow his front feet?
Zuri:: Yeah.
Mom: Cool. And did he start staying out of the water more?
Zuri:: Yeah.
Rebecca: And what did he start eating?
Rebecca: Bugs.
Rebecca: Did you catch the bugs to feed him? You did?
Zuri:: Mm. You can only get. We also have little nets to catch them.
Rebecca: Did you touch the bugs?
Zuri:: No.
Rebecca: I wouldn't like that either. Zuri, is there anything else you want to tell me? Do they distract you? How do they distract you?
Zuri:: Are they doing something funny or cute?
Rebecca: Do you have a favorite one of your animals?
Zuri:: I like all the cats.
Rebecca: That's awesome. Hey, Zuri. Thank you,
Listeners. I hope that you had fun listening to these kiddos talk about the animals they love and the experiences that they. They have had. I hope that you might feel a little bit inspired and that I hope that you laughed along with us once or twice.
If you have a kiddo that loves animals that has learned a lot from them, would you tell me about it? Please email me at podcasts@sqeuoiagrove.org thank you for joining me on the Sequoia Breeze Podcast, a breath of fresh air for your homeschool.
I am your host, Rebecca LaSavio.