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  • From: "Brian and Jacqueline Potzkai" <potzkai AT hotmail.com>
  • To: market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Kids in the garden
  • Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2001 09:38:33 -0800


X-OriginalArrivalTime: 07 Feb 2001 17:38:34.0195 (UTC)
FILETIME=[CB4F8A30:01C0912C]

Hi Liz,
Thanks for your perspective. It's a good one to get that message across to the kids. Where I live there is always an extreme threat by the ministry of children and families. If an individual feels that you are not being fair to your children they report you, your kids are immediately taken from you and you are investigated by the police and the ministry. It makes it hard for a parent to decide what is too much work in another persons eyes - I quite frankly find it sickening. The ministry also doesn't care too much for homeschooling. Our government is now opening more 'Traditional Schools' and accepting enrolments of children only that are in private schools or homeschooled. There is a strong attempt to stop homeschooling.

As far as somebody to help by babysitting I had an issue last year with the sitter when she didn't notice my child missing - the police found him walking up the road to come find me. The fact that the sitter said to the police "I didn't even notice him gone" really set the police off - rightly so. As soon as I was notified of the situation I phoned and spoke to the officer that found him - lucky I did he was in the process of reporting it to the ministry. The sitter came to me with good references as well as being a retired nurse - lesson was learned on my part, I can't trust any one with my kids. As you can see there is a lot of fear based in our society. But I still need to proceed with operating the garden as we need that income. My husbands job does not support a family of our size.

From: "Liz Pike" <liz AT marketfarming.com>
Reply-To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Kids in the garden
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2001 12:39:49 -0500

I, too, homeschooled for 5 years while maintaining our market farm. I say
"our" because it wasn't just mine. My 2 girls understood that it was ours,
and they were expected to help and work, and work hard, to share in the
benefits. You'd be amazed at just how much they CAN do, things that other
children & parents would consider "hard labor", like weeding, hauling
water, spreading mulch, washing veggies, cleaning chicken coops, etc. The
greatest rewards came when we cleaned up and headed down the farmer's
market. Here they were amongst adults, and they knew they'd put in as much
work as those other folks, and joyfully helped sell our produce.

I considered it a huge science experiment that also incorporated language,
math, social & physical skills with much more concrete learning than they
would have received had we relied on "curriculum" alone, or been enrolled in
public school.

We used every trick in the book to get the work done. We even harvested in
our bathing suits under running sprinklers-- cooled us off & rinsed the
veggies at the same time! We schooled hard from mid-October to February,
sometimes 7 days a week. We worked the garden full time from March to
mid-October, with a bit of schooling done in the hottest parts of July &
August. As in life, we schooled & grew with the rythms of nature.

I don't know how to answer the safety factor with your youngest, Jacqueline.
I traded out babysitting when I went to conferences by teaching several
families organic gardening. Are there any other older homeschooled kids
who'd be interested in babysitting for you??

Liz Pike definitely back to market farming--got the farm!!
Winston Salem, NC


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  • Re: Kids in the garden, Brian and Jacqueline Potzkai, 02/07/2001

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