In this informal, vlog‑style video, the host walks through a typical morning on his homestead while fielding a question from a webinar about how to get 9‑ and 12‑year‑old children excited about farm life. Through the interaction with his kids Josiah and Gideon, he shares three core principles for involving kids in homesteading: (1) use incentives such as money or small rewards to motivate chores; (2) give children responsibility and choice, letting them help decide on tasks like how many chickens to raise; and (3) maintain a positive, enthusiastic parental attitude that models pride in hard work. The speaker illustrates each principle with concrete moments—searching for jackets, assigning the “big egg guy” role, feeding pigs, and preparing for a concrete pour—while also recounting personal anecdotes about his own father’s work ethic and how that shaped his approach. He emphasizes flexibility, occasional breaks, and the need to adapt strategies to each child’s mood, concluding that there is no one‑size‑fit‑all answer but that consistent, fun, and rewarding involvement leads to lasting engagement with farm life.
Chapters
It's cold.
This is making it colder.
I know, it's a little chilly putting it on, but then your body warms it up.
It's not cold in my bed, it's gonna be cold out there.
I'm not always jumping up and down for joy when it's shore time. Okay, where is your big coat? Any of those your jackets? You got any of your jackets here? Any of that? Anything in here? You got baby duty? Yep. She's asleep. Yep. Okay, come on, get in.
I'm not going on chores if I don't have my jacket.
Oh, I know. We're gonna find your jacket and hopefully your boots.
No, we aren't.
Well, there's his shoes. Now it's about finding his coat. All right, the guys are back doing some forming for the concrete tomorrow. My first guess, they get in the greenhouse playing, it warms up, and they take their jacket off. Nope, there's somebody's jacket, not Gideon's. I don't know why I always want to look in Sally. We're not really using her right now. Good morning, Arun! You see Mr. Brown's jacket? He's saying by the old barn or the playhouse. Those are— that's good thoughts. Somebody asked us on the member webinar last night, Ray, we're moving to the country, we're gonna do this thing, how do we get our 9 and 12-year-old boys— well, I don't know if they're boys— how do I get our 9 and 12-year-old excited? Well, at that age, I think you just gotta let them go in the country and just let them play. What'd you find there?
My sweater.
All right, well, that's something. At 9 and 12, just letting them play, associate the farm life with something fun, but you know, also getting them involved in the chores. Socks, but no coat. I had two pieces of advice for them, and that's one, incentivize them to be involved in some way. I don't know. Money, some kind of reward, something or other. So just like the real world, we're incentivized to do things we don't want to do because there's some type of reward at the end. All right, Josiah, let's go look at the old barn.
Look at the pipe they put across the street.
Maybe his jacket's in that. Oh look, yeah, is it in there? So the second thing I would say is Letting the kid have responsibility, let them explore some of their own things, or let them help make you decisions. Maybe it's, hey kids, do we get 12 or 18 chickens? Something where you don't really care, but you could give them a choice and it'd be okay either way. Just an example. There's some boots.
How I got interested? I got paid.
Ah, how old are you? 11. Okay. Oh, did you find something? That's not your black coat, but what is that?
It's my old coat.
Will that work? Yeah, it looks like it fits you nice. That'll work. I'm so glad you figured something out. Incentive for a little guy like Mr. Brown, it's just like he wanted to take a bath. I'm like, oh, let's get it done and then, and then we'll take a bath. Oh sure, you can have some hibiscus tea, right? That got you going. You know, I guess there's a third one at that point, and it's attitude. As long as the parent is excited, positive, it's not this dreaded thing. I think at that age some of it will rub off on the kids. Hey, Mr. Brown, where are you going? Mr. Brown, come on, let him play a little bit. Come on, come with us. Come on, come on, come on, we're gonna stick together. Come on. So one thing that my dad did when we were little— we got some extra nipple waters I'm gonna put away. Always ready, always ready for next time. Used up my last ones, there's some more. Gideon! Come on, it's all right to wander, but maybe— hey, come on, get in, get in! I want you to come with us, okay? Come on now, let's go. Hey, can you go get the, uh, egg basket? You go get the egg basket and you'll be the big egg guy. Thank you, my man. My dad helped us, but we'd be in town hauling wood, right? We hauled wood and we'd be the only ones there weren't a whole lot of other trucks hauling wood, it would be like Saturday, and it seemed like everybody was going to the mall or out to eat. My dad would look around and he would say, hey, are we the only ones working today? I didn't necessarily get that till more recently, but I get it now. Like, that, that motivated and pumped us up. Why, I don't know. I think it was because that was an attitude of, of pride. I mean, he wasn't saying it and looking down on those other people, but he was just saying We're hard workers. We get with it. You know, we could be going to the mall. We could be going and eating out, but we're not. We're working. That gave us a sense of pride. Alright, we're out a bucket. Gideon! Just so you know, this isn't textbook answer. This is what I'm learning, what I'm doing to get kids involved. And on this very day, Gideon is very distracted and uninterested. So we're getting to work this exercise out, aren't we? Hey, thanks for not going in. Do you know where a bucket is?
What?
Do you know where a bucket is?
What?
For feeding? No. Hey, did you get eggs? Oh, you got the egg basket! Yay! Okay, we're gonna find some buckets and then we'll go. Just so we turn our lights on to the pigs.
Sure.
I want to be over there. I want to be planting. Onions. We planted our potatoes. We got onions next. I don't see a bucket here. Everflow water is out though. All right, well, Mom's calling me. She's got a question and I never found a bucket. Okay, I cross my fingers you won't run off. Here's a bucket right here in your sandbox. It's not really a sandbox, more like a soil pit. Here's another bucket right here. It was a snake and it would have bit us. Get in, don't de-robe, stay right here. All right, we had to make a decision. Our dentist— we were gonna all 6 be seen today, but there's a hygienist out and we had to make a decision. 2 appointments or 1 big one another 6 weeks from now. So I think we chose 2 appointments. It's one of those mornings. Come on, just ask her. If I'm being honest, how do I get the kids to go? Well, I just really want them to go. And so for the case of Mr. Brown, it's whatever it takes. That can be bribing, that can be rewards, that can be just consistency. Oh, we forgot to feed the 3 little pigs. Oh wow. All right, well, we're feeding them too much. Aren't they lovely, Lily? You want to put it on here? Aren't they so friendly? Yeah. Did she do a good job raising those guys? Look at their little tails wagging. They were wagging. Hey Gideon, how do I get you to go with me in the morning?
I don't know.
I think it's different every time. And honestly guys, I give myself a break Fridays, uh, Saturdays. I don't, I don't fight it. Hope and pray he doesn't, uh, tear up the house while I'm out.
You have a free ride.
Well, found a dead chicken. Let's see if you'll make use of that by tomorrow. I think he will. Do we? Where? Oh, right there. She growling at you if you try to get her eggs? Maybe she just laid. Hey, look who's coming! Get some work done now. We're about to go milk. You guys see that all the time. Let's put a time lapse on these guys setting up for the concrete pour tomorrow.
