Raising Animals Can Teach Your Kids Many Important Lessons
If your children are clamoring for a puppy or a gerbil, here are 4 (educational) reasons you should say “Yes” to them.
With 2 dogs, 5 cats, a couple of horses, cows, sheep, dozens of heritage breed chickens, a big puddle of ducks, and for a brief time, even a dozen French Guinea keets on our small farmstead, my kids have had plenty of opportunities to interact with animals.
All of our older kids have raised animals through 4-H. (And the younger ones will also get to when they get a little bit bigger).
Since homeschooled kids don’t have to rush off to catch the bus every morning at 0’dark thirty, they can have the primary responsibility for their animals.
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Here are 4 of the educational benefits our kids have received from raising their own animals:
Raising Animals to Better Communication Skills
Raising livestock is not something my husband and I grew up doing, so our children have had to find mentors to learn about proper animal management (as we learned alongside them).
They have had to develop the skills to listen, make notes, and when they didn’t understand something, research and ask questions. After all, a living, breathing animal is counting on their knowledge and actions.
We have found the Storey’s Guide to … series of books to be helpful for them to read before getting an animal so they can ask knowledgeable questions as well as have an idea of whether that animal has needs that can be met by your family.
When one of their animals is sick, they have to be able to accurately communicate their animal’s problem to the project leader or veterinarian.
Raising Animals to Embrace Responsibility
Being the primary caregiver for animals requires responsibility. They have to make sure the animals have food and water EVERY DAY, often twice a day at regular times, and be ever watchful of their animal’s body and movements to ensure that there aren’t any health problems.
Animals living areas or pens have to be cleaned regularly and supplies must be re-stocked. You don’t want to realize you don’t have any more chicken feed at 5 pm on a Saturday when the feed store is closed on Sundays.
When the kids were younger, we oversaw these jobs. As they got older, they have assumed the responsibilities with minimal adult oversight.
Raising Animals to learn Financial Skills
In order to know whether or not their animal project is financially successful, they have been required to keep accurate financial records.
They record all of their expenses by date and category as well as any income from their operation. This has helped them as they have gotten older and been required to handle their own money.
I am sure they could have developed these skills without raising animals. But, with animals, they didn’t even realize they were learning.
They were just having fun taking care of their “pets”. I think having fun is always the best way to learn and retain knowledge.
How to Handle Death and Grief
My oldest son sobbed for hours the first time one of his chickens was killed by a raccoon. After caring for his chickens for nearly 10 years, he doesn’t cry anymore when something happens, but he has learned to use that grief appropriately to always be aware of potential predators and to upgrade protections and safeguards for the birds when needed.
Learning that death is a part of life with beloved animals is always going to be a difficult process, but for my kids, it has seemed to give them “grit” that other kids may not have.
Resources for Saying Yes to a Pet or Animal Project
Find out Why My Family Chose to be a 4-H Family even though my husband and I didn’t grow up in 4-H on our sister site, Whole Child Homeschool
Check out this list of the 11 best reptile pets for kids
Let your kids learn more about caring for pets (and write stories about pets, too!) with these Pets and Their Stories Notebooking printables.
Learn more about raising Dogs and Cats and Small, Exotic Pets with these unit studies at our sister site.
National 4-H: Get activities to do at home and find a local club to join
Best Chicken Breeds for Kids from Backyard Chicken Project
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