Homesteading with Small Children: 10 Practical Tips to Make It Work!

Homesteading with children, especially young kids, may seem like an impossible task. The thought of trying to parent while fixing up a homestead, raising chickens, and growing your own food is a lot to take on. However, it is possible to homestead with small children–giving them the experience of a lifetime–without getting completely burned out. Here are 10 practical tips for homesteading with young kids!

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Our Experience Homesteading with Children

If I’m being 100% honest, this summer was hard on our little homestead. When we first moved here, we had a 1.5 year old who was walking and not at the put-everything-in-his-mouth stage. My husband also worked from home pretty much every day which enabled me to go outside during the daytime to work on the garden while my son napped. I wrote this post about homesteading with a toddler a few years ago. While some of these tips still apply, homesteading with a toddler and a baby has some different challenges!

This year, we added our precious baby girl to our family, my husband has a new job and works in the office 3 days a week, and we significantly expanded our garden. I have often felt frustrated about not being able to get as much done as I did in the past, but when you look at what has changed—it really makes sense. 

Sometimes, I compare myself to families I see online. Some of them have 8 kids, are homeschooling all of them, and are maintaining much more acreage. But Carson reminds me often that we only see a small portion of their lives. And honestly, comparing doesn’t help anything! All of us have different circumstances and different capacities. 

Although I still get overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to do many days, we have found some ways to make the most of the time we have.

If you are trying to figure out how to homestead with young children, I have some practical tips that have worked for us to share with you. Keep reading to find out 10 tips and tools for homesteading with children–especially toddlers and babies!

1. Invest in a Good Carrier for Homesteading with Kids

I had a few different baby carriers with my firstborn, but I rarely used them because they seemed more complicated than just carrying my son. Once I had two kids, I learned how to use my carrier. QUICKLY.

I love the Ergobaby360 because you can wear your baby facing forward, facing toward you, or on your back. It is sturdy and fairly comfortable.

I have heard that Boba wraps are great for newborns and working around the house. Also, I use a ring sling occasionally. However, I personally don’t feel like it is quite as sturdy or supportive for tasks that require a lot of movement such as gardening.

I wear my daughter when cooking, meal prepping, and sometimes while gardening. 

2. Involve Your Kids When Possible with Kid-Sized Tools

It is really important to my husband and I to involve our kids as much as possible. We want to teach them how to care for our home, land, and animals. 

It is really helpful to invest in some child-sized gardening tools if you have a toddler. These ones are similar to what we have. My son loves it and really takes ownership of his chores!

I highly recommend investing in a child-sized wheelbarrow, hand tools, larger tools (shovels, rakes, etc.), and gardening gloves. 

3. Provide Shade When Homesteading with Children

Most vegetable gardens are in full sun. We have really hot summers and so it is best to work in the garden during the morning or evening, but even then—we need some good sun protection. 

This is something that I honestly did not invest in, and it would have made it so much easier for me to be able to work outside during the day. 

Sun hats, tents, and shaded play yards can be helpful for young children!

On another note, I personally love GIGI Pip hats for myself when gardening. I have the Chandler Bucket Hat and Seabreeze Seagrass Hat. They also have some child-sized hats if you want to match with your little one!

4. Provide Supervised-Water Stations to Stay Cool

Another way to stay cool in the heat of summer is to invest in some child-sized water stations. These do require close supervision, even for toddlers.

When I was lifeguarding in high school and college, I learned that I child can drowned in as little as two inches of water. We use our water options when both my husband and I are home and when one of us can directly supervise the kids. 

5. Create a Block Schedule for Homesteading with Small Children

My husband and I block off time when we will take turns playing with the kids and working on major projects. On the weekends, I’ll pull weeds for a few hours or tend to the garden, and he will mow and work on building projects. We often get more done this way than when we both try to work on projects at the same time. 

When you own a homestead, it does require a lot of work. But it is good, rewarding work that is more than worth it! However, it is important to make time for rest, too.

We recently started implementing a weekly Sabbath. We work hard on our little homestead, and we want to set aside time not only to enjoy it, but also to build special memories as a family. Being intentional about our weekly rhythms and working hard during the week allows us to rest and enjoy time as a family during our Sabbath.

6. Get a Safe Place to Put Your Baby 

I held off on this method initially, but I finally decided to utilize some play yards and bouncers when working outside once my daughter was mobile. I loosely follow the Montessori method with my babies which encourages independence and discourages the use of bouncers. However, our yard has a lot of areas that are not the safest for a crawling baby. 

My daughter has been in the trying-to-eat-everything stage for a while, so when I need to pull weeds or plant seedlings, I will utilize some of these options. We try to limit using these tools because there are some studies that show that they can cause developmental delays like hip displasia if used too much while children are young.

I bought an outdoor play yard secondhand, but it was so big that we couldn’t take it back inside and it was difficult to take apart. We had to leave it outside, and it got torn apart pretty quickly in a storm. If I were to go back, I would buy a smaller one that popped up and had shade for easy transport and sun protection like this one.

7. Make the Most of When You Have Help

When we have childcare, we try to make the most of big projects that are not safe to do when our kids around. For example, my parents recently watched our kids for a few hours while I worked on cleaning out our root cellar. The root cellar hadn’t been touched since we moved in a few years ago and needed some work before being used for food storage. My husband often works on building projects or mowing during times when we have help from our family. 

Another option, if it is within your budget, is to hire someone for a few hours. We hired my sister-in-law over the summer once a week for a few hours because my husband had to work in the office more frequently. It is often easier to get a lot done in that time frame instead of trying to juggle 10 things at once. Having a few hours to work helped me to focus on my kids and give them my full attention instead of trying to multitask constantly!

Hiring someone is not always an option. For us, it is a financial sacrifice and not something we can afford to do often. Another option would to be to find a close friend that you trust. Perhaps you could take turns babysitting each others’ children.

Regardless of what this looks like, it is best to have a plan in place ahead of time so that you know what you need to focus on when you have help!

8. Know Your Capacity

Be realistic with yourself about what you have the capacity for. We have dreams of one day adding goats, bees, flower gardens, and a food forrest to our homestead. But we knew that adding anything else this year would be more than we could manage.

Living sustainably and frugally and giving our kids a childhood on a little homestead are all things that we value. But we know our capacity and know that we don’t have to do it all!

Sure, there may be a time and a place for each of those things. But choosing to slow down and focus on one or two big tasks at a time prevents burnout.

9. Remember Your Why

Raising children is rewarding work, but it is also far from easy. Adding in a homestead doesn’t make things easier.

If you decide that you want to homestead while raising your babies, you need to know your why.

Do you want your kids to know where their food comes from? Do you want to prioritize time as a family? Live more sustainably? Is it because of the health benefits? Do you want your children to have lots of time learning in nature?

Whatever your reason, know your why, write it down, and come back to it on the hard days.

10. Don’t Forget to Enjoy It

If you were to come over to our homestead right now, you would see a lot of weeds. You would see many, many unfinished projects. You’d see a broken garage door and roofing that needs repaired.

But, you’d also see two beautiful, barefoot children chasing their chickens. Naming the vegetables. Running wild and free on the few acres that they call home.

Focus on that. Do your best with the weeds. Knock off the projects when you can.

But don’t forget to enjoy it.

Homesteading with Children is Possible and Rewarding!

Homesteading while raising babies isn’t easy. However, there is something so rewarding about growing food with them, raising them to love nature, and teaching them about how to be more self-sufficient.

This summer has left us with a lot of weeds and many unfinished projects, but we have learned how to grow most of our produce, can and preserve food, and raise backyard chickens while parenting our precious toddler and baby. 

I know that this time will be gone too quickly. We are working to find a balance–a balance of cherishing this time while giving them the experience of homesteading during their childhood. Working hard to provide food for our family while enjoying the process. We are learning how to steward our resources well and care for the beautiful earth God has given us.

Helpful Tools for Homesteading with Babies and Toddlers

Here are some tools mentioned in the post as well as additional ones that can simplify homesteading while raising babies and toddlers.

Are you homesteading with kids? What are some of the challenges you have faced? What has worked for your family? Leave a comment below and let me know!

 

 

 

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