Try this Family Adventure – Stay on a Farm

Did you know that fewer than 2% of Americans have lived on a farm since the 1950s? The other 98% of us have missed the deeply organic experience of waking up to the rooster’s crow and don’t even know it. While many who grew up on farms left for financial reasons, it wasn’t often because they disliked the landscape.  For them, the farm would continue to hold cherished memories, growing sweeter with time. Today, a new generation of farmers is eager to replicate this grounding lifestyle for their own children. Some grounding in the ground, as it were. They are, indeed, the lucky ones.

For urban families planning their next vacation, a trip to the farm might not seem as thrilling as a visit to Disneyland or as relaxing as a week at the beach. Sure a farm stay may be easier on the budget, but will the kids enjoy it – or end up bored? And, if the kids aren’t having fun, does that mean parents will regret the choice?

Actually, a farm stay could be the family getaway you didn’t know you all needed.

Picture this: you arrive at the farm, only to find yourself herding sheep with your car. The farmer greets you with a smile and a request – step out with the kids and stretch your arms wide to guide the sheep back through the hole in the fence. Within moments, you’re in the middle of the action, and the kids are already hooked.

Suddenly, the tablets and phones the kids were glued to during the drive are forgotten in the backseat. There’s more to do here, like collecting eggs from the chicken coop – eggs that can be cooked for breakfast (says the kid who never eats eggs). Chores become part of the farm experience: feeding hay to the livestock, filling the water tanks, helping to dig potatoes, sweeping the barn, and more. It’s as if chore time is somehow different from washing the dishes and picking up dirty clothes off the floor at home. “Time for chores!” and the kids are already pulling on their boots.

No, no one is bored.

It’s almost like traveling to a foreign land when many farm stays are only hours from home. Children delight in the unexpected. The sights and smells are new. Fresh cut hay. Cows being milked by machines. Gardens with row after row of vegetables. Tractors rumbling by. Waving fields of grain or corn so tall it seems to touch the sky. Friendly goats that chew on anything. Nights that seem so quiet, yet alive with unfamiliar sounds and movement. Skies filled with stars. By bedtime, the kids are exhausted, their adventures replayed over dinner and drawn into pictures, to be brought home or tacked to the refrigerator with all the others.

These days we tell a story of two worlds: the natural world and the digital world. They are so very different in their impact. Maybe this is when we need to take a breath literally and offer our kids something more real and grounded as a balance. Connection to the food they eat, connection to the people who grow it, an immersive experience that enriches their understanding of the world around them and the ground they stand on. It could do us grown-ups some good too.

Time to plan a farm stay for your next vacation. While not all farms allow kids, most do, so check Yes on the filter that says Kids Allowed as you search the Farmstay site.

And, lest you think kids get all the fun, adults (with or without children) may find the experience brilliantly refreshing, so much so it becomes a regular weekend in the country. Let’s go herd sheep!

Authors Note: From the photos is looks like we all need to go to Pennsylvania but there are wonderful farms all over the U.S. It was just serendipity that these two photos really seemed to fit the story line.