I am almost to the end of Family Friendly Farming by Joel Salatin. I cannot recommend this book enough! By the title one would assume that the only families that can benefit from this book are those planning to farm, but this is not the case at all. Farming is Salatins passion, but the concepts he writes about can easily be applied to many family contexts.
The style of this farmers writing is so enjoyable to read. Salatin is very intelligent and writes well, but he is a man that sweats and works hard everyday
so he is very down to earth. As I have worked my way through this book, I have daily quoted Salatins stories and thoughts to Mike my husband.
My favorite concept that Salatin thoroughly covers is that of work. Salatin has a love for work that was passed down to him by his father and he has a well thought out model of how to instill a love for work in our kids. To give you an example of one of his ideas that I have immediately implemented in our family is that of keeping work task oriented.
Salatin writes, One of the surest ways to destroy initiative is to teach our kids to punch the time clock. Just as punching the clock in industry creates workers by and large who nonchalantly say: Im just putting in my time, so time oriented jobs around the home and farm destroy initiative. (Page 88)
What Salatin is suggesting is that instead of instructing your kids to weed for an hour, we should show them which row we want them to weed and how well we expect it to be done. Then tell them what reward they can have after and what time both the job and the reward will be completed. This allows the child to find ways to work harder and smarter. They may find a way that makes a task more efficient than you. As Salatin puts it:
If the recreation has an open start time based on task completion, then it operates to maximum benefit. When you get done you can play until 2 p.m. allows the child to kick in the free time based on his own efficiency. Children learn quickly to speed up the work in order to maximize the play time. (Page 91)
I borrowed the copy I am reading from our library, but feel that this book is one I want on my shelf. I will be purchasing it right away. I want everyone I know to read it. Its that good!
~Amy | 