Dairy Day-Why it Never Ever Hurts to Ask!

I know one of the concerns that I hear all the time under "the problem with homeschooling" is that kids will miss out on field trips and get-together's with other kids, so I decided to share a wonderful experience in the hopes that some of those misconceptions may be laid to rest!

When I went to my city fall fair this year, I met a woman (lets call her Beryl) from the Dairy Education Program. This program is run through the dairy farmers of Ontario and according to their website is a "free service to teachers and provides interactive, curriculum-connected in-class workshops for elementary schools in Ontario". My kids were naturally enthralled by the presence of a mechanical milking cow and decide on their own to become her newest students by firing questions at her in rapid pace, barely waiting for an answer before firing again. I took this opportunity to ask her if she had ever done a homeschooling workshop (she hadn't) and if she would be interested in doing one. 10 emails and one month later she was at my door, complete with blow-up cow, a mechanical milker, videos, props and displays ready to teach our city homeschooling group all about the wonders of dairy!

We choose to focus on the basic path of milk from cow to store and on the concepts of solids and liquids. She started with the habitat and diet of cows, which came complete with actually straw, hay, corn and seeds that we passed around in our little learning circle. This was followed by videos of dairy farmers that were parodies of current pop songs, including one that remained stuck in my head for about a week called "Farm it Maybe" that my daughter absolutely loved.

We then moved on to states of matter-otherwise known as solids, liquids and gases-which was wonderfully illustrated with the use of actual dairy product examples complete on a Velcro board and appealed to our wide range of ages and learning levels.



The piece de resistance though was our final activity-making butter with cream! We discussed the state of cream (liquid) and its contents (fat and water) and then through physical separation techniques-i.e. shaking the crap out of the container-we turned our fat and water liquid into solid butter in a mostly water liquid! We then separated the butter out and put in on crackers and ate it all up! It was deliciously fresh and remarkably fun and easy to do!

I guess the point of this blog post is to illustrate the concept "it never hurts to ask". There are many resources available within a city that are just waiting for someone to come along and ask. A fellow homeschooler I know organized a fire station visit, another one a Halloween party, myself a dairy day. I guess what I am trying to say is that homeschooling allows the opportunity for a wonderful educational experience-but just like anything in life, one must seize the opportunity! I encourage you to explore your city and its surroundings and ask, ask, ask! Most people love to share their knowledge, especially
with the ever-rare child who wants to learn! And if anyone has any similar experiences they would like to share, please do as I would love to seize another opportunity!