About

Welcome to Farm School.

We’re a Canadian prairie farm family of five. Tom has two full-time jobs, farmer and builder, and keeps well away from the computer. I have several full-time jobs as well, including farming, mothering, and homeschooling the kids, who are at the moment ages seven-and-a-half (Davy), almost nine (Daniel), and ten-and-a-half (Laura). No, those aren’t our real names.

I’m originally from the Upper West Side but have lived here long enough now that most of our neighbors seem to have forgotten my exotic foreign roots.

Most of my book, music, and movie links are to Amazon.com, rather than any Canadian online seller (including Amazon.ca) or independent sellers, not because I think Amazon is the best purveyor but because it has the most complete and informative website.I don’t care much for the idea of hoping, asking, or expecting friends, virtual or otherwise, to pay for my books and other goodies, so unless otherwise mentioned, any links for books or anything else are not associated with any affiliate marketing program. I’m going to buy the stuff anyway, so you don’t have to.

We’ve been home schooling for four years, since Laura was partway through first grade. We started off full-bore with The Well-Trained Mind, but have evolved slowly since then, as the kids have grown and the boys have joined us for our studies. While WTM remains our general framework, we also include the philosophies and methods of Charlotte Mason, Benjamin Franklin, Henry David Thoreau, Daniel Carter Beard, W. Ben Hunt, and Swallows & Amazons. You should be able to search the blog for any of those names (except, as of April 2008, Thoreau, but I’m hoping to remedy that soon), and find some posts that will explain.

Our unofficial family and school motto is: BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WON’T DROWN.