Mom Teaches Kids Practical Life Skills at Home: Gardening, Cooking & DIY 🌱

A mum has revealed how she homeschools her children in "real life skills" - including gardening, cooking, and DIY.<br /><br />Ruthie Loganbill, 27, began homeschooling her oldest son, Rhett, seven, during lockdown when schools were shut.<br /><br />She loved it so much she carried on doing it to teach "real life skills" you don't learn in a classroom.<br /><br />He learns how to help on the family farm - changing tyres and oil on equipment, using a hammer and air gun - and cooks meals using child-safe cutters and peelers.<br /><br />The part-time secretary also teaches daughters Remi, four, and Rubi, three, who learn simpler tasks, alongside the traditional school curriculum.<br /><br />Ruthie feels she's preparing them better for life this way than by sitting in a classroom for eight hours a day.<br /><br />The mum-of-three, from The Ozarks, Missouri, said: "It's not healthy for kids to have to sit eight hours a day in traditional school.<br /><br />"We make a monthly schedule, and they learn life hands on, instead of being left with just a little bit of time in the evening for fun things like with traditional school.<br /><br />"Everything can be made into a lesson.<br /><br />"We love the flexibility of the schedule and the time we get with our kids."<br /><br />Ruthie's husband Rex Loganbill, 33, runs a farm and the children have grown up watching him doing hands-on work.<br /><br />Neither Ruthie or Rex were homeschooled themselves, but loved the flexibility that homeschooling provided.<br /><br />Ruthie writes a curriculum based on information online and the morning is spent doing that.<br /><br />The afternoons are spent getting stuck into age-appropriate versions of 'real world' tasks.<br /><br />These include DIY, food preparation, vehicle maintenance and gardening.<br /><br />Ruthie said: "Rhett can use a spirit level, a hammer, an air gun, and a saw with parental supervision.<br /><br />"He knows the safety of sawing, learns the different of geometry and angles of sawing, and knows how to use wood glue.<br /><br />"He can lift things with a crowbar correctly - sometimes it's like just having another man on the crew.<br /><br />"He can turn farm equipment on and off, and he can shift gear while my husband is driving the tractors and trucks."<br /><br />All the children get involved with food preparation using child-safe cutters and peelers, and can help with measuring when baking.<br /><br />And they help with watering, weeding and plant maintenance in the garden.<br /><br />Rhett is old enough to go near the stove, so he often makes eggs for breakfast, and can do baking accompanied by his youngest sister.<br /><br />Ruthie said: "Rubi is very artistic, I'm teaching her to decorate. It'll be amazing to see what they can accomplish together."<br /><br />She said people assume homeschooled children are "unsocialised and awkward" but says it's "an outdated stereotype".<br /><br />She said: "It actually allows time for more meaningful socialisation.<br /><br />"They go to kids club, music groups, sports groups, and have playdates with friends."<br /><br />She said if the children want to go into formal education when they get older, such as doing a degree, then she and Rex would support that.<br /><br />Or they may want to join the family business and work on the farm, but she said there's no pressure for them to do that either.<br /><br />She said: "We joke that my son is like a little adult, he loves wearing his toolbelt and stands tall.<br /><br />"When you teach real life skills, the confidence it builds is amazing.<br /><br />"It instills a desire to learn - they think 'I can do this, I will do this'.<br /><br />"Everyone has their opinions but the proof is in the pudding - we're thriving.<br /><br />"We're seeing great results not only academically but in the skills they know.<br /><br />"Its truly been my biggest joy in this motherhood journey, seeing little lightbulbs over their heads when they accomplish new skills."