Older kids with a year or two of chicken chores under their belt will likely be able to handle most chores on their own with minimal supervision or checking on them. and not putting their fingers in their mouth. Since kids under the age of 5 years are most susceptible and more apt to contract salmonella, its best to keep a very close eye on children this young when they are around the chickens to be sure they aren't coming in contact with dirty eggs or excessive chicken manure, etc. They can even try to count the chickens (although counting eggs is a LOT easier!)
They can practice their colors by naming the colors of various eggs or arranging them by color. They can learn some basic math skills by adding or taking away eggs from a carton. Little ones can practice counting skills by counting the eggs in their basket. helping to fill small cups or dispensers with grit and oyster shell.tossing treats to the chickens from a small pail.helping to look for eggs (although you need to be prepared for a fair amount of breakage!).Little kids can get involved with raising chickens in various ways including: If we have 24 chickens and 40% of the hens lay an egg today, how many eggs will we collect?.How many eggs on average did each chicken lay? We have 4 chickens and collected 24 eggs this week.If we have 4 chickens and divide the berries evenly among them, how many berries will each chicken get? If 30% of the eggs hatch? How many chicks will she have? After we bake the cake, how many eggs will we have left? We have a dozen eggs and need 3 eggs to bake a cake.If we have 10 chickens and we collected 6 eggs, how many chickens didn't lay an egg today? (for older kids, it could be a percentage math problem instead).We have 3 chickens, Grandpa has 4 chickens and cousin Amanda has 7 chickens.If I break 6, how many eggs will I be left with? If we go to the feed store and buy 5 more, now how many chickens do we have? If one runs away and hides under a bush, how many chickens do we have now? Of course the difficulty can be adjusted for the age of your children. Three chickens somehow turns into six, which turns into a dozen and before you know it, you've got three dozen chickens running around your backyard.Ĭounting your chickens before they hatch is generally not recommended, but counting eggs can definitely help teach kids math! Word problems using different scenarios can make math more fun. Those of us with backyard flocks call it "chicken math". Raising chickens can be a great math learning tool for parents who homeschool kids of all ages.Įven if you're not homeschooling your kids, there are still all kinds of things to teach them not only about raising chickens, but to practice the lessons they learn in school. Raising chickens also shows kids where their food comes from, emphasizes the importance of eating fresh and local food AND enjoy fresher, more nutritious meals!īuilding a chicken coop and safe, specious run or pen for the chickens can be a great family activity letting everyone get involved in the design and building, choosing paint colors and painting the coop, and planting flowers in window boxes and around the coop.īut there are lots more lessons to be learned from backyard chickens. It teaches them that even if your chickens are ultimately providing food for your family, treating them with care and gentleness is still important. In addition to teaching kids responsibility and learning that daily chores are essential, caring for chickens also teaches them empathy for animals. Raising chickens can be extremely educational.
Homeschool Lessons for Children from Backyard Chickens