June’s book with our wild+free group was Among The Farmyard People by Clara Dillingham Pierson. This is an older book published in 1898. Each chapter introduces a new “person” at the farm. In the book, animals are called people. And each chapter shares some kind of lesson or moral to the animal’s story. I thought it was really sweet but some of the kids didn’t love it. It’s a nice short read, and I do plan to read the rest of the books in the series with my kiddos on our own. There is Among The Pond People, Among The Forest People, and Among the Meadow People. With a farm theme, there are endless opportunities for different foods, decorations, and activities for this book club. We kept things pretty simple this time because we all are busy during the summer months. The kids had a really great time and I am so thankful for our little homeschool community.
One of our members hosted this book club at her farm, which was really fun. We got to visit with the cows, some young guinea fowl, and chickens. We didn’t get to see their pigs or sheep because they were on the opposite side of their 200 acre farm and we didn’t make the hike over there this time. But we did get to walk around the garden and even end the meeting by each picking a basketful of blackberries from their orchard.
If you want to get ideas on how to start your own kids book club, make sure to check out this post for ideas and inspiration.
We threw an Anne of Green Gables book club last month that was a blast. To see that party, click here.
The food
The food was simple fresh food one might find on a farm! We had watermelon, tomatoes, hardboiled eggs, carrots, plums, cucumbers, blackberries, and I picked a big bowl of wineberries the night before to share. We had fresh lemonade and mint tea. It was all so refreshing on this hot summer day.
I made this paper banner decoration with all the main animals mentioned in the book (except the ox- I forgot that last one!) . If you’d like to print the banner off yourself, you can grab that free pdf HERE.
The activities
One of the girls in our group shared her face paints and did some fun face painting for the kids. My oldest requested a beard, so I did my best.
I set out a farm puzzle and brought our toy barn and farm animal figures for the littles to play with.
The craft was a simple and fun painting project that the kids really enjoyed. I found farm themed stencils at Michaels which prompted the idea of a painting craft. Another mama brought big slabs of wood for the kids to paint on and they turned out really cool!
After eating and painting and spending plenty of time climbing the most beautiful giant magnolia tree, our gracious host took us all on a tour around her property and we ended with picking the juiciest most flavorful blackberries in her orchard. My kind of party favor!
If you don’t have a friend with a farm to visit, check to see if there are any local farms with agrotourism. We have several in our area and everywhere I have lived there has been a handful. You could visit a farm and then have a picnic at a park or someone’s house.
We did have some kids dress up for this book club (we always encourage costumes) but I didn’t get any photos. They made animal ears on old headbands of their favorite animal characters in the book. It was clever! My son just dressed up like an old farmer (hence the beard) and I thought about getting a little cow or pig costume for my littles, but figured it would be too hot out for that. You could go all out thought and order a Halloween costume. I think homemade is the best, though, and making ears or tails or using face paint to dress up like a farm animal is so fun.
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