Raising your children on a small farm is one of the best things you can do for them. With farms and homesteads comes responsibilities. It’s a fantastic opportunity to teach your little ones what it means to work hard and care for others.
A common farm chore involves watching over chickens. Children are always a great help with the job because the animals are smaller in size as well as some of the tasks. From feeding the chicks to gathering the eggs, kids love the chance to feel like they’re a big help to mom or dad.
One way to start teaching your child about chickens is through your daily story time. Through books, you can begin to spark their interest in the topic, while providing them with basic knowledge about chicken care-taking.
While there’s certainly a lot of childrens books out there about chickens, the following are some of the most popular among parents.
A Chicken Followed Me Home!
A play on “why did the chicken cross the road?” A Chicken Followed Me Home! takes you through the not-so-simple life of a chicken. It goes through different breeds, types of coops and even chicken reproduction. It’s also full of books that your little one will love!
The Book on Chickens
The Book on Chickens follows fictional story of characters Big Jack and Goldie alongside their love story. Although not directly about chickens, this book humanizes the otherwise unrelatable animal, which gives small children more compassion for the animals.
A Kids Guide to Keeping Chickens
This choice is more of a direct approach to teaching your young ones about chickens. A Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens covers everything from feeding, to house and collecting eggs. It even teach young ones about a chicken’s behavior and how to treat them humanely. Bonus: the book includes creative activities as well!
Young Chicken Farmers
If you’re a family living with chickens in a more suburban setting (which is very common) than Young Chicken Farmers is for you! This easy read shows kids that it’s possible to have chickens in any setting, as long as you’ve learned how to keep them healthy and happy. Your little chicken farmer will love this one!
The Life Cycle of a Chicken
The Life Cycle of a Chicken is a unique way to give a peek into how chickens grow. It shows how we’re different and alike to our friends with feathers and is also the perfect mini biology lesson for your kids.
If your young ones are interested in helping with the chickens on the farm, make bedtime reading fun again with one of the above books — they’ll love it and learn a lot too!