Rule Two: Recreate.
If you as a family have not
spent much time without walls around you and ceilings above you, now is
the time to take up camping. Work into it slowly. Start by taking Sunday
drives out in the country with a picnic lunch. Move up to a day trip to
somewhere outdoors encompassing several meals al fresco and finish your
outdoors initiation with a camp out - marshmallows, campfires, S'mores,
the whole nine yards. While very few of us will actually be camping on
our properties, getting to be relaxed in the out of doors is a key
ingredient to being content in a rural setting. If you can find
homesteading workshops or reenactments to attend and participate in,
all the better.
Rule Three: Acclimate.
Spend time in your new
neighborhood. Go to the grocery store, the feed store, and the
playground. Visit the school and meet the teachers. If you
are too far away to do this in person, take advantage of the Worldwide
Web and travel via the ‘net. Collect souvenirs from your new home
in the form of newspapers, mom-and-pop restaurant menus, current school
newspapers, park information, and community fliers about local events.
Every little town has something that they are proud of - be it the
yearly Marsh Marigold Festival or possession of the World’s Longest
Tapeworm. Find this and learn about it. Acclimation should
also include finding comfort items, if only for reference. Where
is the closest mall? The nearest Chuck E. Cheese? Knowing
that these things are only X miles away will take the sting out of being
thrust into unknown territories.
Rule Four: Meditate.
Brainstorm about what will
be good about moving to the country. Think about what all of you will be
doing in the way of chores once you are moved and mentally move through
the days on the ‘stead even while living in the ‘hood. With your
youngster’s friends, figure out a plan to keep them in touch, and start
now - thanks to the internet, they can share via blogs, email and even
websites. There’s always the telephone - buy a certain amount of minutes
just for your child to call friends with every month. If you are not
moving too far away, plan and carry out a slumber party at your new
place, so your child’s friends have a concrete place in their thoughts
to envision your child instead of just "to the country" or "that stupid
farm".
Rule Five: Instigate.
Make sure you save some of the
fun stuff for your children to do. If you are building a house,
take their ideas seriously and if they are reasonably safe, do not break
too many rules of physics, and are within your budget, let ‘em do it.
Ditto for renovating an existing house. In the grand scheme of
things, will there be a negative shift in the universe if your child’s
room is painted purple? And if you are honest, aren’t the ideas of
a tree house bed, a slide into the indoor tub or a skylight for
stargazing before drifting off to sleep all pure genius? From
planning, to budgeting, to shopping, to building and finishing, letting
your child participate in this aspect of the homestead will cause her to
set roots in it. Try to find out what outside aspect she finds
appealing as well. Is she interested in gardening, animal
husbandry, food preservation, record keeping, soap making, yak herding?
Tell her to go for it and help her make it a successful venture - not so
much financially as soul satisfyingly, but if it surprises you and
brings in some cash, even better.
Rule Six: Create.
If you and your family have
worked through steps One through Five, you are ready. Ready for
the adventure of all of your collective lives. Ready for the
tests, trials, successes and failures, and constant everyday learning
that is referred to by those who flat don’t know any better as the
Simple Life.
Welcome home.
