By Barbara Augsdorfer, Editor for the Effingham Herald
Reading stories, looking at pictures, and maybe even singing about Old MacDonald’s Farm is one way to teach children about farm animals, but experiencing farm animals at a real farm is even better.
About 45 homeschooled students from Effingham, Bryan, and Chatham counties took part in a field trip to Joyful Acres Farm in Springfield on April 26. The students, from preschool through middle school, were treated to a variety of hands-on experiences petting five-week-old kittens, bunnies, seeing and touching a bee-hive frame, and more.
The two-and-a-half-hour experience was filled with questions, answers, and learning experiences.
“Why are cats important on a farm?” Morgan Phillips, Joyful Acres co-owner, asked a group of preschool and kindergarten students. “They eat mice,” she explained, while gently holding a kitten for the children to pet. “Mice eat the grain we feed the other animals, so that’s why cats are important on a farm.” Phillips added that the kitten is from a litter that lost their mother, so they’ve been bottle-feeding them goat’s milk every few hours.
The morning was filled with many such quick lessons for the children.
When she brought out a tiny rabbit, Phillips explained that the rabbits are pets but are still useful on the farm. She said the rabbits produce organic waste, which is composted for the farm’s garden vegetables.
When the goats were brought out, the children were more than eager to help feed them.
Goats do eat a lot, “but not everything,” Phillips said. “They don’t eat metal.” But the goats seemed more than happy nibble the leaves and small twigs from the children’s hands.
At the end of the field trip, children and parents were invited to sample raw goat’s milk and some goat cheese.
The children also petted a rescued mustang named Ember. “We’ve had her for 10 months,” said Erin Phillips, Morgan’s sister and another farm co-owner. Ember was rescued from a herd of wild mustangs rounded up by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as part of that agency’s Wild Horse and Burro Management program. Because Ember is still learning to be calm around people, the children were allowed to pet her by coming up two and a time.
The Phillips family owns and manages the 40-acre Joyful Acres Farm just off Hwy 21. According to its website, the farm is available to host field trips and birthday parties. It also sells raw goat’s milk and soaps made from goat’s milk, eggs laid by free-range chickens, and pet rabbits. For more information, call 912-659-1373 or email jaf.nehemiah8.10@gmail.com.
