Home education on a Breton smallholding

Ok, Well maybe it's not a farm, it's more of a smallholding, but it certainly is fun! We are a home educating family of five English folk who have gatecrashed our way into France and now live in the beautiful Breton countryside.

Our home consists of 1 farmhouse, 1 'écurie' (stable), a small tumbledown cottage, a huge hangar (destined for the fire and recycling) and an ancient porcherie, which used to house a large number of indoor bred pigs in days gone by.

We have about 5 acres of land and rollcall for the animals check in at; 7 laying chickens, 10 chickens for the table, 2 pigs, 4 ewes, a ram, 2 rabbits, 2 guineapigs, 2 dogs and 2 cats. 'Ulotte' the donkey will also be joining us as soon as her paperwork is up to date and she's had her injections. Phew! That's enough isn't it?

We are trying to be as self-sufficient as possible so that means growing our own vegetables on a sizeable veg plot, and having to contemplate the rather sticky subject of sending our pigs off for slaughter. We also hope to have lambs in the spring, although it's too early yet to know whether Gilbert, our ram has done his duty! We have plenty of eggs from our chickens and ten fat table birds now in the freezer. We are also lucky enough to have a free water supply coming onto the property from a nearby source, as well as our piped water (on a meter in France). At present this just services the garden and animals, but hopefully it will eventually be plumbed in for the toilet and washing machine at least.

I dream of being self-sufficient in electricity too...maybe a windmill...solar panels..water wheels...ah well, maybe one day.

Everyone knows that the heart of the French farmhouse is the kitchen, with its roaring fire or warm stove and delicious smells of cooking to bring the troops running long before the meal is actually ready. Sadly, I don't have an big stove, but in the rather chilly grey months of the Breton winter I am very glad of the open fireplace, and so it seems are Ducati the cat and Tony the puppy! I have always loved to bake. Cooking is a necessity and although I don't dislike it, it can become tedious when one has to prepare family meals day after day. Baking, however, is a different matter. I could make cakes every day, and it's not unusual for us to have a freshly baked 'something' maybe 5 times a week. Personally I love pastry, so that means we have pies and tarts fairly frequently (lemon meringue...mmmm...my favourite). Eldest son likes sponge cakes, especially coffee, middle son likes biscuits and anything chocolatey and daughter likes lemon drizzle. With so many good cake books to choose from on the market I could make a different biscuit or cake every day of the year, but we try to be sensible! The French are not known for their 'cake' as we English know it. Sponge cake here tends to be dry and fairly tasteless in my opinion, but their patisserie....well that's another story. Baking is a lovely thing to do with children, and over the years, with my children home educating, we have had plenty of time to spend getting sticky in the kitchen. The two eldest can throw a coffee sponge or a tray full of biscuits together themselves, and even my seven year old has made gingerbread men completely unaided (apart from the oven bit!), but generally it's me, my baking trays and a good recipe book in the kitchen. Here are a few I would heartily recommend....

It's very hard to be completely self-sufficient without the need to work in an extra capacity. Firstly, in France you cannot sell off surplace stock or goods (to pay bills) without registering as a business which is costly and difficult. Secondly, we are not yet clever or experienced enough to ensure year-round veg (is that possible in these climes?) and I could not hope to produce a whole host of goods...coffee, toilet paper, tea, computer ink etc. Therefore, we must work and earn some money to pay for these items or go without. We are lucky enough to have our own recording studio and from here we create! Sometimes we create talking books for children, sometimes my other half creates music for adverts or websites, sometimes he creates short promotional videos and sometimes we just create music for the love of being creative. Music is a very important part of our lives and the boys have recorded a song, written and performed by themselves and recorded by Dad which was a fantastic learning experience for them. They all chip in (with ideas, vocabulary and voices) for our audio CDs. These are French learning resources as they are stories told in English but containing French words and phrases to help younger children to learn the language. The studio is a marvellous resource, but the only draw back with it is that it is located within the house which means we often have a problem with noise. A slammed door or barking dog is not welcome when recording a vocal harmony! Therefore we have decided to move our studio into the old piggery! This is not as bad as it sounds as the building is actually clean, dry and has stood unused for many years. The plan is to build a straw built room inside the piggery. This will have fantastic acoustic properties, is environmentally friendly and very cost effective as straw is a cheap commodity here in Brittany! Straw is also quick and easy to work with, so we are hoping for speedy results (money allowing). The new studio will consist of a 'live room', a 'control room' and a 'vocal booth'. We are very excited about it and can't wait to get started. As we progress I will keep you updated on my blog. In the meantime, here are our CDs on Amazon. We are very proud of them and the third one is in production right now. We are also working on a CD of bible stories and one of nursery rhymes, so watch this space!