As some of you may know, we’re an eclectic homeschooling family that follows the Charlotte Mason philosophy. I say Charlotte Mason “philosophy” because I just really love her motto and what it encompasses:
“I am, I can, I ought, I will.”
If you’d like to talk more about homeschooling or Charlotte Mason’s teachings, let me know! I’m always up for it! Also, while we’re on the subject, I would HIGHLY recommend reading For The Children’s Sake. I just read through it with a small group of friends over the summer and it was so so good. Definitely time well spent!
The reason why I’m talking about homeschooling and Charlotte Mason here in a post about Manassero Farms is that we use part of Ambleside Online‘s (free!) curriculum, especially where the riches come in. When I say “riches” I’m referring to what most would consider “extracurriculars.” However, they are actually the part of education that bring way more color and enjoyment to learning.
This fall term, the scheduled nature study focus is on cultivated crops.
That means we’re trying to go to places that we can incorporate learning more about the art, lifestyle, and importance of cultivated crops. Once a week a small group of mama friends with their kids in tow get together to enjoy all things nature.
We focus on using our senses (what did you see, hear, smell, touch, etc.) to help them describe their outing.
For the day that I was in charge of organizing, I searched for a farmers market that actually had a farm attached to it. In my search I found The Original Manassero Farms in Irvine. I sent them an email and they were very prompt to respond and offer to give us a tour, for a very minimal fee I might add.
Family-Friendly Fun At Manassero Farms
What I didn’t realize was, right behind the farmers market they offer “pick your own herbs,” a fenced-in yard, and what they refer to as The Barn where they host events or it can be rented out for private events. Seriously, if I knew of all the cute places that were in our area when I was planning our wedding…it would have been a totally different set up, let’s just say that.
In the “yard” there were full size tractors for the kids to ride on (they didn’t move) and some peddle tractors for the kids to drive around on.
My Little One’s favorite feature of Manassero Farms was the tire swing that was shaped like a tractor. So cute! It was definitely backyard goals!
The Farm Tour
During our farm walk the kids tried blackberries (that they picked themselves), okra, and sweet tomatoes. The tour guide picked small white pumpkins right off the vine for each child.
We also learned that part of Manassero Farms was taken up for parking lot for the college that is right next door, but what they have left is protected because of the power lines running over their land.
She suggested we come back in the spring time to have the blueberries and strawberries since right now everything is pretty much at the end of the season. The tomatoes were still good though!
We will definitely be visiting again! Have you been to Manassero Farms? Any other local farms you recommend?
