Why Home Canning Should Be a Life-Changing Part of Your Child’s Homeschooling Curriculum

Homeschooling rates have grown rapidly in America since 1999, and doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the US Census Bureau. Nearly 2.6 million kids have switched from traditional school to homeschooling in the past two years totaling the number of homeschooled kids at roughly 5 million.

There are many reasons why parents choose to homeschool their children but the underlining reason is a more one-on-one, hands-on approach to learning. While there are many avenues to achieve this well-rounded education, it is imperative children learn about science and math when growing up. And what a captivating way to achieve this than taking a field trip to the farmers market and canning together in the kitchen.

Home canning and preserving teaches and emphasizes basic math skills and science. From measuring ingredients to determining how many of a particular food ingredient is required to yield an outcome, math is integrated into canning.

Science is a cumulative process providing the building blocks for kids young and old. It helps children develop communication, how to form their own opinions based on observation and it helps children develop their senses and overall awareness. Hands-on learning builds confidence in children and home canning provides a joyful environment to do so.

Most importantly, children are curious and learn to engage through play. The art of home canning provides your children with an opportunity to use their senses, experience new recipes, use mathematical calculations and measurements and explore the realm of science hands-on.

There are three main elements, or pillars as I like to call them, to home canning; Time, temperature and pH value, or acidity. Understanding how each plays an intricate role in keeping our food safe for long-term storage is essential to home canning.

Here are 10 easy ways to incorporate life-changing exploration through canning into your homeschooling curriculum:

1. Have your child create a half-batch versus a full yield. Teach your child the advantage of using math to deduce the amount of each ingredient.
2. Teach your child what happens when a recipe reaches its boiling point.
3. Work together operating a pressure canner, teaching your child how to properly retain a required temperature for a specified length of time.
4. Stop at a farm stand with a canning recipe in hand and work together to determine how many pounds of green beans are required to fill seven quart jars.
5. Explore the art of blanching foods with your children. Explore how enzymes stop breaking down food when boiled then rapidly cooled.
6. Give younger children the task of managing a timer while older children create a chart to document the different lengths of time required to peel during blanching.
7. Get out two cutting boards and 20 fresh tomatoes, placing 10 tomatoes on each board. Which will produce more quart jars, the tomatoes cut in quarters or the tomatoes crushed using a potato masher?
8. Pickle something! Brine ratios are crucial to properly pickling vegetables. Each brine ratio is specific to the type of food being pickled. Compare two of your favorite pickling recipes. Ask critical thinking questions like, what makes the two brine ratios similar or different? How does food density play a factor?
9. Teach your child how to properly measure ingredients, both dry and liquid, and compare their differences.
10. Working with glass Mason jars, use the canning processing method to explore thermal heat transfer and conduction.

Parents feel delighted knowing home canning offers your children an education while simultaneously enjoying scrumptious jams, fruits and homemade meals together as fun reward! Your kids will be so thrilled canning in the kitchen, they won’t even realize there’s a lesson plan in play.

Need additional resources? Be sure to check out my canning and preserving books as references for canning and food preservation information, historical references, updated science and details on foodborne pathogens. And of course, each book is filled with delicious home canning recipes you and your children can preserve year-after-year.

Happy Canning & Learning!
xo
Diane, The Canning Diva®