Thinking of where to take the family on vacation next year? Agonizing over brochures of a Disney cruise or a Costa Rican rainforest adventure? That's so 2001. Welcome to agri-tourism...otherwise known as, some farm kid's brilliant idea to get out of chores.

With pitchforks and heavy coats, three teenage cousins brave below-freezing temperatures and learn how to pitch straw into a sheep pen -- something their teacher, 27-year-old Matt McClain, has been doing since he was a kid.

Bleating sheep may not be the expected soundtrack for a holiday vacation, but some farm families in Nebraska and elsewhere are hoping to change that with an old-fashioned holiday celebration that includes chores, chopping down a Christmas tree, baking cookies and more.

I think this is a terrific idea and I'd like to offer a fresh twist. I don't own a farm, but I can offer families a little together time in suburbia. What could be more fun than, oh, I don't know, raking the leaves in my backyard or cleaning out the closet under my basement stairs? I'm sure I can find plenty of chores, and I'd be happy to accept your suburbi-tourism dollars. Any takers?

Comments

[Paul]

Mock it all you want, but it actually sounds fun to me.

This past summer I had the pleasure of having a backyard large enough for a small vegetable garden. The ability to spend a little time with my hands in the dirt pulling weeds thinking about the various parables that Jesus told was worth more than most of the sermons that I have heard in my life.

So I think this is actually a good idea, and hope it lasts long enough that my children will be old enough to do the chores.

[Kristine]

Oh, I'm not mocking chores -- just the fact that children have to go to someone else's house and do someone else's chores. Didn't they have enough at their own home? (Probably not -- who has time for chores when you're texting and Wii-ing all day.) Of course someone else's chores often look more interesting than our own, so perhaps that's the allure.

[Gina Dalfonzo]

You wouldn't happen to have an aunt whose fence needs whitewashed, would you, Kristine? :-)

There is a Tom Sawyer-esque aspect to this, but frankly, keeping herd on city kids - and having to re-do the chores after them in order to straighten things out, would be a lot of work.

What is good is that the city kids can see what life is really like. What animals are really like. Experience being close to nature as a human being with dominion over it, in a fallen world. Cities cut themselves off from that.

[Matt]

this even sounds good for adults. Or maybe only for adults with my mindset of what a vacation should be. Hanging out on a beach for a week is boring for me. I don't crave relaxation in a vacation but simply a change. Something new and different for my mind to focus on for a while. Working on a farm is something I've never really done. Doing so for a week could prove to be a rewarding and educational experience...

[Paul]

Thank you Matt. That is exactly how I feel.