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What kids learn without being told...

written by

Renee Robinson-Seelye

posted on

April 8, 2026

As I live through the days on the farm, my mind puts moments into puzzle pieces that build stories. Sometimes it takes me out of the moment altogether, and I’ll start solving the puzzle before all the pieces are formed. Sometimes I shut the drawer, and never open it again. But most often, the drawer gets filled with puzzle pieces from multiple different puzzles that take time to sort through. This is one of those stories, found through a mess of a drawer.

My kids and their cousins gathered around a huge fallen tree in the yard of a big beautiful historic home called the Newton House. This home was built within our small little township of Volinia, MI in 1844. The care and craft put into a home for it to last for 182 years is hard to ignore. This home lives and breathes by the people surrounding it. I imagine all the different people that have cared for the home, and am quite humbled to know our kids can now join that vast group. 

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The kids’ task was to help clean up the yard, stick by stick and stump by stump. After a couple hours running a wheel barrow around, and competing for the best lumberjack award - the huge fallen tree was clear, and the landscape flowed beautifully again to help welcome the next visitors.

The most inspiring piece of this puzzle wasn’t the home itself, or the fact that the kids were picking up a yard during Spring Break without a grumble. It was the man who brought all those kids together in that yard. A man who has lived in this township for over 70 years, with family lineage of 6 generations on the same land.  A man who carries a lot of weight in his heart for the history of the surrounding neighborhood.  Someone who knows the neighborhood well, and understands the life it’s lived through. My father.

I was going to share this story earlier, the day it happened. But the puzzle wasn’t quite complete yet. The last piece came in realizing what I was really watching. Our kids can step into the pattern set by my father, whether they spend their time within Volinia Township or not.

To volunteer without being told, and care for the land, and those surrounding you.

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