Back to [Home]School

In a time when everyone around us is returning to the early morning chaos of getting children out the door for school, packing lunches, syncing calendars, and navigating the landscape of new teachers and new classrooms, I am endlessly grateful we found our way back to homeschooling. We’re giving summer one last parting embrace and slowly easing our way into fall, one leisurely step at a time. 

C5 and one of our white leghorn chickens, Butter.

For us, fall means a small increase in activity. Our mornings are now mostly dedicated to schoolwork, and a few afternoons and evenings each week are taken up by sports practices and enrichment activities. Catechism classes will start back up soon, as well as youth group events. 

This year, our homeschool includes three children doing “lessons,” which is a tad different. We started toward the end of August and now, as September settles into itself, we’re just getting into the swing of things.

We’ve already finished our first read-aloud book of the year: Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin. It was a great introduction to early American history and ushered us into an exploration of life in America in the mid-1700s. We learned about Native Americans, Quakers, art, and got a vivid picture of how people lived in long-ago times — with no electricity, cars, or even readily available art supplies. 

One thing that struck me about the book was how many chores the children did during that time period and how unsupervised they were. Boys as young as eight ran errands for their families miles away from home, hung out with Native American tribes, and roamed the forest freely. Young girls were aces in the kitchen and completed sewing projects that benefited the entire family. It inspired me to get my kids more involved in the daily chores and activities of our home. They usually love this, it’s me who typically resists. Cooking is slower, less efficient, and much messier when I get them involved. Chores don’t get done to my high standard. If you have young kids who love to “help,” you know what I mean. But this week, I got out of my own way and encouraged them to step right up beside me and assist in the running of our home. A10 cleaned out the chicken coop, A8 helped with dinner every single night, and C5 vacuumed the living room before movie night and made his own bed (neither activity was done effectively, but I loved watching him try and feel so accomplished). All in all, it was such a treat to work alongside them. I had a lightbulb moment when I realized how much my two older kids had grown up and how - wow - they were actually really helpful. I should do this more often, I thought. I will do this more often.

For science, we’ve been studying Paleontology using The Good and the Beautiful’s science unit curriculum. It’s been fun, and we’ve all learned a lot! We visited a local museum of natural history and got to see lots of fossils and dinosaur bones, which was incredibly interesting and led to lots of questions and even more learning.

If you want to know what curriculum we’re using this year, I’ll do a separate blog post about it. I technically have a 5th and 3rd grader this year, as well as my little guy, who just turned five. We’re not officially doing a full kindergarten curriculum, but we are practicing some kindergarten-level math, pre-k reading, and beginning handwriting (all very low-pressure and loosey-goosey). I can tell he’s going to be one of those homeschool kids who never knows what actual grade he’s in, and that’s okay.

On the mom side of things, I’ve committed myself to learning how to crochet. This is the third time in a decade I’ve embarked on this exact quest, but I’m feeling hopeful because this time seems to be going much better than the previous two. I completed a pumpkin coaster! And it actually looks halfway decent. I’m working on a second now, so I can really perfect it and get good at one thing before moving on. I’m thinking my second project will be a blanket. Maybe? Any other suggestions?

I’ve also been doing lots of baking. I baked apple cinnamon rolls, which was the first time I’d ever made cinnamon rolls. They turned out great, but I probably won’t make them again simply because our family is not huge on decadent sweets for breakfast. Still, if you want the recipe, I used this one. It was easy enough and very good, if you’re the cinnamon roll type. 

I brought a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies to soccer practice to share with the kids and parents, and one mom later told me I had inspired her to bake her own cookies, just like her grandmother used to. Now that’s the kind of influencing I like to do. You know I am all about a return to grandmothers and their hobbies and skills.

I’m hoping to do more canning in the fall season, but I’ve had a hard time getting myself to the farmer’s market for fresh, organic produce. I pray one day I’ll have a home garden, so I won’t need to rely on other growers.

For the upcoming week, I’ve worked in a few nights of super easy dinners into our menu, and one brand new recipe I’ve never tried (we’ll see how that goes). The weather here in Northern California is cooling down quite a bit, which for us means it’s going to be in the 80s all week. Hooray! I’m looking forward to warm, pumpkin spice-flavored coffees, scented candles, fall adventures, and lots more crocheting and baking. The kids have been begging to go apple picking soon, so maybe we’ll cross that off our fall bucket list.

Look for a blog post on our 2025-2026 curriculum choices soon. And have a week full of blessings and gratitude.

With love,