In the early years of home education it’s been such fun to really lean into seasonal crafts, books, and recipes. I store our seasonal books in our attic and so, just as the last days of summer are drawing to a close, my husband climbs the attic stairs and descends with boxes of books and craft supplies much to the delight of our daughter. In each seasonal box is a seasonal guide from The Peaceful Press. We’ve used them for several years now and I’m excited to share with you our journey through The Autumn Guide this year.
The Autumn Guide is a four week literature and project-based four week guide for students ages 5-7, though my daughter is 8 and still thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a wholesome guide that has gentle supplements to math and reading instructions, Bible lessons, art projects, and science experiments. It also includes all of the printables you may need, several recipes, and a splendid Autumn picture book list. Each week has its’ own autumnal theme.
We spent our first week exploring the theme of change. We read beautiful books, reviewed ch- blend words, and used the leaves in our yard for all kinds of things ranging from creating leaf animals to cutting leaves in half to discuss symmetry. We ended our week with pumpkin spiced hot chocolate and delicious leaf cookies. Peaceful Press has kindly allowed me to share their recipe for these sweet treats; you’ll find it at the bottom of this blog post. Be sure to use my favorite cookie sheets when baking; it has taken me years to find baking sheets that don’t warp in the oven!
The second week of the Autumn Guide focuses on the idea of comfort. We reviewed Psalm 23 which my daughter had worked to memorize when she was 6 years. We also read the beloved classic “Ox Cart Man,” wrote an acrostic poem, made some adorable clothespin sheep with yarn, and gave flowers to my daughter’s BSF Bible study teachers to help their homes feel as cozy and comforting as that of the Ox Cart Man’s Family.
Discussing comfort was the perfect opportunity to talk about ways to offer comfort in tangible ways to those in our community. In addition to delivering bouquets of cheer to her sweet BSF teachers we went shopping and helped stock a local food pantry with donations. This was a suggested activity and it’s one I plan to make an effort to be more intentional in continuing throughout the year.
This week we also read the book “Fry Bread” which is a seasonal favorite in our home during Native American Heritage Month each November. One of the ways we celebrate the harvest season and honor Indigenous heritage is to have a family meal each year consisting of recipes and foods from Native peoples in our area. Several years ago we were given the recipe for Three Sisters Soup when visiting the Chickasaw Cultural Center. We have made it every single year since; they have also generously shared this wonderful recipe on their website. We pair this soup with Fry Bread using Navajo Grandma’s recipe as well as local pecans and Wojapi Sauce from First Nations Development Institute.
Our third week centered on the themes of praise and thanksgiving. We reviewed th- diagraph words, suffix -ful words, and compound words. We practiced skip counting and made three dimensional shapes with cranberries and toothpicks. We really enjoyed learning some simple Spanish using the book Gracias Thanks and had a special snack of cinnamon infused hot chocolate and pan dulces which we visited a local Mexican market for. While there I spotted some large Loteria cards and decided we’d use them for our craft. One of the included activities was to make a placemat with illustrations of things which you’re thankful for. We simply did this with a large loteria card by cutting squares the size of those on the board and filling them with illustrations labeled in Spanish just like the game cards. This was so fun and a keepsake I’ll treasure always.
Our fourth and final week focused on the theme of harvest. We began by learning all about the harvest moon which actually occurs each September. As we were working through this activity in November it allowed the opportunity to discuss each month’s full moon. The art activity for painting a harvest moon was so fun; my daughter and I were both amazed at the texture created by painting with aluminum foil. We also worked to make a pendant bunting depicting each lunar phase which we will hang in our school room.
We ended the week by baking the apple pie using the recipe in the guide which instructed us to “cut out moon shapes to decorate the top.” I love to bake and took a lot of creative license with this step. I’m completely smitten with the end result. This book perfectly combined the week’s study of the harvest moon with its other focus: apples. We thoroughly enjoyed this guide. It was an easy add-on to our academic day and complemented our usual math and reading lessons quite well. If you’d like to see more of how we used this sweet seasonal study be sure to visit my instagram page where I have a saved “fall” highlight with peeks of our days. I’d also love to hear from you when you bake your own leaf cookies so please be sure to tag me!
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