When the first day of spring is right around the corner, there’s a good chance your homeschool family—like mine—is feeling a bit of spring fever. My yard may still have puddles and leafless trees, and we have several weeks left before we can pack away our Instructor's Guides for summer break, but that doesn’t mean we can’t pause to enjoy the changing of the seasons.
In fact, a short break from our regular routine to focus on a season that’s all about life, growth, and renewal may be the perfect way to rest and rejuvenate before tackling the end of our school year.
Whether we scatter a few activities over the course of a couple weeks or dedicate one whole day to seasonal fun, the following ideas are a starting point for my family as we decide how we want to mark the first day of spring.
1. Get Outside to Enjoy Spring Nature
The best way to see how nature is changing is to be in it, so we’ll definitely be walking out the front door. Weather and schedules will dictate what we end up doing, but here are some options we’ll consider:
- Walk through our neighborhood or go on a hike. Pay attention to bulbs in bloom, blossoms on trees, and nests in trees.
- Visit a farm to see the baby animals.
- Plant some seeds or flowers. If the weather is uncooperative, make a plan for what we’ll plant and where it will go.
2. Savor Books About Spring or Poetry
Whether we want to read something overtly educational or choose something more for pleasure, there’s no shortage of ways that reading can be part of our celebration.
- Pull The Year at Maple Hill Farm from the shelf and read it over breakfast.
- Hop on your public library’s website and reserve both fiction and non-fiction books about spring and the changing of seasons.
- Look through A Treasury of Poetry for Young People, A Child’s Introduction to Poetry, The Llama Who Had No Pajama, A Child’s Anthology of Poetry, or whatever book of poetry we have on hand to find poems about the season of spring itself or anything we can tie into it. Have each of us share one poem with the rest of the family.
3. Create Beautiful Things
I’m definitely not the kind of mom who does arts and crafts, but that doesn’t mean my family can’t make things to celebrate the season. Whether we choose things that are to be enjoyed purely for their beauty, serve a more practical purpose, or are a combination of those goals, we’ll find something to create.
- Dry and press flowers from our walk or hike. Then use them for making bookmarks with contact paper or for adorning blank cards which we can mail out to friends.
- Prepare a meal that highlights spring produce or bake some distinctly spring-themed desserts. Then invite friends or family over to eat with us or deliver the food to homes or workplaces.
- Let each person select the artistic method they prefer—writing a poem, painting a picture, or carving a wood figurine—to create something that represents spring to them.
Whether you get outside, open books, create things, or do something entirely different, I hope you’ll join me in taking some time to savor the beginning of spring before we move forward to complete our school year.
Spring is also a perfect time for considering your curriculum for the fall. Request a Sonlight catalog and start planning your programs.
