Our second week of school is coming to an end and we have already had to switch plans on so many different occasions I have honestly lost count. And now can’t fully recall what was originally planned vs. what was improvised.

We live up in the Pacific Northwest, which generally means there is a gold-mine of goodies to observe when it comes to our Nature studies. I don’t usually have a contingency plan. Our plan is always: step outside, find what we are focusing on for the week, engage in observation.

captured on our weekly Sunday family hike before smoke set in

Well, the outside closed its doors to us due to the smoke pouring up from the California and Oregon wildfires. We have asthma in our family, which keeps us all completely indoors when the pollutants in the air reach “Dangerously Unhealthy” levels.

I had had an idea, put forth originally from a brilliant fellow homeschool momma: a craft to engage the kids in this week, studying seeds. Grand plans of scouring woods and fields to bring home samplings of collected seeds and pods and then arrange them all into an animal of the children’s choosing.

They spent hours sketching out their animals, one even drew out exactly what seeds were in want for each area of the designated animal craft. Overnight the smoke rolled in, and our plans rolled out.

I also had dreams of making our own plantable seed paper; crafting the pulp into adorable little shapes to use for gift tags and other fun add ons throughout our year. I’ve never had to plan out to get these sort of things in advance, figuring I’d pick them up at the store when it came time. These didn’t come to fruition this week - hopefully soon! I still want to mention the idea here as I think it’s a fun sensory craft coupling with seed study very nicely.

I found myself needing to improvise on a dime. In the morning I thankfully had a lightbulb moment, a play on my original seed foraged animal creations. I printed out a few coloring images of the bird we were studying on some sturdy cardstock, grabbed all the dried pantry items we had on hand which fell into the “seed” theme (corn kernels, dried beans, lentils, chia seeds, barley, pepitas), arranged everything invitation style on the breakfast table, and waited with anticipation for my little people to wake and come down the stairs.

They were so into it. We couldn’t get to the craft fast enough. My oldest had, just the week before, requested to continue the Burgess Bird study with his younger siblings in lieu of his “assigned” study during the same time. Of course I said yes. We could read that later. Or never. It’s our school, I’m fully leaning into what makes my kids’ faces light up, what engages them, excites them, feeds the hunger inside of them.

Y’all. I didn’t have craft glue. We had glue sticks. We had awkward, stuck in the bottle, glitter glue they could haphazardly swipe on beans with q-tips. We had a mess. And a blast. I read our chapter out of the Burgess Bird book when it was time, and allowed for an extra forty-five odd minutes of crafting. As soon as I had accepted it wasn’t going to be perfect, but it could still be an experience of wonder + discovery + engagement, I was free to sit and enjoy my children’s creativity.

The smoke also enabled us to spend some extra time pouring ourselves into nature books and journaling. Phenology wheels were routinely taken off the shelf every day, paints lined out, and stories read.

For the past nine months the seemingly favorite books for my littles are the biographies. They love learning about real people from all over the world. This week’s was no exception: “Wangari’s Trees of Peace” was the favorite of Seed study.

Nature study books used to be read mainly during the luncheon hour last school year, but with my eldest moving into Form II - bringing in a few additional subjects to our day - we are generally doing a subject reading now. Leaving the majority of our nature reads to happen spontaneously throughout the day. Occasionally we will pull one out to grace us during tea time, but generally that’s when we do our Readaloud (currently finishing up Homer Price). If nothing else these books always make for a lovely bedtime story (what we refer to in our house as Fernweh).

I actually love the spontaneity of the books. I always leave them out around the house. A basket with a couple sitting on the hearth. A couple open on the low tv table. Some propped up around the corner. Every week it’s like setting up a delightful treasure hunt. Probably my favorite little weekly tradition I’ve created for our home life since this whole education journey got started.

New teas to sample every couple weeks has also picked up more of a routine around our table. The kids still prefer hot cider or cocoa to any tea I’ve found, but it’s fun and encouraging how they continue to try! Seed week was a favorite to do some tea time treats with though-

I mean, give me all the fruit! and let’s pop all the popcorn!

Thanks for being here friends, hoping to “see” you throughout the week over on the gram! xx