Celebrating Spring Holidays in Your Homeschool
It’s spring – time to dance with the flowers and soar with the birds! By spring, we’re starting to think about summer break, finishing out the homeschool year (unless you’re year-round),, and thinking about upcoming holidays… Here are activities, books, and resources for incorporating the holidays into your homeschool. Pick and choose what works best for your family. Bloom in springtime!
All of these resources are appropriate for middle and high school.
Books to Incorporate
Unit Studies
- Tu B’Shevat
- Pi Day
- Purim
- History Behind St. Patrick’s Day
- Passover
- History Behind Easter
- Titanic
- History Behind Mother’s & Father’s Day
- Severe Weather
- History of Holidays in America: Women’s History Month, Arbor Day, Earth Day & Cinco de Mayo
- Women Through History course
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Alice in Wonderland
Online Unit Studies
Hands-On Activities
- Planning a Garden
- Raised Beds & Pallet Planters
- St. Patrick’s Day Feast
- Naturally Dying Eggs
- Eggshell Mosaic
- Plant Dissection
- Pressed Flower Art
- Craft a Birdhouse
- Build the Titanic
- Basic Spring Embroidery
Other Fun Stuff!
- Spice up your Spring Wardrobe
- Field Guide to Living for Mom
- Homeschool Convention Planner
- Lego Father’s Day bundle (free to subscribers)
- Studio Art for Teens: Illuminated Design and Graphic Design
- Learning About World Cultures for Asian / Pacific Islanders Month
- Flag Etiquette: Unit Study in History, Geography, and Social Studies
- Spring Flowers paint-by-number
- Spring Gnomes paint-by-number
Meal Planning for the Busy Homeschool Family
Meal planning is essential for the busy homeschooling family. It not only helps you save time and money, but also eat a bit healthier. After all, who wants to eat frozen pizza and chicken nuggets every night? (Maybe that should say ‘what adult,’ rather than ‘who.’)Your weekly meal plan might be broken down to the day, or you might plan for five days worth of meals, and then choose what you’re in the mood for each day. This is a personal choice, and will depend on how much structure you and your family need. When you’re meal planning, keep in mind:
- Your family’s food preferences — no need to make breakfasts if no one eats that early
- Your weekly schedule — have some quick and on-the-go options for busy days
- Family dynamics — older kids can help with prep, cooking, and cleaning
- What’s on hand — for less waste / spending, create menus that use on-hand ingredients
Online Meal Planning
Ordering groceries online isn’t an option where we live, but it is for many people in urban and suburban areas. If you want to order online, start a grocery list and keep adding to it throughout the week (similar to if you have a paper one on the refrigerator to take in-hand to the store). Some folks swear by online shopping, saying they prefer to spend the extra money for someone else to do the shopping because it saves them from impulse purchases. You know whether you tend to impulse shop or not, so again, this is a personal (and potentially geographic) preference.)
Appliances & Early Meal Prep
Kitchen appliances are a huge time saver today…something our grandmothers would have cherished! You’ll want to take some time to get to know your appliance, but utilize them for convenient, healthy meals. Incorporate appliance-specific recipes into your meal planning each week to save time.
If you have them on hand, use your crockpot, air fryer, and InstaPot. However, if you’re in the market for a time-saving kitchen appliance, you can’t go wrong with the Ninja Foodi. This is the one we have, and it is A-MAZ-ING! (It does even more than the famous InstaPot.)
Freezer Cooking
If you know you’re going to have a busy period, try freezer cooking. This is essentially cooking everything ahead of time and then pulling it out of the freezer to reheat. Not all recipes lend themselves to this method, but many recipe PARTS do. You can prep taco meat or spaghetti sauce ahead of time, making dinnertime easier. Check out the freezer cooking resources below to get you started!A Slow-Cooked Year This book includes : the whats and whys behind crockpot cooking, how-to tips and tricks, safe crockpot guidelines, printable planning sheets, and more than thirty seasonally-appropriate, kid-friendly recipes! | Another Year of Freezer Cooking For anyone who wants to get a leg up on getting healthy meals on the family table, without much fuss…this book includes : the whats and whys behind freezer cooking how-to tips and tricks pantry freezing guidelines, printable planning sheets more than thirty seasonally-appropriate, kid-friendly recipes! |
Snag this adorable tee to tout your homeschool status and celebrate the #HomeschoolMomLife!
Resources for Meal Planning
- Introduction to Freezer Cooking
- Stress-Free Family Meal Planning
- Taste of Home: Meal Planning
- The Ultimate Meal Planning Guide
- Monthly Menus (covers breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks & dessert)
- Homemade Baker’s Box
- Whole Food Cooking e-book
- Magnetic Meal Planner w/ List Feature (easy organization!)
- FREE – Tiny Steps Tuesday e-book
Novel Studies & Hands-On Helpers
- Around the World in 80 Days + International Cooking
- KidStir Cooking Kits
- Home Economics year-long curriculum
Recipes to Get You Started!
- Six Basic Freezer Cooking Recipes
- Apple Recipes for your Crockpot
- Hearty Stew & Homemade Bread
- Nourishing Homemade Bone Broth
Take the 30 Day Challenge!
How to Be a More Effective Homeschooling Parent
Homeschooling has the potential to place an enormous toll on a your mental mental health. You might become excessively tired, cranky, or sad, or have difficulty concentrating, or have lethargy that leaves you not even wanting to teach at all. (aka, burnout)
- Acknowledge that this is a busy season of life
- Create a routine to reduce stress
- But be flexible with your routine, when needed
- Ask friends and family for help
- Get plenty of sleep
- Eat healthy foods
- Exercise both your mind and body
- Take a moment all to yourself
- Remember to have fun
Outside (the body)
- Month by Month Garden Preservation
- Natural Cleaning Recipes e-book
- DIY Bug Spray
- Tiny Steps Tuesday (small changes for big effects!)
- Homemade Cleansers
- Coffee-Infused Serum
- Living SLOW
Physical
- Simple Tricks to Keep Your Resolution
- Four-Week Internal Detox
- Self-Care During the Holidays
- Self-Care for Moms
Mental
- Beating Homeschool Burnout
- Handling Holiday Stress
- Mental Wealth Box
- HopeBox (our favorite! Take a peek inside here.)
Foodie
- Super Easy Sauerkraut
- Homemade Truffles
- DIY Apple Cider Vinegar
- Blueberry Infused Honey
- Basic Freezer Cooking
- Canning Basics + Pickling
- Kefir & Granola Cereal
- Whole Foods Cooking
- Healthier Oatmeal Creams
- Homemade Bone Broth
- Natural Food Coloring
Herbs & Herbal Remedies
Resources for Further Learning
- Fever 1793 unit study
- Nature series Book Club
- The Giving Tree book club
- Homesteading course
- Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health
- The Big Book of Homemade Products for Your Skin, Health and Home
- Planted with a Purpose
- The Whole and Healthy Family: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Mind, Body, and Spirit
Make this year YOUR year! This reusable calendar features monthly at-a-glance pages and weekly pages with space for notes and planning. Each week also has a habit tracker grid to help keep the momentum going with your new habits! Just print and reuse each year for your planner.

Come Fly With Me!! Aviation & Flight Resources for Your Homeschool
Aviation Field Trips
- Kitty Hawk – First Flight
- Tulsa Air & Space – WW2 Flight
- Bush Pilots & Planes
- Korea, Vietnam, and Modern Aviation
- Airplanes & Air Shows
Space-Themed Field Trips
- Johnson Space Center
- Kennedy Space Center
- US Space & Rocket Center
- Stafford Air & Space Museum
- Sea, Air, and Space Museum
Aviation / Space Unit Studies
- DaVinci & Early Aviation History
- The First Flight
- World War I Pilots
- Women in Aviation
- Astronomy
- The Rocket that Flew to Mars
- The History of Air Travel
Aviation / Space Resources
- NASA educational collection
- Solar System worksheets
- Space & Beyond Fun Box
- Doctor Aviation
- YWAM: Orville Wright & Alan Shephard
- Civil Air Patrol curriculum (free)
- Aviation Notebooking Pages
- Tales of the R.A.F.
- Flygirl
- Wings of Victory
- Dave Dawson
- Tom Corbett, Space Cadet
- Aeroplane Boys
Hands-On Learning
(we have both of these…and love them!)
For more AMAZING flight-themed resources and projects, check out the Flight Unit Study, Aerospace Engineering collection, and the FAA Aviation Curriculum (all grades represented).
Learning the Art of Discernment
To discern means to judge, evaluate, and distinguish. Some people come by this naturally, while others must develop it, yet those who are gifted with discernment are often seen as judgmental, critical, and unloving. However, we live in an age when ideas are spread globally within an amazingly short period of time, and discernment is the only way to cut through the noise and find the important, and correct, information.
A good discerner understands falsifiability and knows the difference between an argument and an assertion. What should you know?
- Argument – a claim supported by reason or logic
- Assertion – an unsupported claim, often an opinion
- Falsifiability – capacity for an argument or hypothesis to be proven wrong
- Did you know – Facts can be both true AND false!!
- Nice and charming do not equal honest. Often when someone is accused of teaching something false, someone else will defend them by saying “But they are such a nice person.”
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Decision-Making
In decision-making, the three steps of the discernment process are awareness, understanding and action. All three are important — if you make a good decision, but fail to act, you’ve ultimately made a poor decision. If you fail to apply consideration, and act hastily, you’ve not chosen well. Therefore, it is important to go through the process completely.
Some decisions will be personal, such as where (or if) to attend college, where to move to, or whether to take that job. Other decisions will be more general, yet no less important, such as who to vote for or how you feel about a particular issue of national / world importance.
Awareness
Know yourself. This includes your hopes and dreams, likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. How do you perform under stress? What is your ideal career / future plan / {insert decision here}? How do others see you?
Start at the beginning. What do you already know about the decision ahead of you? What are the pros and cons, or the various factors? What kind of support do you have? Are there multiple perspectives involved?
Understanding
Give it time. Not all decisions will have the luxury, but if you have the time to wait, do more investigating, and ruminate upon your decision, you may find that you do better. No one is impervious to this process — folks familiar with scripture will remember that even Jesus agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Spend Time in Thought / Meditation / Prayer. After making a decision, but before action, you should feel a sense of inner peace with your decision. This is a feeling of tranquility about the next steps, and not just relief that you’ve finally made a decision.
Action
Get going. Whether this means applying to college, putting a down payment on a house, accepting that job, going into the voting booth, advocating for a group or issue, or however else your decision manifests itself…now is the time to act.
Evaluate. Every action has a reaction, a consequence. There are both good and bad consequences, external and internal. Internally, how do you feel now that you’ve acted? Do you still have that peace? How have others reacted to your decision? Do you need to reevaluate and course correct?
It is worth remembering that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Ultimately, you are the one who has to live with yourself, and so it is important to focus on the internal response. (Obviously, if your decision was to commit a felony, there will still be an external response you need to heed….)
Developing Discernment
Practice through Literature
These books can be difficult for students to plow through at times, but the online unit studies help break down their components, allowing students to practice predicting and analyzing, both of which lead to stronger discernment.
- Farenheit 451 Online Unit
- Crime & Punishment Online Unit
- Tuttle Twins series (appropriate for all ages – learn more here)
Parents can use these books to teach kids to ask meaningful questions, recognize bias, and stand up for themselves…
- Empower Your Children
- Leadership Discernment & Decisions: Assume Nothing, Question Everything
- Grotto Network article
Learn about Worldviews
In a world that is constantly struggling for peace, having a better understanding of belief systems and values can help us to understand different people and cultures…which may lay the foundation for a thoughtful progression amid a multitude of complex cultures. These courses provide that background.Be a Detective
- Research & notebook about great leaders. What made them memorable?
- Become a time-travelling sleuth
- Use small clues to solve a big mystery
Develop Supportive Skills
- Logic
- Leadership
- Managing Finances
- Election Basics
- Work Ethic
- Understanding Diversity
- Reading Between the Lines
Read (or Watch) the News
Remember to look at sources from both left-leaning and right-leaning media. How do the stories compare in tone and coverage? Try to find one topic and look at the stories on each side.