Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download.
If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum. This week’s hashtag will be: #ENWCblossomweek
As the sun pauses in the long arc across the sky, and the light lingers on the earth just a little longer, we arrive at the turning point of the year; the Summer Solstice, which falls on Sunday the 21st of June this year.
For those of us walking a nature-based path with our children, especially those who follow the Charlotte Mason philosophy, this is not merely a date on the calendar, it’s an invitation to wonder, to observe, and to celebratethe abundance of beautythat surrounds us.
Nature as Teacher: Living Science in the Light of Summer
Miss Mason tells us that “education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.”
And in this season, nature’s atmosphere is at its richest, with bees humming over the brambles, swallows swoop and chatter, whilst the meadows are painted with colour, and alive with dancing insects, and tangled green.
You don’t need to plan an elaborate lesson to teach science today. Simply take your nature notebooks, a rug, and a cool drink, and head outside.
Watch the sun’s path across the sky.
Compare shadows at morning, noon, and evening.
Press wildflowers between pages.
Ask, your child “What do you notice?”
Rhythms of the Natural Year: What is Blooming in Your Home Education?
The Summer Solstice marks the high tide of light, a time of culmination and fullness. Everything planted in spring now shows its promise.
So ask yourself:
What is in full bloom in my child’s learning?
What have we nurtured , that is now bearing fruit?
What are we ready to celebrate, even if it’s imperfect, even if it’s still growing?
Living intentionally means marking these thresholds, not rushing through them. It means honouring what is, before leaping to what’s next.
For You, Dear Parent
It’s so easy to think that learning must be visible, with projects completed, habits perfected, and filled nature journals.
But remember: roots grow deeper through the summer, and confidence can grow quietly. The character of a child is formed not by ticking off lessons, but by daily exposure to what is good, beautiful, and true.
So take heart. If your rhythm is slower right now, or if you’re weary, you are still walking in Light. Your children are still absorbing the atmosphere of home, the beauty of the world, and the joy of shared discovery.
This is education.
Happy solstice to you!
P.S.
Continuing the Journey:
If you are looking for gentle, intentional ways to weave these natural rhythms into your home without the overwhelm, then you may enjoy
Traditionally, Midsummer is celebrated on June 24th, the feast day of St. John the Baptist. The sun, a burning and shining light, is at its highest point in the sky during these heady, dreamy days.
The feast day of Saint John—whom Jesus himself described as a “burning and shining lamp”—reminds us to prepare the innermost pathways of our souls, making straight the way for Jesus into our hearts.
Within this guide, you will find:
Getting started: notes on using this guide
About Midsummer and St. John’s Tide
Joyfully Observing Midsummer and St. John’s Tide
Book List
A poem to enjoy as you celebrate
A piece of art to enjoy as you celebrate
Midsummer and St. John’s Tide Journal Pages
This resource is written for a wide range of ages, & you can download the samples & discover more here: Midsummer and St. John’s Tide
Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download.
If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum. This week’s hashtag will be:#ENWCsummersolsticeweek
It is June as I write this; long days, the hedgerows are full, heavy, and deep green. The bees are busy about their work, and perhaps your children are very much in the loosened rhythms of summer. This was always the moment when I began to consider our autumn home education. Not with panic, or overwhelm, but with the joy of anticipating another year of home education, tailored to the individual needs of my own family.
One of the questions I would always ask myself was:
What kind of atmosphere do I want to cultivate for my children this autumn?
Because childhood is not merely preparation for adulthood. It is not simply a waiting room for exams, productivity, maturity, or independence. Childhood is fleeting, and holy; a sacred season in its own right.
It is a Christian devotional for children, rooted in Scripture and the beauty of nature study. It gently guides your child to notice God’s presence in His Word and in the created world around them, in seeds and harvest, fading flowers and autumn skies, quiet prayers, and ordinary days.
This is not a workbook of tasks. It is not busy work. It is not designed to fill your child’s time with more things to complete.
Instead, it offers a simple, unhurried devotional rhythm: Scripture, reflection, prayer, and gentle invitations to notice. Each page is written to help children engage directly, without overwhelming them or you. There is space to pause, to wonder, to respond, and to meet with God in the beauty of creation. What makes Sanctuary of Childhood unique is its combination of Christian faith and nature study in a way that is both meaningful and doable. It does not ask you to create elaborate projects or prepare complicated lessons. It simply helps you make room for what matters: Scripture, wonder, prayer, attention, and the slow formation of a child’s heart.
Autumn is such a rich season for this kind of learning. The year begins to turn. The light changes. Seeds ripen. Leaves fall. Harvest gives way to gratitude. Creation quietly teaches us about provision, change, trust, beauty, and rest, and our children are watching.
They are learning not only from what we teach them, but from what we help them to notice. They are learning that God is not only found in church buildings or formal lessons, but also in the gold of an autumn leaf, the patience of a seed, the faithfulness of returning seasons, and the quiet invitation to give thanks.
If you are longing for an autumn resource that is beautiful, thoughtful, faith-filled, and ready to open-and-go, The Sanctuary of Childhood ~ Autumn Edition may be just what you need.
You may also like to view the sample, the accompanying Copywork Pages & Art Prints, or choose The Sanctuary Collection bundle and save.
“Everything was ready. The shelves were lined with shining jars of jam, the cupboards were full, and the scent of rose petals drifted through the kitchen.” Jill Barklem, Brambly Hedge
Are you familiar with the Brambly Hedge stories? These gorgeously illustrated tales follow a community of country mice & their comings and goings. When my own children were little, we read the books season by season. They pair beautifully with nature walks, tea time, or a quiet morning with your nature journal.
In the warm days of early summer, the roses begin to open: soft, fragrant, generous, and full of secret life. Some grow carefully in gardens, trained along arches and walls; others scramble wild through hedgerows, offering pale petals to bees and later, bright hips to birds.
Invitation
This week, choose one rose to visit often. It may be a garden rose, a dog rose in the hedge, or a climbing rose tumbling over a fence. Watch it as though you are a tiny creature living nearby. What would it offer you? Shade? Scent? Food? Shelter? A place to hide?
What to Observe
Look closely at your rose and notice:
The flowers How many petals does it have? Are they tightly folded or wide open? What colour are they at the centre, the edges, and as they fade?
The scent Smell the rose gently. Is it sweet, fruity, spicy, green, honey-like, or hardly scented at all?
The leaves Notice the shape of the leaves. Are they glossy or dull? Smooth or toothed? How are they arranged on the stem?
The thorns Are they large, small, curved, sharp, reddish, green, or brown? What purpose might they serve?
The visitors Watch for bees, hoverflies, beetles, ants, spiders, or birds. Who comes to the rose, and what do they seem to be doing?
The changes Visit the rose again later in the week. Which flowers have opened? Which have dropped their petals? Can you see the beginnings of rosehips?
Nature Journal Prompt
Draw your rose or press a fallen petal into your nature journal. Write a few words or sentences about it:
This rose reminds me of… Its scent reminded me of… The creatures I noticed were… If I were a mouse in Brambly Hedge, I would use these petals to…
Simple Rose Activities
Make one of these:
Rose Petal Pressing Collect a few fallen petals and press them between paper inside a heavy book.
Rose Scent Words Create a list of words to describe the scent of your rose. Try to find at least five.
Rose Colour Study Use coloured pencils or watercolour to mix the exact shade of your rose. Look carefully: is it truly pink, or peach, cream, yellow, blush, crimson, or white with green shadows?
Petal Counting Count the petals of a wild rose and a garden rose. Compare them. Which one is simpler? Which one is fuller?
Roses belong to the same plant family as apples, blackberries, raspberries, hawthorn, and strawberries: the Rosaceae family.
Wild roses usually have five petals, while many garden roses have been bred to have many more.
After pollination, many roses form rosehips, which are fruit. These are important food for birds and wildlife later in the year.
Thorns help protect the rose from being eaten, and climbing or scrambling roses can use them to help hold themselves among other plants.
Poetry & Literature Basket
You might enjoy reading:
“The Rose” by Christina Rossetti “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Reflection for Parents:
A rose teaches us to look slowly. It is not only a pretty flower, but a whole small world: petals, perfume, thorns, leaves, visiting creatures, fading blossoms and future hips. Sit beside one for a little while, and let it show you just how much life can be held in a single stem.
From my home to yours,
P.S. A little planning note for the year ahead…
The 2026–2027 Charlotte Mason Homeschool Planner is now available!
This year’s planner includes a lovely selection of 106 printable planning pages, allowing you to custom build a planner that truly serves your own family. It is designed to help you shape your homeschool year with clarity, steadiness, and purpose — from big-picture aims to weekly and daily lesson planning.
Written for the Charlotte Mason inspired home educator, the planner helps you create your own personal road map for the year ahead, and gently supports you in carrying out those plans on a daily basis, with minimal additional planning time throughout the year.
This year’s planner also includes the new 14-page Bonus Planning Section, featuring guided pages to help you reflect on your term and preserve the family culture and traditions you are building along the way.
Please use the code PLAN20 for 20% off the planner.
The 2026–2027 free annual Exploring Nature With Children calendaris now available, which you are very welcome to download and use alongside your curriculum this year. Included are all the dates and themes in one handy place, and the occasional week that needs to be changed, (such as Harvest Moon Week) is already switched around & planned for you.
The 2026–2027 Charlotte Mason Homeschool Planneris also now available. It includes a lovely selection of 106 printable planning pages, allowing you to custom build a planner that truly serves your own family. It is designed to help you shape your homeschool year with clarity, steadiness, and purpose, from big-picture aims to weekly and daily lesson planning.
Written for the Charlotte Mason inspired home educator, the planner helps you create your own personal road map for the year ahead, and gently supports you in carrying out those plans on a daily basis, with minimal additional planning time throughout the year.
This year’s planner also includes the new 14-page Bonus Planning Section, featuring guided pages to help you reflect on each term, and preserve the family culture and traditions you are building along the way.
You can use the code PLAN20 for 20% off the planner.
This year’s planner includes a lovely selection of 106 printable planning pages, allowing you to custom build a planner that truly serves your own family. It is designed to help you shape your homeschool year with clarity, steadiness, and purpose, from big-picture aims to weekly, and daily lesson planning.
Written for the Charlotte Mason inspired home educator, the planner helps you create your own personal road map for the year ahead, and supports you in carrying out those plans on a daily basis, with minimal additional planning time throughout the year.
This year’s planner also includes the new 14-page Bonus Planning Section, featuring guided pages to help you to reflect upon each term and preserve the family culture and traditions that you are building along the way.
Please use the code PLAN20 for 20% off the planner.
If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum. This week’s hashtag will be:#ENWChoneybeeweek
One of the challenges of home education is not simply what to teach, but how to hold the whole year in your hands without becoming completely overwhelmed by it.
There are books to read, habits to cultivate, lessons to prepare, nature walks to take, children to encourage, interruptions to absorb, and ordinary family life is happening all around it. A good homeschool planner should not add pressure to that work. It should bring a steady rhythm.
The 2026–2027 Charlotte Mason Home Education Plannerfrom has been created to help you plan your year with clarity, and confidence. Written especially for the Charlotte Mason inspired home educator who wants more than a checklist, this planner helps you think about the larger vision for your home education, shape a realistic rhythm for your family, and then faithfully carry that vision into your daily lessons.
Charlotte Mason wrote:
“Our aim in education is to give a full life.”
And this is the very heart behind this planner, a full life: rich in books, nature, faith, atmosphere, habits, beauty, family culture, and steady daily attention.
This year’s planner contains 106 printable planning pages for you to choose from, so that you can build the planner that truly serves your own home and children. And, if you follow Exploring Nature With Children, the full year of ENWC has already been plugged into the calendar for you, so you do not need to plan out those weekly nature study themes yourself.
BONUS: This year’s planner also includes 14 additional guided planning pages, including the new:
Mother’s Term Compass Pages A place to begin each term with calm and realism: considering what your home education needs to feel like, what your children most need, and what you yourself need in order to carry the term well.
Family Culture & Traditions Pages An invitation to notice and preserve the things that make your family life meaningful: the books you return to, seasonal traditions, faith rhythms, nature places, meals, songs, poems, prayers, and small comforts that your children will one day remember.
Planning home education is not only about lessons, it’s is about building a family culture.
The 2026–2027 Charlotte Mason Home Education Planner is designed to hold your hand from big-picture vision to daily lesson planning, helping you create a personal road map for the year ahead while keeping the process simple, practical, and beautiful.
The planner runs from August 2026 to August 2027, and is available now.
Take a look at the sample pages, choose the pages that will serve your family best, and begin shaping a homeschool year that feels calm, faithful, purposeful, and full of life.
Use code PLAN20 for a limited, 20% summer discount.
The turning points of the year offers children so much more than a pleasant seasonal activity. They offer a way of understanding time, creation, history, and faith. Midsummer is one of those beautiful, full and rich moments.
The days are long and golden, the hedgerows are thick with green, flowers are abundant, bees move busily among the blooms, and the evening light lingers long after dinner. Children often notice these changes instinctively: the brightness at bedtime, the warmth in the garden, along with the sense that the year has reached a rich and shining fullness.
A Charlotte Mason education gives children the habit of attention. It teaches them to form relationships with the world around them: with nature, poetry, art, Scripture, history, and the changing seasons. Seasonal celebrations bring these living relationships together in a way that is deeply memorable.
Midsummer invites our children to observe:
the height of the sun, the fullness of the garden, the abundance of flowers, the work of bees and insects, the long evening light, the turning of the year.
These are not abstract lessons. They are living ideas, rooted in the child’s very own experience of the world.
For Christian families, Midsummer is also traditionally connected with St. John’s Tide, celebrated on the 24th June, the feast day of St. John the Baptist.
At the height of the sun’s light, the Church remembers John: the one who prepared the way for Christ, and whom Jesus described as a “burning and shining lamp.” This gives the season a beautiful spiritual depth. As the outer world is full of light, warmth, flowers, and growth, we are invited inwardly to prepare the way for Christ, the true Light.
It is not a busywork craft pack or a collection of disconnected activities. It is a guide to creating a living family tradition: one that helps children connect the natural year with the Christian year, and gently weaves together nature study, Scripture, poetry, art, observation, and reflection.
Within this guide, you will find:
Midsummer and St. John’s Tide Journal Pages
Getting started: notes on using this guide
About Midsummer and St. John’s Tide
Joyfully Observing Midsummer and St. John’s Tide
Book List
A poem to enjoy as you celebrate
A piece of art to enjoy as you celebrate
This guide gives you everything you need to mark the day thoughtfully, without hours of preparation.
You might take an evening walk, gather flowers, notice the bees, read a poem aloud, look closely at a painting, talk about St. John the Baptist, light a candle at the family table, or invite your children to record what they observe in their journals. Simple things, offered with intention, become part of the atmosphere of home.
Over time, these seasonal observances become anchors in a child’s memory. They remember the flowers, the long light, the stories, the prayers, the books, the family table. They learn that the year has rhythm and meaning, that creation is worth noticing, that faith is not separate from the natural world, but can be lived and remembered within it.
Celebrating The Seasons With Children: Midsummer and St. John’s Tide is available now as a PDF download.
37 pages | $9
A beautiful way to help your children notice the light, give thanks for the season, and prepare the way for Christ.
Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download.
If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum. This week’s hashtag will be:#ENWCmuseumvisitweek
