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I adore opening a new planner; the sense of a fresh start, a hopeful beginning.

When it comes to planning our home education, a planner can’t do the work for us, but a good planner can help to hold the shape of the year for us. It can gather the many threads of our days: books, habits, nature study, copywork, family rhythms, seasonal celebrations, lessons, appointments, and ideas, and help us to see them as a whole, rather than a frantic heap of good intentions!

I created the Raising Little Shoots Charlotte Mason Home Education Planner as I was home educating my own children. Designed for families who love the Charlotte Mason vision of education: living books, nature study, short lessons, attention, beauty, habit, outdoor life, and the slow formation of the child as a whole person.

The 2026–2027 Planner includes 106 printable planning pages within a 116-page PDF, beginning in August 2026. Alongside the dated planning pages, you will also find guided pages to help you think through your year more deeply, including the Mother’s Term Compass Pages and Family Culture & Traditions Pages.

It’s always been important to me to remember that planning is not only about lessons, it is also about asking:

What kind of atmosphere are we creating in our home?

What habits are we gently strengthening?

What books will feed our minds and hearts?

What seasonal rhythms do we want our children to remember?

Where do we need more simplicity?

Where do we need more courage?

Where do we need to make space for wonder?

For those using Exploring Nature With Children, the planner has been created with that rhythm in mind, and the weeks are pre-planned and included in the calendar pages, helping you to bring your nature study, seasonal observations, and weekly plans into one place. You may also wish to download the free annual Exploring Nature With Children calendar to help you see the year’s nature study themes at a glance.

A Few Helpful Resources for Your Planning

If you are beginning, refreshing, or deepening your Charlotte Mason journey this year, here are a few beautiful online places to explore:

For fairy tales, try Grimm’s Fairy Tales on Project Gutenberg or Andersen’s Fairy Tales on Project Gutenberg. Fairy tales can bring moral imagination, courage, beauty, peril, wonder, and deep story-language into the home.

For classic children’s literature, The Baldwin Project is a lovely rabbit hole of older stories, myths, legends, and children’s books.

For Charlotte Mason’s own writings, AmblesideOnline’s Charlotte Mason Series is a generous place to begin, with access to her six-volume series. You might also enjoy their page on Nature Study, especially if you are trying to build a simple, sustainable outdoor rhythm.

For thoughtful historical reading, the PNEU archive is a treasure trove, offering articles, ideas, and glimpses into the living educational movement that grew around Charlotte Mason’s work.

Do keep in mind that a Charlotte Mason education is not built by mastering every resource. It is built by small faithful choices: a poem read aloud, a bird noticed at the window, a child asked to narrate, a habit gently practised, a beautiful book opened again tomorrow.

A Planner as a Servant, Not a Master

The best kind of planning does not make us rigid, or anxious, but instead gives us somewhere kind to return. There will be weeks when everything flows beautifully. There will be weeks when illness, tiredness, interruptions, or ordinary family life undo the plan completely. That does not mean you have failed. It simply means you are educating real children in a real home.

The planner is there to help you to begin again, to re-gather, to notice what matters. To make room for lessons, yes, but also for family culture, seasonal beauty, nature walks, poetry, picture study, handicrafts, scripture, stories, and rest. Home education is not merely a schedule. It is a life! And a thoughtfully planned year can help that life feel less scattered and more intentional.

The Raising Little Shoots 2026–2027 Charlotte Mason Home Education Planner is available now, and you can use the code PLAN20 for 20% off.

May this be the year that you plan with clarity, teach with peace, and make room for the quiet riches that grow slowly.

From my home to yours,

Next week in Exploring Nature With Children we are studying summer trees.

Here are some helpful links for your week:

• Claire Walker Leslie’s Guide To Sketching Trees
• How To Draw Trees (Video Workshop) John Muir Laws
• The Habitat Song
• Bill Nye the Science Guy: Forests
• Come Outside : Wood

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: #ENWCsummertreeweek

Happy exploring!

July has almost arrived, and with it that full, warm feeling of proper summer.

The grass is high at the edges, the bees are busy in the flowers, berries are beginning to ripen, and the days can feel beautifully abundant, but also a little sprawling and quite messy. Children are in and out of doors, shoes are kicked off, drinks are left half-finished, and the house often carries all the evidence of a family living close to summer.

This time of year can be lovely, but it can also feel surprisingly tiring. The end of term, the heat, the loosened routines, the desire to make summer special, it can all become another thing to hold, if we allow it.

So I’ve made a small, free July Joy resource for you.

It is just one page: a gentle encouragement for the long, sun-warmed days of July. There are a few simple permissions, some cosy joys to choose from, small nature-noticing ideas, three quiet journal prompts, and a short July blessing. It is not a plan or a challenge, nor something to complete, simply an invitation to slow down a little, notice what is already here, and let July be nourishing in small and ordinary ways.

You might pin it to the fridge, tuck it into your planner, keep it beside your morning basket, or read the blessing aloud while the kettle boils.

May this month bring cool water, open windows, kind words, small treasures, and enough space for your family to breathe.

You can download the free page here: July Joy 

From my home to yours,

Next week is a break week in Exploring Nature With Children. 

To keep up your nature study momentum, spend a little time discussing the changes that you have been observing in your own special nature spot. Talk about the topics that your children have enjoyed learning about: 

•Draw a diagram of the parts of a flower
• What do they remember about the anatomy of a honeybee?
• Tell about the honeybee’s lifecycle.
• Tell what they know about the Summer Solstice.

As you talk with your child, do keep in mind these wise words from Miss Mason’s book, School Education:
We have all been in the case of the little girl who said, “Mother, I think I could understand if you did not explain quite so much.”

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: #enwcbreakweek

Happy exploring!

The new 2026–2027 Charlotte Mason Home Education Planner is now available, and you can use code PLAN20 for a limited 20% summer discount.

Planning a home education year can feel like a great deal to hold at once: books, lessons, habits, nature study, faith, family rhythms, and all the ordinary interruptions of everyday home life. This planner was created to bring simplicity, steadiness, and beauty to that work.

With 106 printable planning pages to choose from, you can build a planner that truly serves your own family, helping you to move from big-picture vision to daily lessons with more confidence and less overwhelm, and if you’re using Exploring Nature With Children, the full year of ENWC has already been planned into the calendar for you.

This year’s planner also includes 14 bonus guided planning pages, including:

Mother’s Term Compass Pages
to help you begin each term with clarity, realism, and peace.

Family Culture & Traditions Pages
to help you preserve the books, rhythms, meals, nature places, prayers, poems, and small comforts that shape your family life.

A helpful planning tip: plan your “thread,” not just your timetable

Before filling in every week, perhaps try making a simple golden thread list for the term.

Instead of asking only, “What do we need to get through?” ask:

What do I want to keep alive in our home this term?

Your golden thread might include things such as:

a poem at breakfast,
one faithful nature walk each week,
Shakespeare on Fridays,
a family read-aloud after lunch,
a candle lit before prayers,
or tea and cake after nature study.

Then, as you plan, let this thread guide you. If a week becomes busy, tired, or interrupted, you can return to the thread rather than feeling that the whole plan has failed. This is especially helpful because home education is not just about finishing lessons, but about building a full, faithful, and beautiful family culture.

The 2026–2027 Charlotte Mason Home Education Planner  runs from August 2026 to August 2027 and is available now.

You can take a look at the sample pages, begin shaping your year, and use code PLAN20 for a limited 20% summer discount.

The Free Exploring Nature With Children calendar is also now available on the website.

Happy Planning!

It’s almost Blossom Week in Exploring Nature With Children!

Here are some links to help with your studies:

• How to draw wildflowers by John Muir Laws (Video workshop)
• Anatomy of a flower (worksheet)
• Time lapse video of a Rose blooming
• Cherry Blossom Painting Tutorial
• Cherry Blossom with Bubblewrap
• Handwork : : Blossom embroidery

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

Happy exploring!

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 celebrate the abundance of beauty that 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

Celebrating The Seasons With Children – Midsummer and St. John’s Tide : 24th June

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

This coming week in Exploring Nature With Children is ‘Summer Solstice Week’, the Solstice itself falls on Sunday the 21st.

Here are some helpful links for your week:

• When Does Summer Start?
• 11 Things about the Summer Solstice
• What Causes Day Length to Change From Summer to Winter  (video)
• Bill Nye The Science Guy: The Seasons
• If you would like to have a Solstice party, here are some smashing ideas for food & drinks.

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

Happy exploring!

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.

The Sanctuary of Childhood ~ Autumn Edition was written to help families to nurture this sacred time.

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.

May this autumn become a sanctuary in your home.

From my home to yours,

“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?

A lovely recipe for Rose Petal Jelly

Things to Learn

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.