There are shoots in all of the beds. Pots filled with purple crocuses have opened up all in unison, as if a code word had been mentioned. We’ve started seeing bees (bees!) and I have seen my first frog. The birds are singing loudly, sweetly, and my daughter is suddenly drawn to our scruffy garden for hours on end. Sunshine is meeting us at our breakfast table each morning.

Spring is coming. We are so, so happy about it.

It’s been a hard winter.

Our Spring learning plans

I’m currently not doing a huge amount of home education planning, as Frida is at the stage where she is really enjoying creating her own projects and play ideas. After the year we’ve just had, I’m also feeling hesitant to make grand plans of any sort! However, I do have some themes and learning ideas in mind which we will likely work on over the coming months. I’ve talked to her about all of these and know she’s interested, although that may change!

My main focus this season will be getting outdoors a lot, doing some home and garden projects, and making time to get down and really play with Frida every day. She’s so much more independent and self-directed now, it’s easy to forget to do it sometimes! All other learning plans are secondary to those aims.

Ancient Egypt

This has nothing to do with spring, but Frida is into this topic at the moment so we will continue our learning into spring. She’s been enjoying drawing on papyrus, decorating gold-painted coffin models, and learning about hieroglyphs and the various gods and goddesses. We’ll keep reading, listening to podcasts, chatting and crafting, always following her lead and interest.

Gardening

It’s that time of the year again! Our garden is a MESS after months of neglect, but I’ve already started some gentle work out there and I’m excited to get going with some garden projects solo and with Frida. As well as gardening proper, there are so many cool subjects which can be tied into gardening, including:

  • Soil, decomposers, composting
  • Pollinators
  • Flowers
  • Foods around the world – how do plants adapt to different climates?
  • Seasonal cooking
  • Encouraging wildlife
  • The development of agriculture

I don’t have any real plans for these ahead of time though, we have plenty of books to hand and we’ll see what Frida is into.

Eggs and nesting birds

Each Spring I feel like I suddenly get a burst of inspiration for nature study and dust down our Exploring Nature With Children curriculum (aff link). I’m really excited about doing some work on nests, eggs and birds this year. Some activities I will offer to Frida this year include:

I’m sure I’ll share some of what we get up to over on Instagram!

Ponds and frogs

Last year we watched tadpoles grow into sweet little frogs in our tiny (tiny!) garden pond. This year we’re really looking forward to repeating the process. I don’t imagine we’ll do much lifecycle work, as we did that pretty comprehensively last year and Frida understands it well. I’d like to maybe explore pond ecosystems a little, perhaps making a collaborative craft project like this or this. Mostly I am looking forward to just hanging out by a bunch of different ponds and soaking up how good it feels to be watching life bloom again.

Alongside all of this, we’ll be doing the usual: reading poems, hanging out with the cat, reciting verses, drawing and crafting, learning Latin, playing, doing science projects, dressing up, listening to audiobooks, learning to read, going for walks, taking long baths, and doing all of the myriad things which make up joyful, consent-based home education.

Our favourite spring books

One of my great pleasures at the start of each season is bringing out our seasonal books (and perhaps buying a couple of new ones, ahem – this was the one I couldn’t resist this year).

You can find all of my favourite spring books here in the Beautiful Childhood bookshop.

(Please note these are affiliate links, so if you purchase any of these books I will make a small commission at no cost to you. You can find other recommendations here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/beautifulchildhood}

Some spring verses to share with your little ones

Every morning we share a few verses and songs. It’s such a nice way to start the day.

You can find some of our old favourites here in this blog post from last year.

A sweet spring playlist

I’m putting together a Spotify playlist for Frida and I to listen to on sunny spring mornings. You can find it here if you’d like to listen along with us!

I am wishing you a happy, healthy, and joyful spring, and many moments of beauty and connection.

Eloise x x

Posted by:Eloise R

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