The leaves are just catching color where we live. The heat from the summer sun is starting to wane ever so slightly and cooler, crisper air is beginning to breeze through. Fall is just around the corner and with it, I feel deep within my soul a yearning for simplicity and presence.
It feels as if the world is seemingly spinning faster and faster. The pace I find myself caught in feels unsustainable and undesirable. I'm often planning years ahead, lost in an unknown future while actively loosing my current life with my kids. I don't want that. That's why we're starting the school year off with these two values in hand, simple presence.
After a decade in public school, I noticed a difference between what we think kids need to be able to learn and what they actually need. Learning is simple. Kids don't need an abundance of worksheets and workbooks. They don't even need an excessive amount of "school time." They are naturally curious and with a well thought out plan filled with natural learning experiences, they'll likely do just fine. (There is time and place for pen and pencil, I'll argue hard about the importance of a good letter/phonics program another day).
Our 2026 homeschool plan is built around our life. It involves learning through living stories and experiencing real-life activities rooted in seasonal rhythms that will ultimately help grow our knowledge and love for the grand story of Redemption woven throughout Scripture.
We're homeschooling a toddler and a PK/K this year and I have a part time job at our church, which means our days need to be flexible enough for real life, structured enough to progress, and rich enough to give them a growing picture of the world God made.
So rather than asking, “How much can we get through?” I'm asking a different question:
What do I want my children to know, love, and remember?
And that question has completely shaped our homeschool plan.
We're Learning Through Living Stories
Instead of separating every subject into its own little box and switching between workbooks, we're using thematic stories in a strategic way to grow our knowledge of the world God created and the different settings/seasons illustrated in the Bible.
Living stories are the heart of our homeschool this year—beautiful books and stories that introduce our children to people, places, history, literary elements, ideas, and God's world in a way that feels alive. I use the term stories instead of just books because we will be looking at hymns, paintings, and Scripture alongside classic picture books and favorite stories.
This type of plan or curriculum is known as a knowledge-building curriculum in the school world. Children need to build their knowledge and understanding of the world in order to deeply and independently interact with it. Kids who know more, understand more concepts and ideas are better able to think deeply and critically, as well as articulate their ideas.
This type of plan intentionally helps children develop a rich base of knowledge about the world, rather than focusing only on isolated skills. The goal is for children to continually connect new learning to what they already know, creating a strong foundation for deeper understanding, curiosity, and learning over time.
This is also our second year through this curriculum. Not only is our daughter excited to read some of the same stories again (old favorites), but I'm excited to see her understanding of these concepts deepen. Instead of learning something once, revisiting important concepts helps build deeper understanding and creates seasonal memories for our family.
We're Learning Through Seasonal Experiences
The seasons give us a natural rhythm. They give us something to anticipate, something to notice, and something to return to year after year. Some of my favorite childhood memories are around these seasonal experiences, things we did every year around the same time. Why not tie our family learning to these?
Most Montessori or Charlotte Mason inspired curriculum acknowledges the importance of real life experience. The beauty of homeschool is that we get to accentuate these experiences as a family helping stories and ideas come alive. We aren't just gaining knowledge, we're gaining experiences.
When we learn about farms we try to get experiences of life on a farm. When we learn about how animals survive winter in the woods, we ourselves experience winter in the woods. Our experiences beckon us to slow down, and encourage our brains to notice more, wonder more, and understand a little more about God and His world and Word.
Building Biblical Literacy Through the Grand Story
And that's the point. The Lord says that the law can be summed up with loving God and loving our neighbors, and knowing is a starting point for loving. These rhythms of learning, living stories and seasonal experiences give us a beautiful way to build Biblical literacy through the grand story of redemption.
The Bible doesn't tell us a collection of disconnected stories. It tells one grand story repeatedly, the story of the world.
Creation.
Fall.
Promise.
Redemption.
Restoration.
As our children grow, I want them to begin seeing Scripture as our story, our history, revealing God's character, purposes, and plan through His people. I want them to understand that all of life connects to the author of life.
Learning about agriculture will help them understand agricultural terms in the Bible and give a deeper understanding to Jesus being our Vine or our Good Shepherd. Learning about rivers will help them picture Jesus being our living water and the river flowing out of the New Jerusalem.
As we lean into nature's seasonal rhythms we can remind ourselves of God's grand story. Creation, fall, promise, waiting, redemption, and restoration. The world continually reminding us that God is a God of life, death, provision, renewal, and restoration.
Creation becomes a vocabulary for understanding Scripture, and Scripture gives us a lens for understanding creation.
That's what I mean when I say our learning is rooted in the grand story of Redemption.
We're not adding Bible lessons onto our “real” curriculum. We are learning about the world, to help us better understand His Word.
The story of redemption is the thread running through all of it.
What Will This Actually Look Like With a Toddler and a PK/K?
So, what will all of this actually look like with a toddler, a preschooler/kindergartener, and a mom who also works part-time?
It looks a lot less like traditional school and a lot more like life.
We read stories throughout the day, most tied to our theme. Our devotional time typically happens in the morning, but easily slides to another meal time. We use a loop schedule for all of our other activities and tasks (i.e. observing a painting, baking, crafting, letter work, math games, etc.).
Our homeschool plan this year is divided into four sections aligned with the seasons. Each section plan includes a curated collection of living stories, Scripture passages, hymns, artwork, simple crafts and recipes, and experiences. In addition to this plan, we have a structured letter/phonics work (what I taught for 9 years), and will follow a number sense progression for early math skills.
Fall on the Farm:
We'll spend 12 weeks learning about farms while walking through God’s story of redemption. Our study will being in the garden and take a closer look at the fall of humanity and God's glorious promised seed. Taking a look at farm animals and harvest, we'll study God's story of redemption in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament. As fall fades to winter, we'll take a look at how farms prepare for winter, exploring death and new life found in Jesus.
The Promise of Christmas:
We're planning on taking a 6 week break for Advent reading through the Biblical story, building anticipation of the coming Savior. We have a new idea for advent we'd like to try this year so stick around to see.
Winter in the Woods:
At the start of the new year with darker, shorter days, we'll spend 10 weeks learning about how the natural world survives winter while reading through the Gospels discovering how Jesus lived and teaches us to live in the now but not yet.
The Promise of Easter: As we finish the Gospels we'll be perfectly timed to pause and ponder Holy Week.
Spring by the Stream
As the world around us bursts into new life, we'll take a closer look at the birth of the church through Acts and the Epistles. We'll study ponds, rivers, and lakes, exploring life cycles of plants and animals, the power of water, and looking at how the Holy Spirit moves through the church for 10 weeks.
Summer in the Sand & Summer in the Soil:
Summer we'll slow down. Our studies will be shorter, only 4 weeks each. They are more flexible and filled with intentionality to help us slow down and spend longer stretches outside exploring the ocean/lakes or spending time in our garden.
The goal isn't to maximize every minute of summer. It's to notice what is already happening around us and give our children the freedom to play and wonder.
And Yes, There Will Still Be Reading, Writing & Math
This is a seasonal learning, gospel-centered, early years, family curriculum. That means it is a curated collection of questions, stories, and activities designed to help grow our whole family’s knowledge and affection for God and His creation, cultivate curiosity and wonder, and create connection within our family, with the Lord, and with His world. It is intended for our family to complete together and designed to easily adapt to our families individual needs.
This plan is separate from our skill based learning. We will still be working on phonics and letter writing with our daughter as well as early addition and subtraction. With our son we are working on route counting and number sense within 3 as well as articulation and vocabulary. Our skill based learning is a mixture of programs I've previously taught for 9 years, progressions I've learned when I studied child development for my masters, and common sense. I'll share those along the way.
The biggest difference is that our skill based learning is not dictating our knowledge and does not take over our learning, it's a part of our learning and often (though not always) easily incorporated into our stories and activities.
You Can Join Us
This is our plan for 2026. It's a framework for our family to help build Biblical literacy, curiosity and understanding of the world that intentionally ties to seasonal rhythms.
And I'd love for you to come along with us.
Throughout the year, I'll be sharing the stories we're reading, the seasonal activities we're trying, the resources we're loving, the connections we're making, and the things that inevitably don't go according to plan.
Maybe you're homeschooling and want a little inspiration.
Maybe you're doing preschool at home.
Maybe you send your kids to school but want to create a little more intentional learning around your family table.
Or maybe you're simply longing for a slower, more connected way to spend these years with your kids.
Wherever you are, you're welcome here. This plan is intentionally designed to mold to your life and help your family grow more aware of God's world and Word.
You're welcome to get inspirations from what I post on socials or here, or you can purchase a copy of the plan to follow along more closely.
This will be my 12th school year, 10 in public education, 1 homeschool, and I can say with absolute certainty, this is going to be the best one yet.
Here's to a school year filled with simple presence.