Learning Activities Organized by the Season

Without even really meaning to, I realized that I had our learning activities organized by the season.

I guess this approach has just always made sense to me.

In this post, I’m sharing a peek into what this looks like in our home.

You may find yourself drawn to organizing your homeschooling resources in a similar way.

Or you may have discovered a different system that works better for you.

Either way, my hope is that this post will inspire you in some small way!

Picture Books Organized by the Season

I sure do love children’s books – always have!

Over the years, we have built quite a collection.

While I have tremendously pared down our book collection, there are still many special seasonal titles I have chosen to keep.

These books are sorted by the season and kept on a shelf in our homeschool closet.

Though not all pictured here, there is an area of books for:

• Winter
• Valentine’s Day
• Easter
• Fall
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas

These are the seasons/celebrations that are most important to our family.

Your family’s seasonal bookshelf may look a bit different than ours.

The goal? To have a place where season-specific books are kept.

This way, you can grab the books you want to enjoy with your kids during that time of year/season of celebration.

No gathering books from all around the house – trying to find your child’s favorite pumpkin-themed books or those sentimental Christmas favorites.

You know exactly where they are.

Learning Activities Organized by the Season

Now what about those things that aren’t printable worksheets or children’s books?

Let’s chat about those other learning activities that may be seasonal in theme.

Near the seasonal book shelf in our homeschool closet, you will find these bins.

With four kids going through our homeschool, these are activities, I have been able to use year after year.

These learning resources have either been held onto for a younger sibling to use or kept with the intention of revisiting/building on a concept as a child gets older.

At the end of a season, as items are being put away, I try to carefully consider whether or not I want to hold onto a resource for another year.

• Do I have another child who could use this in some way next year?
• Can this activity be extended in some way next year?

These Seasonal Bins Include Things Like:

• small holiday-themed puzzles or games
• printable games and activities (Many of these are freebies from This Reading Mama.)
• seasonal arts and crafts supplies (I keep a very limited amount of these kinds of things.)
• holiday stamps, stickers, etc.
• cookie cutters are specifically for play dough, tracing/coloring, etc.

A Quick Example of How I Use These

Last year, someone passed along some extra valentines that I knew we could use for next year’s Valentine’s Day party with our homeschool friends.

I didn’t stash them in a cabinet or drawer to never been seen again.

I immediately tossed them in our Valentine’s Day bin!

This way I will know exactly where they are when February rolls around next year!

I did the same things with a couple of small Christmas puzzles I recently found at a yard sale.

When various seasons and holidays come along, I have everything ready to go in my bins:

• saving me lots of time – No looking for those things I’ve misplaced throughout the year.

and

• saving me lots of money – I have plenty of things I can use to make the season special – rarely is it necessary to buy anything more.

Want to try a similar idea in the kitchen?

If you like this idea, you might like season how we’ve also done this with food-related items in the kitchen!