“Some of the days in November carry the whole memory of summer as a fire opal carries the color of moon rise.”
~Gladys Taber

Hi, there!

🍂November is here! We have almost reached the finish line of the semester! 

📖Some wonderful advice I received about this time of year is to really take a look at your child’s curriculum progress. Remember that in homeschooling, we are all about learning and going forward, not necessarily doing every single workbook page in a curriculum.

👟If your child is thriving and thoroughly understands all the material, feel free to sprint ahead to a place where they are more challenged! 

⏭️For instance, if they are a sentence diagramming whiz and the curriculum is asking them to identify proper nouns again, skip ahead. If they know all the multiplication tables backwards and forwards in their sleep and the workbook is reviewing (again…), you have permission to skip ahead.

😊Finishing early is always better than slogging through. And, much more fun, too!

Thanksgiving History Lesson

As we are almost to Thanksgiving, have you ever heard of Drive Through History? A friend told us about the program, and my kids love it!

Dave Stotts’s Thanksgiving episode is available for free on YouTube! His antics and dad jokes are guaranteed to bring a smile to kids of all ages and teach them a lot about history at the same time.

🎨Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving Art Lesson

Paint Snoopy, Woodstock, and Charlie Brown himself from Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving special in chalk pastels. Nana shares the simple and fun steps on Yes, You ARE an Artist!

🤗Thanksgiving History Lesson

November also naturally lends itself to contemplating the idea of having a grateful attitude. That can be hard sometimes to cultivate naturally.

I love Coffee and Carpool’s idea of making a Gratitude Pumpkin! You can make one for each child or make one big one as family. I like the homespun yet modern art vibe of it.

The author, Nicole says, “When our kids (or us) are feeling low, depressed or just like the world is ‘unfair,’ the quickest way out of the slump is to focus on what we do have. What we are grateful for. What makes our lives great. Of course, someone will always have more than us. But we will also always have more than others. Focusing on the good things in our life is essential to a happy life.” (source)

⚓Mayflower Unit Study

Lastly, we all think we know all about the pilgrims, right?

Black hats? Check.

Squanto and the corn and fish? Check.

But, have you ever read what they actually believed, in their own words?

This is a unit study about the Mayflower Compact – the document showing their agreement to come together as a community for the common good of all.

🥧Unit Studies with Science, Math, & More!

Just for good measure, here are a bunch of other fun, free printable November unit studies from Freedom Homeschooling. Invisible ink science activity using cranberries, a pumpkin pie math lesson on fractions – we’ve got you covered!

🍂Free Downloadable Poetry Ebook

This book from the Homeschool Compass is irresistible – it has got to be one of the most beautiful resources I’ve ever seen. Share beauty and art with your children with poems like:

  • Autumn by Emily Dickinson
  • Fall, Leaves, Fall by Emily Bronte
  • The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

📚Read Aloud Revival’s Fall Booklist

Read Aloud Revival can always be trusted to have the best booklists for all ages. Their fall list doesn’t disappoint!

Get some fall inspiration and feel more in-season with their printable list.

I hope these ideas help you create an environment of joy in your home and in your homeschool overall.

Thank you for reading,

Jessica - signature

Jessica Lovett

Did you know we have a monthly eMagazine, The Home Educator Express? It’s free to subscribe and get ideas like those found in this article to help keep homeschooling fresh! Find past issues and subscribe for free.

Did you know we have a monthly eMagazine, The Home Educator Express? It’s free to subscribe and get ideas like those found in this article to help keep homeschooling fresh! Find past issues and subscribe for free.

Jessica Lovett

Jessica Lovett is passionate about homeschooling her own kids, sci-fi books, quirky coffee shops, and her scruffy black dog, Bofur. In her spare time, she loves playing the piano and also singing on her church’s worship team. Her writing can be seen on ChristianAnswers.net and her novel Transplanting Hope is available wherever books are sold.

Jessica Lovett