Stepping into September the slower pace of August was solidly behind us. We eased into the school year in August layering in more subjects each week. In addition to all our lessons September brought the start to all the kids’ extra curricular activities too. In preparation for the first FULL month of our full schedule, we decided to take Labor Day off.
A Learn+PLAY community mama reached out before Labor Day asking for my printable Veteran’s Day cards. She planned for her family to print them, color them, and take them to their local fire department to express gratitude on Labor Day. What a thoughtful and kind idea!
Since I had a long weekend with a little extra time, I decided to give my resource library a MUCH NEEDED update! Navigating my collections of resources is significantly easier with updated cover images for all the different categories!
Most of our days looked the same, we settled into our rhythms and routines and enjoyed our days at home together.
Our read aloud for September was The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba. This is admittedly a heavy book, but my youngest is in upper elementary (4th grade) and since we read it aloud all together I felt comfortable navigating the conversations that would surround it. It was an opportunity to open my children’s worldview and give them eyes to see beyond their American experience. It was an excellent book, I did cry a few times and we did talk through difficult topics but I’m glad we read it together. Even if you don’t chose it as a read aloud, I highly recommend it! So good!
Our science curriculum this year is focused on Earth Science. In early September we learned about aquatic life. Our local zoo has an aquarium so it just made sense to visit. It was a quick trip just to see the fish and coral and learn a little marine biology but it was a lot of fun!
Part of our marine life focus was studying the ocean zones. Of course you know I was all about leaning into an art project to support our learning! We used watercolors paint the layers. It was a lot of fun and actually turned out pretty cool!
September also brought the introduction of a new collection I’m excited to contribute to this year! Everyday Learn + PRAY is a fun, new Bible focused collection of resources for family discipleship and sunday school too! I made these for one of my church’s SS classes and they turned out so cute! 
Our tried and true favorite, World Watch continues to be a part of our daily routine. Typically the kids watch it while they eat breakfast. If you’ve been around any length of time you’ve heard me sing its praises! If you have elementary age or older children, you might really like this daily news briefing from a biblical worldview. Use this link to try it FREE for a month no strings attached! 
Rutledge and I have continued to enjoy our United States study. We’re going in alphabetical order and doing one state each week. So far we’ve made it as far as California! Every week we do book research, online research, collect facts and information and we do a small enrichment craft or activity! You can read all about our adventures in my weekly state blogposts.
The girls are doing well in their hybrid program. The first quarter flew by so quickly! We’ve studied lots of fun latin and greek roots and both girls have already finished their first novel studies of the year!
I stop by our local library weekly to pick up new books, primarily I’m finding hardcopy resources to use for our state studies but there’s a sprinkling of other books for science explorations and plenty just for fun. Don’t you feel so rich walking out of a library with an arm load of books?! This gift of great privilege is not lost on me!
Rutledge’s language arts lessons have had a lighthouse as a central theme. In addition to reading about lighthouses around the world, we’ve painted a lighthouse watercolor and created lighthouse pop up cards. The story he has been reading features a family’s adventures on a deserted island with a lighthouse. As we’ve been doing these projects and reading the story it occurred to me that my crew has never been to or seen a lighthouse in person. The wheels started turning in my mind, dreaming up a trip to visit a lighthouse!
Our yard also had some work done in September. We had a giant, 100 year old oak taken down. It had grown all into the power lines going to our house. I thought I’d barely be able to count the day for school because 2/3 of my precious people were G-L-U-E-D to the window watching the entire process. We did what I’m going to count as a half day (math, reading, writing.) We definitely have a lot more natural light in the house/yard and hopefully the predicted winter weather will not be as problematic now that the power lines aren’t at risk.
As it turns out the wheels turned pretty quickly for a trip see a lighthouse! I looked up lighthouses in South Carolina and the ONLY publicly accessible lighthouse in the state is in Hunting Island State park. The forecast was beautiful, the girls were on Fall break and it seemed like perfect timing! In just under 3 hours we made it to the low country for a fun day of lighthouse and beach exploring! It was such a special, happy day! A core memory for sure!
We wrapped up the month nearly finishing out the first quarter. Having just visited and climbed a lighthouse, naturally, reading about lighthouses took on a new excitement! We’re excited to take a full week off of lessons completely for Fall break at the beginning of October. We’ll rest, reorganize all the things that fell apart in the first quarter, and dream for the coziest most festive quarter of the year! Homeschooling through the “ber” months is just my favorite!
