by Dena Bless
Oct. 13, 2025
As I was visiting my younger daughter in New Hampshire last week, I was enjoying all the fall colors. There are trees everywhere, and they were beginning their renowned changing of colors to mark the fall season. Some of us here in California are fortunate and get a little of that glorious color and crisping of the air, while others are fortunate to live in an area where it’s warm enough to still go to the beach for another couple of months. Regardless of where you live and what your weather is like, here are some ideas to add a little color to your homeschool days during this splendid time of year!
Fall Colors
Go on nature walks and enjoy the colors and cooler air.
Notice some trees have leaves that change and some don’t. Why?
For those that do change colors, do they go in a certain order? Why?
Create collages with foliage you find or make rubbings with crayons and watercolors or do leaf chalk art.
Use your art to make cards and take them to your local Vet’s Hall or VA hospital and give them out for Veteran’s Day (Tuesday, November 11).
Apple Picking
Apples are a quintessential fall food. If you have a “You Pick” apple place near you, it’s a fun field trip. If not, you can still do several fun activities with those you find in the grocery store.
Make cider, pie, or several other wonderful dishes with the apples you pick. (Our favorite pie recipe we use every Thanksgiving is at the end of How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. The book is very entertaining as well.) Maybe you’ll want to take some treats along with your cards on Veteran’s Day?
Are certain types of apples better for certain recipes? What criteria would determine that?
Do a blind taste test as a family and see who likes which apples best and why and then find a recipe for each kind.
Find all sorts of interesting apple facts specific to California and some great places to visit: How Do Apples Grow in California? - California Grown
Harvest/Gleaning
Discover and discuss as a family what this is and what the biblical basis is (see Leviticus 19 and 23 and the book of Ruth, especially chapter 2).
My top pick (pun intended?!) to work with is Gleanings for the Hungry, but if you’re not able to go to them or organize an event through them, California Gleaning & Food Recovery Organizations has a long list of places throughout the state where your family can get some real experience and a chance to serve.
Either as a collaborative effort or a competition, play some “words within word” games with words/phrases like harvest, glean(ing), bountiful, sow and reap, ingathering, etc.
Many towns and cities have pumpkin patches and/or corn mazes (that aren’t scary!) and welcome homeschool families and groups to come visit.
The cooler weather and shorter days also lend themselves to some indoor activities. It’s perfect weather to cozy up by the fireplace (with your apple cider!) and have family read aloud nights. Choose a book everyone can agree on, or switch around who gets to choose and do a different one each week.
And, of course, let’s remember the National Homeschool Day of Prayer!
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Loving all things autumnal, Dena wants to encourage you to enjoy this bountiful season with your family. Since both her girls are graduated and gone, she’s going to go cuddle up on the couch with a good book by herself and remember fun read-aloud times while homeschooling! She and her husband are the Bay Area/NorCal Regional Advisory Board members, and she is CHEA’s Events Manager as well.
