Our 2025 Homeschool Year in Review

As I reflect on our year of homeschooling, I am proud of how we spent our days together this year, growing and learning as a family. Our homeschooling journey unfolded over the course of the year by blending creativity, learning, and special moments together.

Sometimes homeschooling can feel busy or chaotic, but as I look back, I see how much we were able to learn together this year as we dove into learning themes, projects, and adventures that enriched our children’s education and deepened our family bond. With four children spanning from kindergarten to 7th grade, we were able to practice education as a cohesive unit, choosing subjects or unit studies and learning together, while doing activities for each child at their individual learning levels.

My biggest takeaway is that it wasn’t just the months with well-laid plans that produced the most learning and connection, it was simply the time invested in each other and in exploring the world around us – together.

In this blog post I am excited to share highlights from our homeschool year, plus some of our favorite books, unit studies, and curriculum we used this past year.

In this blog post:

January 2025 – Cozy winter family homeschooling
February 2025 – Learning virtues through Valentine’s Day
March 2025 – Blending science with storytelling
April 2025 – Going deeper with Easter
May 2025 – Life learning and a new reader
June-August 2025 – Summer family adventures
September 2025 – Back to homeschool
October 2025 – Maker’s market and the written language
November 2025 – An intentional Thanksgiving
December 2025 – Holiday joy despite setbacks
Favorite family curriculum from Treehouse Schoolhouse

January 2025 – Cozy winter family homeschooling

We kicked off our year by diving into winter nature study as we integrated winter-themed unit studies with a fun read-aloud, Mr. Popper’s Penguins. We learned about snow, ice, penguins, Antarctica, and explorers. I loved bringing all four of the kids together for this study. It really helped us get through some of those cold, dreary days. A couple of memorable projects were making paper snowflakes to cover our windows and snow dough for the littles to play with while I read aloud.

February 2025 – Learning virtues through Valentine’s Day

We loved celebrating Valentine’s Day with A Virtuous Valentine’s. We learned about compassion, empathy, kindness, and selflessness through rich living books and Scripture. It was our first year using the study and the kids really enjoyed all of the stories and crafts. We ended the study with a Valentine’s Tea Party.

March 2025 – Blending science with storytelling

In March we finished a touching read-aloud, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. We studied wind, poverty, Africa, crops, and more through this story and when it was finished, we met together with friends to do some STEM projects and presentations.

April 2025 – Going deeper with Easter

During the weeks leading up to Easter, we studied the Bible together and created keepsake Narration Notebooks, made Easter crafts, baked together, and read so many lovely books. Using An Expectant Easter never gets old because each year the kids go deeper in their understanding of why Jesus came to earth to die and what the power of His resurrection means for us today.

May 2025 – Life learning and a new reader

Between back-to-back vacations and birthday celebrations, May was a wild month for our family calendar. We took a quiet approach to schooling and mostly learned through real life experiences like cooking, packing, cleaning, organizing, and preparing for parties.

Even without many days of intentional lessons, May was a milestone because my youngest child learned how to read! We had seen baby steps over the last year, but she was finally learned how to pick up books and read them start to finish with confidence.

June-August 2025 – Summer family adventures

While we typically homeschool year-round, this summer we decided to take a break from formal lessons and embrace the freedom of travel. It’s been a long-time dream for us to have both the finances and a flexible work schedule that allows us to explore the world as a family. This year we felt like the time was right, especially as we waited for the children to grow old enough to travel more easily.

Selecting our destinations was a fun adventure in itself; we aimed for places that were not only fun but also rich in opportunities for learning. We believe every moment spent exploring a new city or encountering a different culture is an educational experience. From visiting historical landmarks to exploring natural wonders, we saw countless opportunities to teach the kids in real-time.

We went camping several times over the summer to some new spots and some familiar favorites. We enjoyed tubing down a creek in the mountains of Bryson City, North Carolina, camping close enough to walk to the beach in Huntington Beach, South Carolina, along with a few other quick trips.

We took a longer trip to California to visit family and explore San Francisco. Learning about Alcatraz and visiting the island was a great experience. We also traveled to Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands National Park in New Mexico, both incredible learning experiences. Glorieta Family Camp was definitely one of our highlights, where we spent a week focusing on intentional family discipleship and connection, along with adventures like rock climbing, ziplining, and challenges.

Last, I planned a secret trip for my husband and I to explore Glacier National Park for his 40th birthday. In between all of the travel, I was researching curriculum and preparing to begin a new school year with all four children officially doing lessons!

September 2025 – Back to homeschool

We kicked off our back-to-homeschool year with both familiar and new curriculum! One of our favorite new additions was Treehouse Story School, which we used for my two youngest children. We also loved adding in Story of the World for family-style history and studied archeology and ancient Egypt. We started the school year reading Trumpet of the Swan and studying apples with Treehouse Nature Study: Autumn. The older kids started a Chemistry class with friends on our porch. We took a field trip to an apple orchard to wrap up the month!

October 2025 – Maker’s Market and the written language

October was full of crafting and creating as the kids geared up for their annual Maker’s Market with our homeschool community. They made cardboard mazes, ornaments, and doll clothes. They also had their hand in creating their costumes for a harvest gathering we hosted. In school, we continued our history studies and learned about the history of the written language. A highlight was visiting the Alphabet Museum, which gave us an up close look at hieroglyphics and the history of the alphabet.

November 2025 – An intentional Thanksgiving

We used A Treasured Thanksgiving to slow down and lean into gratefulness and contentment, while learning about the historical story of the first Thanksgiving. The kids really enjoyed the map and timeline work, as well as the read aloud and adding to our gratitude chain each day. We also spent a lot of time learning life skills this month as we hosted Thanksgiving and a lot of company at our home.

December 2025 – Holiday joy despite setbacks

December was a month with some unexpected setbacks, as I endured a painful knee injury that kept me off my feet for nearly two weeks, plus juggling doctor’s appointments and physical therapy. While we didn’t get to do everything I had hoped and use our full Christmas curriculum, we leaned into a slower season and enjoyed our traditions, a lot of reading aloud, making homemade gifts, and just being together.

Reflecting on the year, I am grateful for the approach we’ve taken to learning as a family. Despite the challenges we faced, we found joy in the little things and the meaningful connections we made along the way. Each month reminded us that education extends beyond books; it’s about instilling values, experiencing life together, and making memories that last a lifetime. As we look ahead to the new year, I’m excited about the lessons yet to come and the adventures that await us.