High School Spring Book Picks 2026/27

We're officially homeschooling our oldest again, and I am in joyful chaos mode curating high school curriculum, reading excellent books alongside him, and diving into the world of dual enrollment.

It’s all a HAPPY whirlwind!

For those who've been following our journey: our son still attends his private Baseball Academy six-plus hours a day, and they've graciously allowed him to continue homeschooling alongside that. We never know where the Lord will take our children, and that's exactly how we like it. We are so grateful to keep walking with him toward his academic AND athletic goals.

A few high school reads are listed below in no particular order.

 

Many are read slowly together, some independently, all looped each week. We're using Ambleside Online and a mix of other living books and adding in a few reads, curriculum and video courses to round out his lessons. 

Are You Liberal? Conservative? or Confused? by Richard J. Maybury (We are working through the second half of my Simple Studies: Exploring Political Ideologies guide with this book since we put it down to move across the US last year!)

The Odyssey by Homer 

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

Common Sense & The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine

Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington by Richard Brookhiser

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (He’s reading one of our beautiful, illustrated versions printed in the 1800s)

Chemistry (We own the Apologia books both early and high school but are supplementing with various other videos and curricula)

Saxon Geometry

The Art of Construction by Salvadori 

Never Give In! The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches by Winston Churchill (we are reading this aloud with his younger sister, and he reads one Historical Document each week listed on Ambleside Online.)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 

The Fool and the Heretic by Wood & Falk (This is turning out to be one of his favorite books this term so far).

A History of the English Speaking Peoples: The Age of Revolution by Winston S. Churchill 

One Race One Blood by Ham & Ware 

Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves: Book I of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene by Roy Maynard 

101 Great American Poems — (Dover edition)

The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

Sometimes I turn to audiobooks to help me pre-read some of our books we’re discussing together.

And I hear Amazon is currently running a FREE TRIAL for their brand new Audible Standard Membership! 🎧🤩

We recently announced our latest new release: Simple Studies: Western Marvels — A Literature Guide for Grades 5–12.

So many of you have pleaded for guides that your middle and high schoolers can use.

I’m reading through Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels: The Occident a second time around with our youngest, and I created a Simple Studies guide to go alongside it and am sharing it with you, because I know you're also looking for resources that actually meet your kids where these living books take them.

 

Thank you for being here!

🫐 If Blueberries Were Ideas: What's Our Job as Homeschool Parents?

I was at a women's church retreat last weekend when the topic of picking fruit with our kids came up over dinner. I sat there a little dazed, as memory bubbled up with affection. All those fruit-picking adventures in Oregon when my children were young.

We'd show up at the blueberry, apple, or strawberry orchard, grab a bucket, and head out.

We'd start picking fruit, and then...

One went in the mouth.

One went in the bucket.

One dropped without a second thought.

Whether it was a plump blueberry, a sun-warmed strawberry, or a crisp little apple, it didn't matter. The pattern was always the same.

(Yes, this all reminds me a little of Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey.)

But it made me think…

I always wanted that bucket as full as we could make it. I'd watch my kids and quietly will them toward the fullest clusters, the heaviest branches, the brightest red berries hiding under the leaves. More, more, more.

But God didn't fashion us that way.

Some fruit goes straight in the mouth. It gives us exactly the energy we need to tackle today. Some drops to the ground, never to be seen again. And some gets dropped in the bucket, saved and stored and carried home for later.

Now I see that fruit the same way I see lessons and IDEAS.

Our homeschool, and our life of faith, is an orchard. The lessons, the books, the Scripture passages, the rabbit trails, the conversations at dinner, the chapters read aloud.

They're all hanging there on the branches, ripe and waiting.

Some ideas are blueberries, small and quiet, easy to miss, but packed with something good. Some are strawberries, bright and beautiful, the ones that catch your child's eye first. Some are apples, sturdy and substantial, the kind that keep.

Our children move through this orchard the same way they moved through those orchards in Oregon.

They eat what gives them energy today. They bucket what they'll need later. They leave behind what isn't ripe for them yet.

And they should.

The lessons that truly take root aren't the ones we pushed hardest or planned most carefully. They're the ones our children reached for themselves and ate on the spot, hungry, unhurried, present.

Some ideas get consumed quietly and become the very architecture of who they are. You won't see it happening. You'll just look up one day and realize it's already built into them.

Some will ferment slowly into “jam” they'll keep and share with the world one day in their own time.

Maybe that looks like Scripture memorized at age seven that rises to the surface in a hard season at twenty-five. Those quiet verses neatly tucked into their subconscious.

And some will simply fall to the ground.

A berry drops from little fingers and hits the dirt. An apple tumbles into the grass. A strawberry gets set down and left behind.

And here’s what I had to learn: you don't scramble to pick it up. You don't brush it off and press it back into their hand. You don't say "wait, you needed that one."

You let it go.

Because not every idea is meant for every child. Not every lesson is theirs to carry.

Some things will fall away and that child will still grow up whole and good and exactly who they were meant to be, without ever picking up that particular piece of fruit.

It was never theirs to begin with.

The dropped berry is not a failure of the orchard.

It is not a failure of your child.

And mama, it is not a failure of YOU.

So I’ve come to terms with the fact that it is not my job to fill their bucket.

It's not my job to do the choosing, the sorting, the deciding what's ripe enough or important enough or spiritually significant enough.

I used to think a good homeschool day meant a full bucket. A covered checklist. Verses memorized, lessons completed, boxes ticked.

But that's not how children grow.

It's God's job to be the orchard. My job is just to be the branch, the hands and feet of Jesus, stretched out and offering what I have.

To be fruitful and offer beautiful, colorful, abundant ideas.

And then to reach out with the very best God graciously gave me to offer.

I can only stretch so far. Many blueberries won't make it off the branch. Many strawberries will go unnoticed in the grass. Many apples will fall before anyone reaches for them.

But many, so many, will be consumed. And those quiet, consistent, diligent ones are the ones our children will grow by most, often in moments we never thought were doing any good. Long after we tucked away the Bible and the books. Long after they left our table. Long after we stopped wondering if any of it was working.

It was working.

We can't expect them to be drawn to every branch and every cluster and every bright patch of red hiding in the leaves.

We just invite them into a glorious orchard of fresh abundance.

And we trust that the right ones will be picked.

If you read this far, you might be thinking, “isn’t this a lot like Matthew 13, The Parable of the Sower?” And I would tell you, yes, my friend. It very much is! Isn’t it beautiful when God’s word inspires our thoughts, and IDEAS? Some stick with us, and some don’t. But if we’re consistent, present, and in the Word – He’ll speak to us in ways that draw us nearer to Him.

Simple Studies Now Available in More ESA Marketplaces!

Use Your ESA Funds for Charlotte Mason Homeschool Guides!

Simple Studies is now available in more state ESA marketplaces. (I hope to keep this blog updated with new states as we’re approved).

Whether you're in ClassWallet , Odyssey or StepUp states, you can use your funds to bring simple yet beautiful and comprehensive living literature and Charlotte Mason's gentle method into your home.

Use your ESA funds for Simple Studies purchases:

  • ClassWallet: Alabama, Arizona, New Hampshire

  • Odyssey: Utah, Georgia

  • StepUp: Florida

From the very beginning, my goal has been to make Simple Studies accessible and affordable for every family and being approved in these marketplaces feels like such a meaningful step toward that mission.

If you've been curious about living literature and the simplicity of Charlotte Mason's method, now it’s easier than ever to grab these guides that have helped shape our family’s homeschool for years.

 

Spring studies are having a moment… and for good reason!

I’m sharing customer favorites below during the spring season to help your family embrace this beautiful time of year through Charlotte Mason's gentle, literature-rich approach.

Whether you're watching birds at the feeder, spotting creatures at the pond, or reading fairy tales on a rainy afternoon, there's something here for every kind of spring day.

We hope these bring as much joy to your home as they have to ours!

 

Daddy-daughter day fishing in the Atlantic! 🎣💗

 

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Thanks for spending time with me today!