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Winston Churchill's Speeches by Winston Churchill (we are reading this aloud with his younger sister, and he reads one Historical Document each week listed on Ambleside Online.)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! 🎣💗

 

Are you following us on Pinterest and Instagram? Don’t miss special announcements, deals, inspiration and more.

 
 

Thanks for spending time with me today!

When Your Homeschool Heart Craves Spontaneity But Your Child Needs Structure

There I am, coffee in hand, standing in my kitchen at 8:47 AM on a Tuesday. We're slated to go to our homeschool community today. It's on the calendar, everyone knows the plan. But something in me rebels against it.

Despite the frigid temperatures outside, the Oregon coast is calling. I can feel it in my bones—that pull of salt air and crashing waves. My children are getting older. Time is slipping through my fingers like sand, and suddenly all I can think is: This is why we chose to homeschool in the first place. For these exact moments. For spontaneous adventures. For choosing the beach over the classroom on a random Tuesday because we can.

And then, without warning, I break down crying.

Right there in my kitchen. Tears streaming down my face. My husband finds me like this and gently asks what's wrong.

(Surely I'm heading into middle age and my hormones are amok, right? That's got to be it.)

He doesn't laugh at my tears or tell me I'm being ridiculous. Instead, he gently reminds me: "While you might thrive on spontaneity, our children don't. They need consistency."

Those words hit like a bucket of cold water. (He’s supposed to be on MY team!)

But he's right. I know he's right. So I decide—we'll go to community today as planned. And we'll go to the coast the next day instead. One day's difference. That's all.

But the loss of control sends me spiraling. I still can't figure out why that particular day was so hard for me. I legit showed up at community and had to go into the tiny chapel in the church we gathered in to pray and ask God why, if He made me this way, does it feel so hard on days like this? Why does the compromise felt like defeat?
Why does pushing the adventure back by 24 hours felt like crushing my spirit?

But it's simply how God made me (and God doesn’t make mistakes).

 
 

So I’m here to confess: I'm terrible at modeling habits. Not the habit of loving my children well—that one comes naturally, thank goodness. But the habit of consistent time blocks? Predictable lesson times? A rhythm that anyone could set their watch by?

Yeah, not so much.

I've read all the Charlotte Mason wisdom about habits being the rails that set our children free. I nod enthusiastically. I buy the pretty planning notebooks. I tell myself, "This week, we're sticking to our schedule!"

And then a beautiful day dawns, or an opportunity presents itself, or my heart just aches for adventure, and suddenly the plan feels like a cage instead of freedom.

The irony of it all is that I'm actively trying to teach my children good habits while simultaneously struggling to maintain them myself.

It's like trying to teach someone to swim while you're still doggy-paddling in the shallow end.

When Your Child Needs What You Can't Naturally Give

But my love for throwing caution to the wind meets my children's genuine need for predictability. The very spontaneity that fills my cup can empty theirs.

One of my children gets genuinely frustrated—sometimes anxious—when they don't know what to expect. When Mom suddenly changes plans because the coast is calling or a hiking trail I’ve been dreaming of exploring suddenly appears too interesting and freeing to ignore.

So I've had to adapt. Not perfectly. Never perfectly. But adapt nonetheless.

Some days I manage to hold the plan, even when everything in me wants to abandon it. Other days I give in to the pull of adventure and we all go off-script together.

And you know what? We're all still here. We're all still learning. Nobody's education has been ruined by either the inconsistency or the occasional spontaneous hike, beach trip or other adventure.

IF YOU’VE EVER FELT THE SAME

If you're reading this and thinking, "Yes! This is me!"—welcome, friend. You're not alone.

We chose this homeschool life specifically because we didn't want the rigid routine of shoving breakfast down throats and pushing kids out the door onto a bus at 7:15 AM sharp. We wanted something different. Something with more breathing room.

More flexibility.

More life.

More Tuesday morning beach trips just because.

But somewhere between rejecting that institutional rigidity and creating our own sustainable rhythm, many of us got... well, a little lost.

I see those homeschoolers who are amazing at habits—the ones with their color-coded schedules and their consistent morning routines and their children who know exactly what comes next—and I try to learn from them. I really do. But it's like watching someone speak a foreign language. I understand the words individually, but putting them together into daily practice? That's where I stumble.

What Scripture Says

When I'm feeling particularly inadequate about my habit failures or when I'm spiraling because I had to choose consistency over spontaneity, I return to these verses:

"The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives." (Psalm 37:23)

Even my messy, inconsistent, sometimes-chaotic steps. Even the days I cry in the kitchen over a beach trip postponed by 24 hours. He's got this.

"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)

I can make all the spontaneous plans I want (and then feel crushed when I can't follow through), but ultimately, God's the one guiding our days anyway.

His plans for my children include all my inconsistencies, all my failed attempts at routine, all the days we threw the schedule out the window to chase a genuine interest—and the days we stuck to the plan even when it hurt.

"Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4)

God knows the desires of our hearts—both my desire for spontaneous, joy-filled learning AND my children's need for consistency.

He's not surprised by this tension. He created this tension.

Grace in the Gap

Over the past decade, I’ve learned that while God covers us in our weaknesses He also calls us to accountability, to growth, to continuing the work even when it's hard.

I'm not perfect. No one is except Jesus. But I can keep working on habits even when it feels like pushing a boulder uphill in flip-flops.

Even when honoring my children's needs means sacrificing what feels natural to me.

Some days I'll nail it. We'll go to community as planned. We'll stick to our loose schedule. My routine-loving children will sigh with contentment knowing what comes next.

Other days we'll throw it all out like we did when they were younger and head out on a 3-hour drive to nowhere, or spend hours hiking trails int he forest or driving to the coast on a Tuesday… because the learning happening there is too rich to abandon for the sake of consistency.

And both? Both can be okay.

Finding Your Family's Balance

The balance isn't found in perfection. It's found in the daily give-and-take of loving each child well.

It's in recognizing that my spontaneity-loving heart doesn't have to win every day, and my children don't have to live in constant uncertainty about what comes next.

It's in trying, failing, crying in the kitchen, getting back up, and trying again tomorrow.

It's in the grace to know that this struggle might be exactly what my children need to see.

Not a mother who has it all together, but one who keeps showing up, keeps trying, keeps leaning on God when her own strength isn't enough.

So if you're like me—if you love the freedom of going on adventures with your littles and pivoting daily lessons for some rabbit trails and genuine interests even when it throws off your weekly routine, if you've ever cried because you had to choose structure over adventure—you're not alone.

You're not failing. You're just human, doing a really hard thing, and trusting that God's got the details you're dropping.

That might be the most important habit we can model: the habit of depending on Him, day after messy day, whether we're sticking to the plan or abandoning it for the adventure. 🩵

If you LOVE spontaneity too and would like something to rely on when the same daily habits just aren’t cutting it – Check out our Simple + Fresh monthly guides. For only a few dollars a month, you’ll receive a huge guide with three, deep-dive topics you and the kids can explore and enjoy together. Each topic includes tales, hands-on activity ideas, picture study, nature study, history timelines, riddles and more.

 
 

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Successful Homeschool Parents Don’t Keep Secrets 🥤

Hi friends! I’m really excited to share some exciting things shaping up this season. Until then, like most of you, we’re aiming to keep our homeschool healthy. Because without our health, we’re limited in our joy and our achievements.

To help boost our immune systems each fall, we consume things like bone broth, raw milk, and a slue of homeopathic, natural remedies.

One of my favorite immunity brands I’ve used for years is FeelGoods. “Like most kids, we'd run to our moms when we had a cold, tummy ache, or just felt crummy. And they always had some remedy for us—an herbal potion whipped up out of nowhere. After years of testing and tasting endless botanicals, meeting with homeopathic experts, and staying true to mama's healing touch, we crafted our first mix. And Feel Goods was born.”

If you love natural remedies like us, use code CRYSTAL87233 for $10 off of any purchase. 🥤

A few more things we’re focused on this year is LESS is MORE. IYKYK

Morning Circle Changes:

The past several years, I’ve packed so many beautiful subjects into our morning circle time together. But when it came down to it, our kids were less likely to enjoy their independent lessons the longer our morning circle time went on. Our oldest, in particular, became grumpy knowing he still had a lot on his plate AFTER we spent an hour together.

So this year, I’ve backed off a tad. We only tackle about 3-4 things each morning circle - and on busy days, we might only tackle two subjects that take us 20-25 minutes max.

Our NEW current morning circle loop schedule:

Monday: No morning circle b/c we have community.
Tuesday: Bible, Artist/Picture Study, Read Aloud 1-2 chapters
Wednesday: Bible, Poetry, American History Mysteries, Read Aloud 1-2 chapters
Thursday: Ancient History, Recitation, Read Aloud 1-2 chapters
Friday: Bible, Poetry or Recitation, Geography, Read Aloud 1-2 chapters

That’s it! We’ll switch to Composer Study in winter in leu of our Artist Study. Subjects like Shakespeare, tales and Folk Songs are done at different intervals each week, depending on our workload and extracurricular classes and activities.

I hope this encourages YOU to take your health and happiness into account as the temps cool down.

Stay tuned for some exciting fall updates I can’t WAIT to share with you soon!