Do You Believe It’s Week 2 Of Learning?

🍂 Our Second Week of September Homeschooling in County Cavan: Harvest, Folklore & Seasonal Science

Homeschooling in Ireland in autumn always feels full of promise. The air is getting crisper, forests are filling with fungi and falling leaves, and September traditions remind us that this season is rich with learning opportunities. After setting the tone in our first week of homeschooling, we are ready to move into Week 2 of our fall homeschool curriculum.

This week, our focus will be on harvest traditions, Irish folklore, autumn wildlife, and hands-on science activities. With the natural beauty of County Cavan all around us, our lessons will stretch far beyond the kitchen table and into the forest, garden, and community.

This is How Our Week 2 of Learning looks like!

🌾 Day 6 – The Harvest Begins (Monday)

We will start the week by exploring Irish harvest traditions such as Lammas, Michaelmas, and the Harvest Home. We’ll also compare them with harvest festivals around the world, like Thanksgiving.

In biology, we will study common Irish crops—oats, barley, and potatoes—and look at how plants store energy in their roots. Together, we will begin a “Harvest Basket Project,” filling it with seasonal fruits and vegetables from our garden or local market. Each item will be identified, labelled, and researched. To finish the day, the kids will write a short poem titled “Ode to the Harvest.”

🍎 Day 7 – Apples & Orchards (Tuesday)

Tuesday will be dedicated to apples and orchards. We will learn how apple trees grow, how pollination works, and how fruit develops. For maths, we’ll cut open apples, count the seeds, and create a graph to record our findings. Remember my last post about the apple cycle? Now is time to do another page or start 🙂

History will come alive through stories of the mythology of apples in Celtic and Norse traditions. To blend creativity with science, we’ll make apple prints with paint and carry out a fun taste-test of different apple varieties, recording flavour, texture, and sweetness in a data chart.

🦢 Day 8 – Migration & Autumn Wildlife (Wednesday)

On Wednesday, we will turn our eyes to the skies and explore migrating birds in Ireland like swallows and wild geese. We will learn where they go, why they migrate, and how animals adapt in autumn to prepare for winter.

As a hands-on project, we will make a simple bird feeder from a recycled bottle, hang it in the garden, and track which birds visit. In literature, we will read the legend of The Children of Lir, with its magical swan imagery, and retell it in our own words.

🍄 Day 9 – Forest Ecology & Fungi (Thursday)

Thursday will take us into the woods for a closer look at fungi, mushrooms, and forest ecosystems. We’ll sketch mushrooms, fallen leaves, and forest-floor life, while learning how fungi act as decomposers in the ecosystem.

Back at home, we’ll begin a science experiment: placing bread in a jar with a damp paper towel to observe mould growth over the coming days. In history and folklore, we’ll read about fairy rings and how mushrooms feature in Irish mythology.

☀️ Day 10 – The Autumn Equinox (Friday)

We will finish the week by preparing for the autumn equinox (around September 21–23). Using a globe and a torch, we will demonstrate why day and night are equal at this time of year.

For history, we’ll link this to the ancient tombs of Cavan Burren Park and Newgrange, which were designed to align with seasonal sunlight. Outdoors, we will make a sun tracker in the garden, marking the shadow of a stick or stone at different times of day.

To close, the kids will write in their journals with the prompt: “If I lived in ancient Ireland, how would I celebrate the equinox?”

✨ Why This Theme Matters

By planning our homeschool days around fall traditions, folklore, and nature, we create lessons that feel connected and alive. The kids will not just read about harvests—they will gather one. They will not only hear about the equinox—they will measure the shadows themselves. They will hear folktales in the forest and watch science unfold on the kitchen counter.

For families homeschooling in Ireland, September is the perfect month to embrace seasonal learning, nature study, and cultural traditions. With autumn in full swing, every walk, story, and experiment becomes a chance to learn.

Next week, we will carry on with more seasonal crafts, deeper folklore stories, and a closer look at how Irish wildlife prepares for the colder months ahead. Stay tuned for more fall homeschool adventures from County Cavan!

📌 Useful Links & Resources

Homemade Resources

Parents Weekly Planner: I have created this for parents who want to follow our daily learning, print it, use it as fit and let me know what you think 🙂

Kids Weekly Scribble Sheet: This one is for your little ones to add anything they want, I am just having it handy for whenever they need to write notes, ask question, write something they’ll forget. If II am busy cooking or taking care of their little sister, I find it handy so they can write whatever they wanted to ask me (it helps reduce the interruptions, if you know what I mean..)

Keep up the Great Job Fellow Homeschoolers! Give a like, a follow if you want to receive all of these by email, cheers 🙂