We’ve reached the end of our third week and Day 7, Thursday, September 10, 2026, of homeschooling my four-year-old triplet nephews. Their 11-year-old brother joined us again today and began a weaving project that will take him several days to complete, while the younger children helped prepare a fall meal.

We started in the kitchen with butternut squash, acorn squash, carrots, and kale. Even though we’ve been doing quite a bit with gardening and seasonal foods, all of our work has had to happen indoors because we’re currently renovating both our front and backyard. Hopefully, eventually, we’ll be able to bring more of this work outside.

The children began by removing the seeds from the squash and then moved on to peeling carrots. I only had two peelers, so we simply took turns. Even something as ordinary as peeling a carrot becomes an opportunity to learn how to safely use a tool and work with our hands. Each child approached the task differently, and one of them found a particularly unique way to use the peeler. But it worked! The carrots didn’t really need to be peeled, but I wanted the children to have the experience of doing it themselves. They enjoyed it so much that I’m thinking we may make a simple carrot salad in the future using long strips made with the peelers.

Once the carrots were peeled, I sliced them thinly so the children could practice cutting them into smaller pieces. I had intended to roast them with the rest of our vegetables, but I completely forgot about them, so we ended up eating them raw on the side instead.

For the squash, we kept things very simple. We roasted the acorn and butternut squash with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and I added a little cinnamon to the butternut squash. While we worked, I also made kale chips with olive oil and salt. They only take about five minutes at 350°F, but you really have to watch them because kale can go from completely soft to completely burnt in about a minute.

The kale chips gave the children something to snack on while we finished our kitchen work and waited for the rest of the meal.

I had actually prepared a watercolor activity for them, but they were playing so beautifully that we decided not to interrupt them. My 15-year-old daughter brought out some of the dress-up clothes my own children played with when they were younger, along with some pirate money, and she kept them engaged for quite a long time. My sister-in-law and I were able to sit down with a decaf coffee and have a conversation while the children played.

This is one of the things I appreciate about doing kindergarten at home. We have a rhythm and activities planned, but we can also recognize when something valuable is already happening and allow it to continue. Imaginative play is not something we need to interrupt simply because another activity was on the schedule.

For the triplets, we worked only with yellow. Their 11-year-old brother had all three primary colors for his painting, which naturally made the younger children curious about why they couldn’t have the other colors too. Originally, I had planned a pumpkin painting in which we would begin with yellow, introduce red over the yellow to create orange, and then use a little blue for the stem. But I was reminded that at four years old, there really is no need to rush through all of those experiences. We can simply begin with yellow. In another lesson we can experience red, then blue, and gradually introduce the children to each color.

Each child painted one sheet using wet-on-wet watercolor. This was also a learning experience for me. I found myself verbally explaining each step because I was trying to capture what they were doing, when what they really needed was for me to sit down and demonstrate the process. At this age, showing is so much more effective than explaining.

Our kindergarten days are scheduled for two hours, twice a week, but today we were together for more than three hours. About 45 minutes of that was simply my sister-in-law and me enjoying coffee while the children played with my daughter, which felt completely worthwhile. Because we had already gone well over our usual time, we skipped our closing story and ended the day with our meal.

After everyone left, I still had a little work to do. I made sure the squash seeds the children had collected were drying properly, and I also worked on preserving the avocado skins we had saved from our previous lesson. I had been storing them in the freezer for a future natural dye project, but I've completely run out of freezer space, so I decided to experiment with drying them instead.

Traditionally, I've learned that they should be dried naturally outside in the sun rather than in the oven, so this is definitely an experiment. I'm not sure yet how oven-drying will affect the color when we eventually use the avocado skins for natural dyeing, but I'll share what happens.