Autumn/Thanksgiving Holiday Morning Basket
It's that time of the year where the world tells us to be busy and to take part in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.
As homeschoolers we have already chosen to slow down and educate our children at home. We are teaching them to learn to enjoy life instead of rushing through it just to get to the next thing.
Why should the holidays be any different?!
Here at The Peaceful Press our resources help you to embrace an atmosphere of learning that encourages you to slow down as a family and learn together through experiences and beautiful literature.
Let us help you to enjoy this holiday season and focus on what matters most.
Our Thanksgiving & Autumn Morning Basket will help you and your family to focus on this season making memories together and to focus on the real meaning of giving thanks.
Things to include in your autumn morning basket:
The Playful Pioneers New England Guide- The Playful Pioneers New England Parent Guide is your daily guide for giving your 6-12-year-old students a literature-based education. The guide will lead you through daily readings in chapter books about New England along with picture books designed to introduce your child to New England history with a special focus on the Thanksgiving story.
You will read about famous people and events, including William Bradford, Squanto, Hiawatha, Paul Revere, Phillis Wheatley, and more.
As your child explores the time period, they will learn to identify geographical concepts and hear from diverse voices about this pivotal time in American history. The parent guide includes map work, nature study, poetry, hymns, narration, copy work prompts, science experiments, art, practical life skills, and much more. The Playful Pioneers New England Parent Guide includes four weeks of lesson plans with a helpful week-at-a-glance grid, monthly overview, supplies list, book list, hymns and poetry, free reading suggestions, and more.
New England Guide Student Guide & Copywork- The Playful Pioneers New England student sheets include poetry selections, Bible verses, maps, and notebook pages to introduce narration and copy work to your child. These sheets will help your child with beginning composition and grammar, form drawing, handwriting, and vocabulary skills as they trace or copy their page. Included is a cursive or print tracing file, as well as a kinder file with single words and larger fonts for younger students, and an elementary copy work file which includes blank lines for children ready to copy on their own.
New England Guide Cookbook- The Playful Pioneers New England Cookbook includes recipes to correspond with the readings from each week. You and your child will work together to make cornbread, pumpkin pie, and other New England-themed recipes.
New England Guide Fine Art- The Playful Pioneers New England Art includes four different art prints featuring art from N.C. Wyeth.
Native American Cards- The Native American Fact Cards Pack includes paintings and information about many of the Native American tribes who first settled North America. Paired with beautiful paintings of tribe members by early American artists, these cards provide an introduction to the fascinating world of indigenous people in America.
The cards can be cut to create an artist matching game or used full-sized as memory cards. The pack also includes a list of additional resources as well as a map depicting where many of the tribes first lived. This pack is a perfect addition to your year of studying pioneers with The Playful Pioneers curriculum and a beautiful overview of 20 prominent tribes.
Autumn Guide- The Peaceful Press: Autumn Guide includes four weekly grids with activities to inspire your child with new skills centered around the themes of harvest and thankfulness. Your 3-7 year-old child will continue developing large and fine motor skills, phonics and counting skills, and their love for literature through the stories and projects included in The Peaceful Preschool: Autumn Guide. The unit also includes Bible lessons, recipes, supply lists, recommended literature, and poems to make savoring autumn a multi-sensory and developmentally appropriate unit for your young learners.
You can also purchase all four seasonal guides bundled together at the link below at a discounted price!
Through the Season Guides: Summer, Spring, Winter, & Autumn
Four guides to make the most of the seasons
Summer Guide
The Peaceful Press: Summer Guide includes four weekly grids with activities to inspire your child with new skills centered around the themes of growing and thriving. The unit includes Bible lessons, recipes, supply lists, recommended literature, and projects to make savoring summer a multi-sensory and developmentally appropriate unit for your 3-7-year-old learners.
Autumn Guide
The Peaceful Press: Autumn Guide includes four weekly grids with activities to inspire your child with new skills centered around the themes of harvest and thankfulness. The unit includes Bible lessons, recipes, supply lists, recommended literature, and poems to make savoring autumn a multi-sensory and developmentally appropriate unit for your young learners.
Winter Guide
The Peaceful Press: Winter Guide includes four weekly grids with activities to inspire your child with new skills centered around the themes of comfort and sustenance. The unit includes Bible lessons, recipes, supply lists, recommended literature, and poems to make savoring winter a multi-sensory and developmentally appropriate unit for your young learners.
Spring Guide
The Peaceful Press: Spring Guide includes four weekly grids with activities to inspire your child with new skills centered around the themes of blossoms and rainbows. The unit includes Bible lessons, recipes, supply lists, recommended literature, and projects to make savoring spring a multi-sensory and developmentally appropriate unit for your young learners.
Individual seasonal guides can be found HERE though the Through the Seasons Guide is the best value.
Art Memory Game- Our Peaceful Press Art Memo Game is a lovely way of working on picture study, visual processing, and memory with your child.
Included are fine art prints, along with corresponding title and artist, which coincide with The Kind Kingdom, The Precious People and The Playful Pioneers.
All you do is print, laminate, and cut, for a beautiful and multi-purpose learning activity with your child.
Calendar Bundle- The Peaceful Press: Calendar Bundle is a FREE preschool resource for learning dates!!
Scripture Memory Cards- The Scripture Cards are a set of 30 cards. Five downloadable sheets features the coordinating bible verses from our best-selling Playful Pioneers early learning curriculum!
Simply print, cut, and laminate, for a beautiful way to keep scripture in your heart and the hearts of your children.
How do you slow down to be intentional with your family over the busy holiday season?
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a morning basket? A morning basket is simply a collection of books, activities, and resources you gather to start your homeschool day together. It sets a peaceful tone and allows your family to focus on truth, beauty, and connection before moving into more formal lessons.
2. What ages is the Autumn/Thanksgiving Morning Basket best for?
The basket includes resources for a wide age range. Families with multiple children can easily use the basket together by adapting activities.
3. Do I need to purchase every resource listed?
Not at all. You can begin with just one or two resources, such as the Autumn Guide or the Playful Pioneers New England Guide. The other materials are wonderful additions that expand your learning and help create a rich, festive season, but they’re not required.
4. How much time does a morning basket take each day?
It depends on the contents of your morning basket. Most families spend an average of 20–1 hour enjoying their basket together. You can adjust the time based on your children’s ages and your daily rhythm.
5. How is this different from regular homeschooling lessons?
A morning basket creates a gentle start to your day. Rather than diving into structured academics right away, it focuses on beauty, gratitude, and togetherness—especially meaningful during the holiday season.
6. Can I reuse these resources each year?
Yes! The guides, cards, art prints, and recipes can all be enjoyed again and again. Many families revisit them each autumn to build traditions and deepen their children’s memories of the season.
7. Do the resources come printed or digital?
Most Peaceful Press resources are digital downloads, so you can print at home or through a print shop. Some items (like books for read-alouds) will need to be purchased separately.
8. Is the Autumn/Thanksgiving Morning Basket faith-based?
Many of the resources have optional Bible verses, hymns, and Scripture memory cards. Families of all backgrounds can adapt the activities to fit their own traditions.
9. What if I want to celebrate autumn without the Thanksgiving focus?
The Autumn Guide that is included in our Through the Seasons Guides as well as our Nature Book Flood focus on nature, harvest, and gratitude, making them perfect even if you aren’t specifically celebrating Thanksgiving.
10. How can I make mornings more peaceful during the busy holiday season?
Keep it simple. Choose a few favorite books or activities, light a candle, sip something warm, and let the morning basket be a time to pause and reconnect before the busyness of the day.