The Nature-Led Year 🌱
A Term-by-Term Homeschooling Planner for Australian Families
40 weeks. 4 terms. 1 gentle rhythm that follows the Australian seasons. Open it on Monday morning and teach. No prep, no piecing together, no Northern-Hemisphere "autumn leaves in April" confusion.
This is the paid flagship program of Kids By Nature. The free resource hub teaches single ideas; The Nature-Led Year turns the whole year into a planned, sequenced, curriculum-aligned course your kids learn outside, in the garden, and around the kitchen table.
It's built for parents at every level. Brand new and nervous, or ten years in and after fresh structure. Full-time, or topping up after school and on weekends. Green-thumbed, or someone who's never grown a thing. We assume nothing, explain every step, and leave room for you to learn right alongside your kids — "let's find out together" is a perfectly good lesson plan.
Why "term-by-term"?
Australian schools run four terms, and Australia's seasons run opposite to the books most homeschool curricula are written from. The Nature-Led Year is built around what is actually happening outside your door each term:
| Term | Roughly | Season | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term 1 | late Jan → early Apr | Late Summer → Autumn | The Great Harvest |
| Term 2 | Apr → early Jul | Autumn → Winter | Soil, Seeds & Slowing Down |
| Term 3 | Jul → mid Sep | Winter → early Spring | The Quiet Earth Wakes |
| Term 4 | Oct → mid Dec | Spring → Summer | Bloom, Buzz & Build |
Each term is 10 weeks of plans, with a built-in lighter "catch-up & wonder" week so real life (and rain) can happen.
What's in every week
Each week follows the same predictable rhythm, so kids settle in and you always know what's next:
- 🌍 Big Question — the wonder that drives the week.
- 🥾 Outdoor exploration — a nature-study or field activity.
- 🪓 Homestead skill — a real, useful, hands-on skill (garden, kitchen, animals, fix-it).
- 📖 Literacy link — a read-aloud, copywork or nature-journal writing prompt.
- 🔢 Numeracy link — maths drawn from the real task (measuring, weighing, money, data).
- 🔬 Science / inquiry — an investigation or simple experiment.
- 🎨 Make it — a craft, build or creative response.
- ✅ Curriculum codes — the Australian Curriculum (v9) content descriptors this week covers.
And so you're never left wondering how, every week also includes a short instructional block:
- ▸ Do this — the concrete, step-by-step instructions to actually run the activity.
- 🗣️ Talk about it — a discussion question that turns the activity into real thinking.
- 🔧 Adapt it — how to make it simpler or stretch it further, for every age and ability.
Plus a plain-English teaching manual up front — the anatomy of a week, a 15-minute prep routine, a fully worked sample week, and what to do when it goes sideways.
How to use it
Read How to use this planner first. In short:
- Multi-age friendly. Each activity has a Little Hands (F–Y2) and Bigger Hands (Y3–Y6) extension, so siblings learn the same theme at their level.
- Two days or five. A "Core Day" path covers the essentials in ~1 day/week; the full plan fills a relaxed 4–5 day week.
- You don't need a farm. Every homestead skill has a balcony / courtyard version. A pot, a worm bin and a window are enough to start.
What you'll need
See the materials & supplies list for the full term-by-term shopping/foraging list, plus a "start with almost nothing" kit.
Curriculum alignment
The Nature-Led Year is mapped to the Australian Curriculum v9.0 across English, Mathematics, Science, HASS, Health & PE, the Arts, and Technologies, and it weaves the Sustainability and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priorities through every term.
It's been developed for the Australian Curriculum and audited by early childhood educators and school principals, so a play-based, outdoor approach still lines up with what children are expected to learn at each stage.
Full mapping: Curriculum alignment.
ℹ️ This is a planning resource, not legal advice. Registration requirements differ by state/territory (NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, ACT, NT). The planner includes a record-keeping template to help you evidence learning for your regulator — see How to use this planner.