Term 2 — Soil, Seeds & Slowing Down 🍂

Autumn → Winter (roughly April to early July)

← Term 1 · Program overview · Next: Term 3 →

The season outside: The garden quietens. Leaves fall and feed the soil, fungi push up, frosts begin in the cold districts, and the days shrink. Term 2 is about what happens underground and in the dark — soil, decomposition, roots, warmth, light and rest.

Big idea of the term: The quiet, hidden work is the most important work. Healthy soil is alive.

🔗 Pairs with free reading: How to start a worm farm with kids · Reading the weather & sky · Getting started with nature homeschooling

How to run this term

Before Week 1, keep the Term 1 worm farm/compost going (you'll harvest its castings later) and find a dark cupboard for the mushroom kit in Week 3.

The throughline: "what's hidden is what matters." Each week we look beneath the surface — under the soil, inside a seed, behind the weather — and learn that the slow, invisible work (soil building, roots growing, decomposing) is what holds everything up. Keep a "what's happening underground" page in the journal and add to it weekly.

Rhythm reminder: the cold and short days suit cosy indoor work — soup, bread, mending, candle-making — paired with shorter, brisker outings. Lean into the slowing-down feel of the season rather than fighting it.

Safety this term: adult-led for the stove, oven, candle-making and any heat; wild fungi are observe-and-print only — never taste; wash hands after handling soil.

Week 1 — What is soil made of?

🌍 Big Question: Is dirt alive?
🥾 Outdoor: Dig a small soil pit; observe the layers; collect samples from three spots.
🪓 Homestead skill: The jar test — sand/silt/clay separation; learn your soil type.
📖 Literacy: Journal — label a soil-layer diagram.
🔢 Numeracy: Measure and compare the settled layers; percentages of each.
🔬 Science: Hunt soil life under a magnifier; estimate creatures per handful.
🎨 Make-it: A soil "paint chart" using different earth colours.
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (soil, living/non-living) / AC9M (measurement, %) / AC9HS (place).

▸ Do this: Half-fill a clear jar with soil, top up with water, add a pinch of dish soap, shake hard, and leave overnight. The layers settle out — sand at the bottom, then silt, then clay, with organic matter floating. Measure each band and work out the rough percentages to name your soil type. 🗣️ Talk about it: A teaspoon of healthy soil holds billions of living things — so is soil "alive," "dead," or both? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — just watch the layers form and name them. Harder — calculate each layer as a percentage of the total and compare three sites.

Week 2 — The fall of the leaves

🌍 Big Question: Why do trees drop their leaves, and where do the leaves go?
🥾 Outdoor: Leaf-fall walk; collect and sort by tree, shape, colour.
🪓 Homestead skill: Build a leaf-mould pile / mulch the garden beds.
📖 Literacy: Descriptive writing — "the sound of walking on leaves."
🔢 Numeracy: Symmetry and patterns in leaves; classification keys.
🔬 Science: Deciduous vs evergreen — why do Australian natives mostly keep their leaves?
🎨 Make-it: Leaf rubbings and a pressed-leaf identification chart.
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (life cycles, adaptation) / AC9M (symmetry, sorting) / AC9E (description).

▸ Do this: Collect a big variety of fallen leaves, then sort them — by tree, shape, edge, colour. Build a simple classification key ("Is it longer than your hand? Does it have teeth on the edge?"). Rake the rest into a leaf-mould pile or mulch a bed, and check back through the term as it breaks down. 🗣️ Talk about it: Most Aussie natives (gums, wattles) keep their leaves while the exotic trees drop them — what might be the advantage of each strategy? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — match leaves to their tree. Harder — write a branching identification key a stranger could actually follow.

Week 3 — Fungi: the hidden network

🌍 Big Question: Is a mushroom a plant?
🥾 Outdoor: Fungi forage-to-look (never taste) after rain — count types.
🪓 Homestead skill: Make a spore print; start a simple mushroom grow kit. (Apartment-friendly!)
📖 Literacy: Read about the "wood wide web"; write an explanation text.
🔢 Numeracy: Map and measure where fungi appear; growth over days.
🔬 Science: What conditions do fungi need (dark, damp, food)? Fair test.
🎨 Make-it: Spore-print art / clay toadstools.
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (classification, decomposers) / AC9M (data) / AC9E (explanation).

▸ Do this: After rain, photograph and count the fungi you find (look, don't touch). To make a spore print, place a mushroom cap gills-down on paper, cover with a bowl overnight, and lift to reveal the pattern. Start a mushroom kit in a dark cupboard and measure its growth daily. 🗣️ Talk about it: Fungi aren't plants or animals — they're their own kingdom. They don't make food from sunlight, so how do they eat? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — make a spore print and draw it. Harder — run a fair test on what fungi need, changing one variable (light, moisture) at a time. ⚠️ Wild fungi can be deadly. This week is observe and print only — no tasting.

Week 4 — Roots: the underground half

🌍 Big Question: What does a plant do below the ground?
🥾 Outdoor: Harvest root veg (carrots, beetroot, radish) or dig a weed to see its root.
🪓 Homestead skill: Plant a root-crop bed; grow carrot-tops/celery from scraps on a windowsill.
📖 Literacy: Journal — diagram and label root types (tap, fibrous, tuber).
🔢 Numeracy: Measure root length vs shoot length; ratio above/below ground.
🔬 Science: Capillary action — celery in coloured water.
🎨 Make-it: A "what's underground" cross-section drawing.
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (plant structure/function) / AC9M (ratio, measurement) / AC9TE (food).

▸ Do this: Gently dig up a whole plant (a weed works perfectly) to see the root system intact. Stand celery or a pale flower in water dyed with food colouring and watch the colour travel up over a day — that's how roots drink. Pop carrot tops or celery bases in a saucer of water on the sill to regrow. 🗣️ Talk about it: We only ever see half a plant — what jobs is the hidden half doing down there? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — draw and label what you dug up. Harder — measure root vs shoot length and express it as a ratio.

Week 5 — Warm-blooded winter: animals in the cold

🌍 Big Question: How do animals survive winter here?
🥾 Outdoor: Track signs of animals — scats, prints, nests, feathers, burrows.
🪓 Homestead skill: Winter-care for animals (chooks/pets) or build a bird/lizard shelter.
📖 Literacy: Research & write an animal fact-file (information report).
🔢 Numeracy: Insulation maths — measure temperature loss in "fur" (wrapped vs bare jars).
🔬 Science: Investigate insulation materials; which keeps warm water warmest?
🎨 Make-it: Build the shelter / sew a simple draught snake for the house.
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (adaptation, survival) / AC9M (temperature, data) / AC9E (report).

▸ Do this: Run the insulation experiment: fill identical jars with equally warm water, wrap each in a different material (wool, foil, newspaper, nothing), and measure each one's temperature every 10 minutes. Graph which keeps warmest. Use the finding to design a real bird or lizard shelter. 🗣️ Talk about it: How is the warmest material in our test like an animal's fur, feathers or a burrow? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — feel which jar stays warm longest. Harder — record temperatures on a line graph and rank the materials.

Week 6 — Light & the shortest days

🌍 Big Question: Why are winter days so short?
🥾 Outdoor: Shadow tracking — mark a stick's shadow through the day.
🪓 Homestead skill: Make beeswax candles / a simple solar light; learn fire/candle safety.
📖 Literacy: Read midwinter stories from cultures around the world; compare & journal.
🔢 Numeracy: Graph daylight hours; find the solstice; measure shadow lengths.
🔬 Science: Earth's tilt with a torch and a globe/orange — model the seasons.
🎨 Make-it: A sun-catcher or lantern for the dark evenings.
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (Earth/sky, day & night) / AC9M (time, data) / Intercultural understanding.

▸ Do this: Push a stick into the ground (or tape one to paper) and mark the tip of its shadow every hour — watch it sweep and change length. Indoors, shine a torch on a tilted orange or globe to model why the tilted Earth gives us short winter days and long summer ones. Roll beeswax candles for the dark evenings. 🗣️ Talk about it: Many cultures hold festivals of light at midwinter — why might people everywhere celebrate light at the darkest time of year? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — trace morning vs afternoon shadows. Harder — look up and graph daylight hours across the month and pinpoint the solstice. 🔗 Go deeper: Reading the weather & the sky

Week 7 — Mending & making do

🌍 Big Question: What can we fix instead of throw away?
🥾 Outdoor: "Repair audit" — walk the home/garden, list what's broken or worn.
🪓 Homestead skill: Learn one mend: sew a button, patch a knee, sharpen a tool, oil a hinge, darn a sock.
📖 Literacy: Procedure writing — "how to fix a ____," with diagrams.
🔢 Numeracy: Cost compare — repair vs replace; calculate savings.
🔬 Science: Materials — which fabrics/joins are strongest? Test them.
🎨 Make-it: Visible mending / patchwork as decoration.
✅ Codes: AC9TE (materials, design) / AC9M (money) / Sustainability priority.

▸ Do this: Walk the house with a clipboard listing what's broken or worn. Pick one fix and teach it properly — threading a needle and sewing a button is a perfect first mend. Then price the repair vs buying new, and work out the saving. 🗣️ Talk about it: Why do we throw so much away now when past generations fixed almost everything? What's the real cost of "just buy a new one"? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — sew a button with help. Harder — write an illustrated repair guide and tally the household's yearly savings from repairing.

Week 8 — The slow kitchen (winter food)

🌍 Big Question: Why do we crave warm, slow food in winter?
🥾 Outdoor: Harvest winter greens, herbs, citrus; forage windfall lemons.
🪓 Homestead skill: Make bread, broth or a slow soup from scratch; bottle preserved lemons.
📖 Literacy: Write & illustrate a family recipe card.
🔢 Numeracy: Scaling recipes, timing, temperature conversions.
🔬 Science: Yeast & fermentation — watch dough rise; the science of warmth.
🎨 Make-it: Design a "winter pantry" poster.
✅ Codes: AC9TE (food & nutrition) / AC9M (measurement, time) / AC9S*U (microbes).

▸ Do this: Bake bread from scratch and watch the yeast at work — mix a little yeast, sugar and warm water in a jar first and see it froth (that's living microbes breathing). Knead, let it rise (measure how much it grows), and bake. Talk about timing and oven temperature as you go. 🗣️ Talk about it: Yeast is alive — what is it eating, and what is the gas that makes the bread rise? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — measure and knead together. Harder — double the recipe (recalculating every quantity) and convert °C to °F for the oven.

Week 9 — Citrus, the winter gold

🌍 Big Question: Why does fruit ripen in winter when little else does?
🥾 Outdoor: Citrus study — visit/observe a lemon, orange or mandarin tree.
🪓 Homestead skill: Prune and feed a citrus (or pot a dwarf citrus); make marmalade or cordial.
📖 Literacy: Sensory writing — describe a citrus with all five senses.
🔢 Numeracy: Juice maths — how many lemons per cup of juice? Yield & ratio.
🔬 Science: Vitamin C and why sailors ate citrus; acid test with red cabbage indicator.
🎨 Make-it: Dried citrus garlands / natural air freshener (orange + cloves).
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (plants, health) / AC9M (ratio) / AC9HS (history — scurvy & trade).

▸ Do this: Make a red-cabbage indicator (simmer chopped purple cabbage, strain off the liquid) and add lemon juice — watch it turn pink, proving citrus is acidic. Juice several lemons and work out how many it takes to fill a cup. Thread dried citrus slices into a garland for the window. 🗣️ Talk about it: Sailors once died of scurvy on long voyages until they ate citrus — what does that tell us about why our bodies need fresh food? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — describe a lemon using all five senses. Harder — calculate juice yield per fruit and predict how many for a whole jug.

Week 10 — Rest & plan (lighter week)

🌍 Big Question: What does the land do when it rests — and what will we plant next?
🥾 Outdoor: Quiet "sit spot" — 15 minutes simply observing the winter garden.
🪓 Homestead skill: Plan the spring garden; order/sort seeds; build a planting calendar.
📖 Literacy: Reflective journal — "what winter taught me."
🔢 Numeracy: Garden planning — bed area, plant spacing, how many plants fit.
🔬 Science: Dig up & review the soil pit from Week 1 — what's changed?
🎨 Make-it: Draw next season's garden plan to scale.
✅ Codes: AC9M (area, spacing) / AC9S*I (planning, review) / AC9E (reflection).

▸ Do this: Sit silently in one spot for 15 minutes and journal what you notice in the quiet winter garden. Then plan spring: measure your bed, look up the spacing each crop needs, and calculate how many plants will actually fit. Sketch the plan to scale and sort your saved seeds ready to sow. 🗣️ Talk about it: Rest isn't doing nothing — what important things happen in a "resting" garden, body, or person? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — draw a picture plan of the spring garden. Harder — calculate bed area and exact plant numbers from real spacing guidelines.

Term 2 at a glance — what to gather

Jars for the soil test, a mushroom grow kit + dark cupboard, root-crop seeds, insulation scraps for testing, beeswax + wick, basic mending kit (needle, thread, buttons, patches), bread/soup ingredients, citrus. Full list: Materials & supplies.

Curriculum codes: Curriculum alignment → Term 2.

→ Next term: Term 3 — The Quiet Earth Wakes