Homeschooling is about much more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. As your child’s teacher, you have the unique opportunity to include subjects that many traditional schools overlook.
One of those subjects might surprise you: backyard foraging.
Foraging is a wonderful nature study for homeschool teens, helping them develop observation skills while learning practical life skills. Learning to identify edible and useful plants is also a valuable life skill your teens can carry into adulthood.
Before you begin teaching your children about foraging, it helps to learn a few basics yourself. This simply makes teaching the skills easier.
Personally, I’ve always been the type of homeschool mom who enjoys learning alongside my children—but either approach works!
The basics of foraging are actually quite simple:
Understand the land you are foraging (in this case, your backyard).
Be cautious.
Do not taste or touch anything until you can properly identify it.
Walk lightly and respect the environment.
Forage responsibly and never take more than you need.
These are a few of the core principles you’ll hear repeated in almost every book, website, and video about foraging.
Good resources make teaching any subject easier—including foraging.
I recommend using a combination of books, websites, and videos so your teens can see and learn about plants in different ways. Here are a few helpful resources to get started:
How to Get Started Foraging (video)
You can also find helpful instructional videos online that demonstrate plant identification and safe harvesting.
One simple way to organize everything is to give each of your children a botany binder.
This binder can hold:
printed plant guides
notes from lessons
sketches of plants
pressed plant samples or labeled bags of foraged items
Over time, these binders become a wonderful keepsake—and a personal field guide your teens can continue using for years.
Simple supply list:
Most homeschooling parents cringe at the idea of creating lesson plans, but it’s not as difficult as it sounds. All you need are a few reliable resources and some paper (or a planner) to jot down your plans. Below is an actual lesson plan Bryan had put together for our children:
Monday: Introduce 3 popular plants that can be found in our back yard (dandelions, plantain, and clover). This consists of printable copies from The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies book that gives an introduction to the plants, their benefits, medicinal uses, recipes, and more. They also head outside to the back yard to try and identify some for themselves.
Tuesday: Review the plants and continue identifying them in the yard. Show an education YouTube video (or 2) about the plants.
Wednesday: Use the plants foraged to make something, usually a tea. Color pictures of the plants.
Thursday: Review and small (fun) quiz. Bryan will usually ask the children to tell him 1 thing they remember about the plant and have them go outside to find it.
You can easily come up with your own lesson plans!
These are extremely common and can be found in lawns, parks, fields, and disturbed soil in most states.
Dandelion
Clover
Plantain (broadleaf or narrowleaf)
Wild violet
These four are probably the most universally recognizable beginner plants, which makes them great for homeschool nature study.
Wood sorrel – Very common across the U.S., but more abundant in moist areas and partial shade.
Chickweed – Very common but tends to appear more in cooler seasons (spring/fall in many areas).
Wild onion / wild garlic – Found widely across the U.S., though the exact species varies by region
Foraging teachers almost always remind beginners:
Never eat a plant unless you are 100% certain of its identification, and always confirm using multiple reliable resources.
Not only is this unit study completely out of the ordinary, but it’s fun! Your teens will learn survival skills, build independence and gain confidence.
As they forage, they must observe, compare, and identify plants carefully. They learn to ask questions like:
Is this the correct plant?
Are there look-alikes?
Is this the right time to harvest?
Making these decisions builds confidence in their ability to analyze information and make wise choices on their own.
Unlike some academic subjects, foraging produces visible results. Teens can identify a plant, harvest it, and sometimes even use it for food or tea.
That tangible success builds confidence:
“I know how to do something useful.”
This is the biggest joy of homeschooling – having fun and learning together. You don’t need to know everything before teaching your children about something, especially with subjects like these. When you’re learning with your children, there’s a sense of accomplishment mingled in with doing something as a family. Enjoy the process of learning and having fun!
Introduce your homeschoolers to a unique class with the Backyard Foraging Workbook.
Designed for middle and high school students, this workbook teaches about five common backyard plants and includes printable worksheets to support deeper learning. With a few simple adjustments, it can also be used with younger students.
Inside you’ll find detailed pages covering:
purple violets
dandelions
wild onions
wood sorrel
plantain
Each plant study includes:
an overview
spotting and harvesting tips
medicinal uses
interesting facts
recipes
The workbook also contains a blank research template so your student can study additional plants they discover.
Other helpful pages include:
backyard plants T-chart
active foraging guide
plant identification worksheet
botany book tracker
five backyard foraging journal pages
resource list
The workbook features a beautiful watercolor theme that students (and moms!) will enjoy. There are 33 pages total, and you may print as many copies as needed for your family.
Learning how to teach foraging in your homeschool can turn a simple backyard walk into a meaningful nature study and life skill your teens will remember for years.
Imagine equipping them with the knowledge to identify wild foods, natural remedies, and useful plants in their environment. Skills like these are often overlooked in traditional education—but they are incredibly valuable.
I’d love to hear from you!
Do you teach foraging in your homeschool—or another unique subject your teens love?
Let me know in the comments below.
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