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Curriculum Picks 2024-2025 – Family Subjects

Our curriculum picks for 2024-2025 won’t change too much from the end of the previous year. I feel great about this! It means we have really found a groove for our family on what works. In this post I hope to share all of our family subjects for the upcoming year.

I feel like this is an obvious statement but it feels good to say the reminder. Remember that every family is unique. What works for my family may not work for yours or may work great for yours! We don’t really know! I always share this as inspiration and not as rules/advice. I hope my thoughts can help you gain ideas for what you want to do, or maybe even solidify something you DON’T want to do! This is always meant to be helpful and NOT expert choices.

If you’d like to read the reviews from the previous year, you can check out this post.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

What is a Family Subject?

Having family subjects is one of my favorite things about homeschool. I have four children and balancing the lessons of each one can be a challenge. For example, teaching four different history lessons and four different science lessons in a day sounds exhausting to me! To simplify this, I implement family subjects that we can all do together!

This has been so helpful and time-saving to us, and these subjects have become my favorite ones to teach because we are all together. Currently my children are 10, 8, 5, and 3 so I choose our curriculum according to what best fits an elementary age. However, even in the future I can see myself still staying together on certain topics, but maybe challenging older kiddos with something independently.

Our family subjects include Bible, history, science, fine arts, and some language arts.

Bible

This year I have chosen to read through Long Story Short by Marty Machowski. I wanted to pick this one because it walks through the Bible in a way that connects all stories to Jesus. My older kids are starting to ask a lot of questions about the stories in the Bible and I felt like this would be a good way for us to work through it together.

Each day includes a bible reading and discussion topics, and the lessons takes about 10 minutes. I am hopeful that this will help us dive a little deeper into some bible stories and see God’s plan in it all.

Scripture Memory

We memorize scripture before bed. This has become such an easy way for us to do this. Recently we added in a scripture memory box that helps us review past verses as well. We plan to continue this throughout the year.

Each month I choose one verse and we practice that same verse until we know it well. Once we know it, we pull out our scripture box and begin reviewing previous verses we have learned in the past. I aim to do this 4-5 days a week.

The verses I choose will be based on what I feel my kids need at the time. I don’t really have a set plan for that. However, I did want to add it to this post because it’s something we do on a regular basis and it is part of our bible studies.

Hymn Study

Hymn study is another one we do before bed. It’s as simple as singing a hymn together 4-5 nights a week. We currently use “Then Sings My Soul” by Robert J. Morgan.

At the beginning of the month I introduce a hymn by reading the description that comes with the book. Then, each night we practice singing it together. I usually just focus on the first verse.

If you’d like to see how we learn scripture and hymns before bed, check out this video.

History

This year we will continue studying American history using American History Through Picture Books. This has been the best way to do history with my family. It works for all ages, and we actually remember and enjoy what we learn.

It’s so simple – you are literally just reading through picture books along the timeline of history. There are no worksheets, no crazy assignments. It has become one of my favorite parts of the day. This year we will be studying the time period after the Civil War through World War II.

Sometimes people ask me what age it is best for. My go-to answer is probably up to 6th grade, but honestly I’m 36 years old and I’ve never learned so much history in my life! It’s incredible. So in reality, this curriculum is made for ages 0-100+ 😉

Language Arts

Our language arts is a mix of family study and individual study. We do not use an all-in-one curriculum and instead study language arts using novels. This year I will be reading the novels to all of my girls so that is the family study part. Everyone gets to listen!

I do not choose the novels ahead of time, because I like to go based off our interest. I have a few in mind related to our history unit (“Little Britches”, “Pollyanna”, or “Where the Red Fern Grows”). I will also check the Read Aloud Revival book lists. She always recommends great ones!

We read every night together and it’s become such a fun habit. I love that it really doesn’t feel like school at all. It’s been such a blessing to read so many fantastic books with my kids.

For more about our language arts WITHOUT an all-in-one curriculum, Click Here.

We will also be studying a poet this year. I LOVE studying poetry with my kids and I’ve seen the benefits of it first hand. The more you read, the more they are interested, and the more they even start to write their own poems – even at a young age.

I’m keeping it super simple and choosing one poet, Emily Dickinson. I plan to read a couple living books about her life to introduce us to who she is, and then I will be reading from “Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson”.

I will probably start with one poem a week and see where that takes us. I don’t want to go through it too fast because I want them to become really familiar with the poet. However, I’ve never done poetry study like this before so this will be new to me. We will adjust as we need!

Loop Subjects

I am hoping to study the following subjects on a loop schedule. We usually do school four days a week, and each of these subjects will get one of those days. So, as you read it, it might seem like a lot, but it’s happening only once a week.

Science

I struggled with science last year but found a good groove towards the end, so I hope to continue that same method this year. We will be using Berean Builders “Science in the Beginning”. This textbook uses the days of creation to introduce multiple science activities through textbook lessons and hands-on experiences.

I plan to use this curriculum alongside a handful of picture books. I’m adding books in for a couple of reasons. First, picture books just really stick in your brain better. It makes topics so engaging and easy to remember. Second, doing an activity every single time we do a lesson became exhausting for me. So, this helps me slow it down a little bit. I will most likely alternate days – one day in the text, another in a picture book.

I hope to share the picture books we use alongside the units here on the blog, so if that sounds like it may interest you be sure to head back for those recommendations!

We also do a little notebooking with the lessons. I keep it very simple and give my kids a half sheet of paper. They draw a diagram of our activity while I read the lesson. It works out nice because their hands are busy while they listen to the text. You can see what this looks like in this video.

Nature Study

I heard such a great podcast recently from Read Aloud Revival about simple science. It made me so happy because it was 100% my style – learning through picture books. I couldn’t pass it up. So, I’ve decided to add it into our loop.

The nature study is set up by season with 12 books per season. Each book is paired with a super simple optional activity – that’s it!

The guide was completely free and the directions on how to download it were all in the podcast. I believe you can also submit your email on the link above to get it as well. I’m really looking forward to the simplicity of this! I think it will be a fun way to study nature, it will spark interest with my kids (they love this kind of stuff), and I really think it will help us add in more nature journaling.

Fine Arts

I really slacked in this department last year. I had every intention to do picture study and composer study and it just completely fell through. I don’t do them because we have to, I truly enjoy those subjects with my kids – and they do too!

So, this year, I’m trying to be better by aiming for one! I have already purchased the picture study and the artist is actually connected to our history unit so I feel like it will be so much more meaningful.

We will be using Simply Charlotte Mason’s Picture Study for Homer and my goal is to complete it (at a slow pace) during the first half of the year.

I think starting small will help me to reach my goals and find a good routine of fitting more fine arts in our homeschool because I’d really like to add in a composer to study as well. I’m just not there yet!

I’ve considered Joplin since he is an American composer during the time period we are studying in history, but I know how it gets at the beginning of the year – We want to do so many things and never get to it. Just me? It’s in the back of my mind as a “maybe” if we can finish our picture study first.

If you are interested in a super simple composer study, check out this blog post of one we did not too long ago. It was a lot of fun (which is why I want to do it again soon!)

Geography

This was a last minute addition. I was sent a brand new Indescribable Atlas (by Louis Giglio) and when I started looking through it, it was too neat to shelf! It’s jam-packed full of fun information about different countries all over the world.

My goal is one country a month. We plan to read through the information provided in this atlas and then once a week we will spend the rest of the month diving deeper into one of those topics. This might be an animal in that country, landmarks, or people.

You’ve probably guessed it – but picture books will be my main source to do this. (What would I do without my library??) I also plan to show a video here and there too if we can’t find a book to extend our learning.

One of the things I’m really looking forward to is trying new food. Each page comes with a food item from that country, and I really hope to make some of the dishes with the kids.

Recap

Family studies are my favorite part about homeschool. I love that we can do so much together, and now that we’ve been doing this for several years, we have really found a great groove for our individual family. Here’s a recap of the subjects:

Bible: Long Story Short

Scripture Memory: Scripture Memory Box

Hymn Study: Then Sings My Soul

History: American History through Picture Books (Part 3 Available December 2024)

Language Arts: DIY novel studies

Science: Berean Builders Science in the Beginning

Nature Study: Read Aloud Revival Nature Guide

Geography: Indescribable Atlas Adventures

Poetry: Poetry for Young People – Emily Dickinson

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End of Year Curriculum Review – Family Subjects

As we come to the end of the year it’s always good to look back and reflect on the curriculum we use and how it fit with our homeschool. As a mom of four, I try to teach as many subjects as I can as a family. So, in this post, I’m going to share with you all of our family subjects plus the curriculum that worked and what didn’t.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Bible

I started the year with “Who is Jesus?: Forty Pictures to Share with Your Family”. I actually really loved this one, but for some reason we quit using it after a few weeks. As I think back about why, there’s really not a clear answer besides the fact that I may have wanted to simplify/shorten our morning time for a bit.

The pictures are memorable and the devotions are meaningful, but I might have decided to put it aside for a while to wait until my littlest ones were just a bit older. With two under 5 years old, our morning time can’t get too long or I lose them! I do love this devotional, and I will definitely pull it out again in the future.

The devotion book that we stuck with for most of the year was 365 Trivia Twist Devotions. This devotion is family friendly and engaging. It doesn’t really go in depth, but it was a great fit for what we needed at the time.

The trivia devotion is a great book if you have young kids OR if you’ve never really read devotions as a family before. The trivia facts are really fun and it’s “light-hearted”. I know that might not be the greatest thing to say about a devotional, but sometimes it can be intimidating to start family devotion if you’ve never done it before!

We actually added Dad into our morning time with the trivia book. He works from home, and it was the perfect way to kick off our morning as a family. Because of the nature of the book, he was able to jump right in and lead us each morning.

As we came to the end of the year, we ran out of our trivia devotions, so I pulled out my tried and true Louis Giglio devotion books. For the last couple months of school we’ve been reading through “Indescribable”. I really do love these books for the whole family. Plus, it’s bible and science in one! That’s a win!

History

This school year I wanted to simplify our history by focusing on engaging picture books. We all know that a beautiful picture book is so much more memorable than a textbook, and I knew I wanted to give that to my kids. As a result, American History through Picture Books was created!

I was certain I could work through the timeline of American History with Picture Books, and after a lot of research, we did just that! Our history this year was one amazing picture book after another. I can’t even describe to you how simple and enjoyable it was. We learned so much! Yes, WE! It includes ME! It’s like I’m learning history all over again with my kids, but this time it’s actually sticking!

This was no worksheets, no extras – just a simple checklist of picture books that completely simplified our history lessons for the better. We worked through part 1 which covered explorers through the Treaty of Paris (1000-1783) and in the spring we completed part 2 which covered the constitution through the civil war (1787-1865).

I am currently researching for our picture books for next year, and I can’t wait to continue this style of learning for history. If you’d like to read more about this curriculum, check it out in this blog post.

Science

Why is science so hard to do? Is it just me? It’s always the subject that gets pushed aside. I struggled with science this year, but towards the end of the year I found a much better fit/groove for us, so I’m excited to share more about that.

We started the year with Apologia Science – Zoology 1. I was really excited about this because the text was written a little differently than your average textbook. It was just a much more fluid, engaging read. I also loved that there were activities throughout the lessons that seemed do-able and not too intense. All of the pictures were beautiful, and I really had high hopes for this one.

Unfortunately, it really wasn’t my favorite. I ended up using it more as a guide instead of our textbook. For example, if there was a lesson on butterflies, I would just go to the library and get books about butterflies. Sometimes we would do the activity in the book to go along with it.

I think the lessons were just too long. It was hard to read through an entire one (we even tried the audiobook!) and it was tough to skip around because I felt like the information was good! The other problem I had with it was after a while I was ready to move on to a new topic. The whole textbook focused on flying creatures, and it got to the point where I needed something new.

After Christmas I searched and searched for something that would better fit our family. This is when I found Berean Builders. I love how short the lessons are, and I have also loved the activities that come with each lesson. Many of them use supplies we have already at home.

After a few weeks of using it though, I did find myself tiring out of preparing activities every time we did a lesson, so recently I’ve slowed us down a bit and I have loved the rhythm we have created. In a week I will spend one day doing the activity and reading the lesson. Another day of the week, I read a picture book that goes along with the lesson.

This does take some extra planning on my part, but it feels so much more do-able than doing an activity every single time. Plus, we are really learning a lot from the picture books we read as well. I’m hoping to share this planning process (and our picture books that we picked!) with you guys soon, so stay tuned for that science update.

If you’re interested in looking into Berean Builders, check out a couple videos I put on Youtube. One is an introduction of the text. The other video is an update on how we use narration/notebooking alongside it.

Bedtime Studies

Bedtime studies sounds kind of silly I know, but I have found the wind-down time right before bed to be the perfect time to complete a few different things I want to teach my kids. So, I’m including all of this in our family studies. You can watch about how I do this in this video, but the following things are all included in our bedtime routine!

DIY Language Arts/Read Aloud

A year and a half ago I ditched our all-in-one language arts curriculum and decided I would make our own based on the novels we love reading together. It was the best decision I ever made. We have so much more freedom now with language arts and it has really increased our love for books!

At night I read aloud the novel that we are studying for language arts. This includes all of my kids except my youngest, so that language arts really becomes more of a family subject – which simplifies things so much!!

My oldest then has other lessons related to the novel, but I feel like that would be a completely separate blog post. Check out my DIY Language Arts playlist HERE.

Soon I will need to review all of the read aloud we did this year. There were so many! Some of my favorites included “Willodeen”, “Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler”, and “True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle”. You can see all of our novels in my Language Arts Read Aloud list through Amazon.

Scripture Memory

Starting in December, we started memorizing one bible verse a month. I usually pick the verse based on what I want my kids to think about at the time. For example, when we were dealing with bedtime fears, we memorized a verse about not being afraid.

Recently, I was sent a beautiful scripture memory box from Shop Butter N Honey, and this has helped us keep the verses on our hearts. With this memory box, we are able to practice and review the verses every night. It’s been so much fun and my kids love seeing what they remember each night.

I love adding scripture memory before bed. It doesn’t feel like “school” and it really does set the tone for bedtime. The addition of the memory box was so helpful because it has allowed me and the kids to keep reviewing our verses even after the month is over. I hope to keep this habit of bible verses before bed even through the summer.

Hymn Study

I have always wanted to study hymns with my kids. I tried adding it into our morning time once but it didn’t stick. Then one night I randomly sang a hymn to the kids and we’ve been singing every night since.

I choose one hymn a month from a book called “Then Sings My Soul”. I grew up with traditional hymns in church, so I just choose one that I can remember the tune. Eventually, I’ll probably end up having to look them up on YouTube or something.

This has been such an easy way to memorize hymns. The book comes with a little description of the author so we read that and memorize the first verse together. Each night (most nights) we sing the verse and by the end of the month it’s memorized.

I have loved learning hymns with the kids and the way we do it has been so simple and effortless. I definitely love using this book as well because it gives us a little background of the hymn we are learning.

What’s Staying?

Well, I plan to continue almost everything next year! I do have a new plan for our devotional. I’ll be picking some new read alouds of course. I’m most excited for our next American History unit and all the books we will be reading for that. (The unit will cover post-Civil War through World War 2 and will be available to you around Christmas 2024) Science will keep going with Berean Builders now that I have found a better groove.

Overall, I’ve been happy with our family studies. I will make a few tweaks here and there, but once that’s done I’ll probably do a YouTube video sharing our “official” picks for the year! I’m ready to get into planning mode soon!

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ABeCeDarian Reading Curriculum – First Impressions

We recently switched our curriculum to the ABeCeDarian reading program. I had never heard of it before and I had a hard time finding a lot of information about it online. So, I’m so excited to share with you our first impressions about it.

I recently published a YouTube video describing our first impressions, and it also contains a complete look through of the level we are using. Be sure to check it out to get a thorough look into the teacher guide and the units.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Why We Switched

This year was a big review year for us. In the previous school year we completed Foundations A and B from Logic of English. It went really well, and I thought the curriculum was great, but I felt the need to review some more.

At that point I found a couple different programs that I used together to help me do this. One was called Treasure Hunt Reading. This was a super cute, inexpensive workbook that came with free online videos. My daughter loved the video host, and it was just a great way for us to get some review in without feeling like we were starting all over.

The other program we used was called Phonics Pathways. This was much different than Treasure Hunt Reading, but it is specifically made for students that may need extra reading instruction. As we used it, I could really tell she was starting to improve in her blending skills and at the same time I was learning so much about phonics and teaching reading.

You can see a look through of both of these workbooks on my YouTube channel: Phonics Pathways and Treasure Hunt Reading

We used Treasure Hunt Reading off and on, but we were more consistent with Phonics Pathways for about eight months. After a while though, we started to feel bored by the lessons and it was a struggle to complete a short ten-minute phonics review. At this point I knew I needed to try something different.

Why ABeCeDarian?

I started by searching the internet for reading programs that helped struggling readers. I have had my eye on Pinwheels for about a year, but I just can’t get myself to commit to the cost and the printing involved! Then All About Reading came to mind which has such a great reputation, but once again the cost was a factor.

I wasn’t looking to spend $150+ on something. I had already done that with Logic of English (which was worth it at the time!) However, I didn’t think it was the right move this time.

Then I came across a video on YouTube where a mom described Abecedarian and how her daughter started reading so quickly and became so confident. Now this was what I needed! I wanted a confidence boost in my house. With all of the review we were doing, I felt like my child was in a place where reading just didn’t interest her at all!

abecedarian workbook

Materials

After reading about the different levels, I chose to start my daughter in their B-1 Level. I bought the teacher guide for about $25, the student book for about $25, and their leveled reader for $12. So, for about $65 I was set to try this out.

This B-1 level contains 12 units, and I figured it would help me get through the end of our school year. Once we completed it, I could re-evaluate where we were at and if we wanted to continue.

The workbooks for ABeCeDarian can be purchased on this site.

Teacher Guide

The Teacher Guide is jam-packed with information. My favorite part is that at the beginning it contains of Quick-Start Guide. So, with just a little bit of reading, I could start the program immediately. Then, I spent the next few days reading more of the information provided.

The guide includes a description of the components of reading, teaching struggling readers, descriptions of all the activities, tips on error correction, scheduling and more! It’s quite the read, but it’s very helpful!

unit sounds

First Impressions

After you complete a unit, your child is supposed to read a fable from the leveled reader. After just one unit, my daughter read the fable so well! I literally cried listening to her. I was so proud, and she was SO happy! It’s like a huge bulb went off and suddenly she was so interested in reading and overjoyed that she could do it!

I started noticing her trying to read out in public – signs, papers, words on a TV screen. She was recognizing some of the sounds we had been practicing. She also started getting books from the library and was making an attempt to read them – and was doing really well!

This would’ve been unheard of before. I feel like in the past she just felt like – “I can’t read.” Now, suddenly, she had this feeling of “…maybe I can!” And I was thrilled!

key words

Nothing Like I’ve Seen Before

This program is nothing like I have ever seen before – seriously! In the teacher guide it tells you not to use terms like “silent e”, “short vowels”, “buddy letters”, and more. Every reading program we have ever tried always has some type of trick to memorize the rules of letters, and this guy is telling you – don’t even say it! Isn’t that crazy?

Sight words are another example. He explains that many programs state sight words need to be memorized because they don’t follow the normal rules. Then he goes on to explain that your child WILL be breaking down the sounds of these letters and a “sight word” category of words is completely unnecessary.

Instead of teaching letter by letter or even a group of letters, this book teaches vowel sounds. So for example, the unit we just completed taught the sound /u/ (what we might know as the short u). However, it doesn’t describe it like that. Instead it introduced four different groups of letters that make that same sound.

One unit focuses on eight key words that make the particular sound. So, by the end of the the unit your child will master the eight words and continues to review them with flash cards, the leveled readers, and eventually fluency lists.

key words 2

Getting Started

I can’t express enough to really get to know this program before you jump in. It is VERY unique, and I think it’s important that you recognize that and make sure it’s the right fit for you family. I found 1-2 videos that helped me, but I also now have published a full look-through on YouTube that may be helpful.

Check out their websites. Yes, that’s multiple sites. From what I have researched, ABeCeDarian is now under the name Sharpen. The original website still exists and contains information about the different levels, downloadable resources, and samples to the units. However, if you want to purchase their units, it will re-direct you to their Sharpen site.

Take a look at some of the videos the website offers. The videos are a little outdated, but you can watch the creator tutor children using the program, and it is SO helpful to see him do it. Some of the terminology he uses and his correction process is really interesting to watch. It really helped me understand what I was about to teach.

Online Edition

If you click around on the Sharpen site, you may notice that the company provides an online version of this program as well as some tutoring options. I am not familiar with this at all, but I do know they offer a trial and from what I have read, it seems like the online version is the same as the text.

Curriculum Goals

I have been so happy with the progress I have seen using this program. Now, that we are halfway through B-1, I understand the teaching method a little bit better and the lessons don’t feel as overwhelming as they did with the first 1-2 units.

There’s no way I can stop this now. I have seen too much progress and such a positive attitude switch in my child. I don’t think we will get through the book by the end of the school year, so my hope is to somehow incorporate it into our summer review. I’m still thinking about how to do this. For now, my goal is to complete B-1 in it’s entirety and see where we are from there.

When I first went looking around to find information about this program, I didn’t find much, so I hope sharing about it here can be helpful to anyone looking to know more. Be sure to check out my look-through video for a closer look. Finally, as always, remember that every family is unique. What works for mine may be different from yours. I always use this blog to provide our experiences in hopes that it might inspire you in a way that best suits your family.

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Learning American History Through Picture Books (PART 2)

It’s official! History is my favorite subject to teach to my kids thanks to our experience of learning American History through picture books. It’s funny – growing up, history was my worst and least favorite subject. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to grow my education alongside my children.

In this post I will be sharing a little bit about our newest American History unit that relies solely on picture books. No textbooks. No worksheets. No extra supply list. This unit relies on beautiful, engaging stories. If you haven’t checked out the first part of this history series, click HERE.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

American History through Picture Books

If you are new to this series, I’d like to give you a brief overview of what this history series is all about. It all started with my desire to add more great literature to our homeschool. The thought of a history textbook bored me and I thought to myself, surely I can learn about these concepts through something a lot more engaging for my young children.

This is PART 2 of a series I plan to continue working on through the timeline of American History. (So, there are more units to come!)

Part 1 starts with explorers and goes through the Treaty of Paris. (1000 – 1783) Part 2 begins with the Constitution and goes through the end of the Civil War (1787-1865). Part 3 (coming soon!) will start from the end of the Civil War and continue on from there.

I complete all of these units first with my children in order to test out these books and make sure to share our experiences with you. I feel that this will provide you with a more meaningful and complete unit. Part 3 will be completed by my family in the fall of 2024 and I will publish it around Christmas so that it is ready for Jan 2025.

An Explanation of How We Got Here

So for a while I was putting together these thematic history units that were so much fun! (See one of our favorites here.) We read great books, made crafts, and tried new recipes. I loved it! However, I started approaching a new season in my homeschool where none of my little-bitty ones were napping. Finding the time to fit in the “extra” activities became very difficult.

I was also putting my energy in other parts of our homeschool. I spent a lot of time researching and learning about reading and math curricula in order to help my kids thrive. We ran into a few bumps that year that caused some struggle with learning, and my focus was all about helping my kids do their best.

I needed to simplify!

So I changed my goals! I was no longer going to just grab a bunch of books on a topic and search Pinterest for hours looking for crafts and activities. I wanted to research, plan better, and choose beautiful, living books to work through our timeline of history. I thought that for just a short season, we will just focus on reading the picture books and we could try the extra things once we found a good rhythm. The thing is, we fell in love with the simple method of just reading books together!

Reading through picture books in history makes the events come to life. Instead of reading a small section in a textbook, you’re thrown into this beautiful world with so many great details that you can’t help but listen with intent. The stories pull you in and make you want to know more! I can’t express to you how much I have learned through this process. I also wish I could describe how this simple task of reading a book has brought so much joy to all of us as we study history.

An Overview to the Unit

In this unit, you will receive a checklist of picture books to read to your children. The picture books follow a timeline and they are listed for you exactly as you need to read them. You don’t have to choose from a variety of books. Everything is picked for you.

With a checklist like this, it will be easy to put these books on hold at the library. That was a goal of mine. I wanted this to be simple for anyone to gather the books. I believe I purchased three books in this unit because my library didn’t have them. One of the books was because I forgot to put it on hold and Amazon was quicker. So, I maybe spent a total of $15 for the entire unit of picture books! That’s a steal.

Reading and Narration

In this history unit, I will guide you on how to practice narration with these picture books. I teach you how to do it and provide the guiding prompts and discussion questions that you may need. I have an entire section devoted to helping you be successful with the narration of these picture books. If you are completely new to the practice of narration, you will be guided every step of the way!

About a year and a half ago I learned about narration. It intrigued me so much because it seemed so simple and effective. We started practicing it, and I spent time learning more about it. This eventually led to written narration in our home which has completely changed my daughter’s attitude about writing. She loves it! It took time to develop, but narration has been the easiest and most effective form of assessment in our home.

I’d love to suggest one of my favorite books about this topic: “Know and Tell” by Karen Glass. In this book she breaks down the process for each age and teaches you how to transition from oral narration to written narration. It is an incredible resource that really gave me the confidence to keep using narration in our homeschool.

If you’re not into reading an entire book about it yet, check out this website that can answer lots of questions you may have about narration.

I only share all of this because the unit is that simple: Reading + Narration. No worksheets, no extra supplies, no crafts. These are wonderful things that you are welcome to add, but I wanted the extras to be an option for you. I wanted families to experience the joy of Simply Learning Together.

Picture This

Your ready to start your school day. So you gather on the couch and grab an incredible book about the Erie Canal. You hand your wiggly ones a coloring sheet (already linked for you) so that they can keep hands busy while listening.

You read through this living book together and at the end you talk about it and share your thoughts and ideas. (Discussion questions provided)

That’s it! History lesson done.

Here’s another scenario…It’s been a busy day. You were out of the house at your extracurricular things or homeschool meet-ups. Your school schedule is lighter that day because it’s tough to fit it all in when you are out of the house. You get to the end of the night and as your kids wind down for bed, you grab a beautiful picture book about the Gold Rush and read it to them.

History lesson done.

I’m serious. It’s that simple. Here’s the kicker – you will learn SO MUCH, and you and your kids will actually REMEMBER what you learn because these books are that good! My kids recall the events in the books that we read all the time. This shows me that they learned from it! And I personally know more about American History than I ever did learning about it in school.

Does this simplicity sound like it might be a good fit for you? OR…if you don’t like it that simple and you enjoy adding the extra (which I did at one point! So, I understand that too!) How does it sound to have a complete list of picture books to guide you through the timeline of American History?

Some of Our Favorite Books

There are so many good books to choose from. I wanted to ask my kids what their favorite books were too, and we are sharing them with you here. The funny thing is we all picked the same one! So, I’ll share that one and a couple more of their favorites.

Our favorite was called “The Duel of the Ironclads”. I think it stood out to me because it surprised me so much. I almost didn’t add it to the list, and then we read it. Wow! It was so engaging and interesting. Then, we watched a short re-enactment of the actual event on YouTube. It was incredible! (I do show a handful of YouTube videos to help make connections – all of these are listed in the unit for you)

My oldest daughter loved reading about Harriet Tubman. We read “Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom” and it was wonderful. We followed it with a Torchlighter’s episode and my kids enjoyed it so much.

Another one of my kid’s favorites was “If You Were a Kid in the Civil War…”. It’s a really simple book but there’s something about it that’s so relatable. I remember reading it to them. This child was right there next to me, completely engaged the entire time.

DOWNLOAD AMERICAN HISTORY PART 2

Helpful Links

PICTURE BOOKS LINK: ALL of the History books we read for American History Part 1 AND American History Part 2 are linked in my Amazon storefront.

COLORING PAGES LINK: The coloring pages we used for our written narrations are linked through my Pinterest account.

Video Links

All of the YouTube videos that are listed in this unit are linked below:

More Info

Want to see the first American History Unit? You can see the entire book list for free on my blog post. You can also see a look through of the curriculum HERE.

American History through Picture Books – Complete Curriculum

I am so excited that this history curriculum is now complete. This has been a project I have been so passionate about over the last couple of years, and I am thrilled to share it all with you. You can now get ALL of the units to this curriculum which makes it a COMPLETE American History curriculum spanning from the explorers in 1000AD all the way through modern times (2000s).

Unit 1 – Explorers through the Treaty of Paris (1000-1783)

Unit 2 – Constitution through Civil War (1787-1865)

Unit 3 – Reconstruction through World War II (1865-1945)

Unit 4 – Post World War II through Current Times (1945-2003)

You can also purchase all of the units as a bundle for a discounted price.

NEW Science Through Picture Books

We had so much fun learning history through these amazing picture books. I knew Science had to follow suit. Read more about it HERE.

Looking for more literature-based curriculum?

For the last few years, my children and I have created a novel-based language arts program that is family-style and enriched with great literature each week. I’m so excited to share a NEW guides with you on how we do this in our home. If you’re tired of an all-in-one language arts workbook or if you’re itching for a great novel to read aloud to your kids, you’ve got to try this method! Check out the link below.

Novel Guides

You can watch multiple videos about this method of Language Arts on my YouTube Channel HERE

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Learning American History through Picture Books

Learning American History through picture books sounded so great to me, and I was determined to make it happen this year. Now that we’ve done it, I am so pleased with the way it turned out and how much we loved it!

I was never a good history student growing up. Textbooks felt boring and not relatable. The information didn’t stick with me, and I didn’t enjoy it. Boy, did that change once I started teaching it to my own kids in our homeschool! It’s become one of my favorite subjects.

There’s something about a good picture book that just grabs you in to the story. Reading them together with my kids is engaging and memorable. With American History as our focus for the year, I was itching to focus more on picture books and LESS on a textbook.

I worked really hard to put this list together for my kids (ages 9, 7, 4, and 3). To be clear this list covers Viking explorers through the Treaty of Paris (1783). I know for a fact that there may be some gaps as we can not cover Every. Single. Detail…but can a textbook? No matter what curriculum you use, the information is going to be delivered in a unique way.

This was our unique way of learning history this year, and we learned so much. Most importantly, we had fun doing it. It never felt like school. My hope in sharing this list with you is that it can provide that same feeling for you and your family. I pray it allows you to enjoy simply learning history together with your kids.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Want to Make it Even Easier?

I have created a complete curriculum of these books, based on the way we completed them in our own home. It includes all of the details of how we read them and what activities or videos we completed alongside them. If you would rather take the planning out and follow a step-by-step guide to completing this, than this is the curriculum for you!

See a complete look-through of this curriculum on my YouTube channel HERE.

It will break down a schedule for you, explain all the details of narration and writing, provide discussion questions, and it contains the links to all of the resources I mention below. You can check it out HERE.

Prepping for the List

Before I jump into the list, I want to share how I came up with it. This took some time and studying on my part, but it was worth it.

TruthQuest history is where I started. This was recommended to me by another homeschooling mom, and it’s basically a gigantic book list. Now, when I say gigantic, I mean GIGANTIC. It’s overwhelming without a doubt. Want a book on George Washington? The book provides 31! And that’s just one person in American History.

Now, times that by each person and event and you can see how this becomes an extremely extensive list. The reason I bring it up though is because it’s a fantastic resource if you’re looking for more book ideas about history. The author has multiple units from ancient history to modern times.

After a little reading and studying on my own, I was able to come up with a list of books that would allow us to work through American History with picture books. I’ve learned in the past that quality is better than quantity, so I have chosen spectacular books to help us do this. I can’t wait to share this list with you!

Narrations

I am normally the crafty type, but for some reason I am just not in a crafting season right now. Maybe it’s the work load of my two bigger ones. Or maybe it’s because of the two little ones that need my time and attention as well. If you check out some of my other units I’ve shared about, you can see that I love a good craft at times.

As much as I love them, that wasn’t my goal in this unit. I wanted to keep it so, so simple. Our “assessment” or “learning products” came in the form of narration instead of a craft. Since narration uses my children’s actual words/thoughts I have actually come to really value them. What a treasure to see their sweet minds at work. I usually toss crafts…these I want to hang on to forever!

I kept this really simple. My goal was one per week, but some weeks we did two. Add in a simple coloring page for them to work on while I read and it served two purposes – keeping their hands busy AND a page for me to record their narrations. (I share exactly how I did this in my unit)

If you’re not familiar with narration, it’s basically telling back what you just read. We do this each time we read, but some books we record our narrations. My oldest (9) writes her own. My 7yo verbally narrates and I write it for her. Every once in a while my 4 year old will tell me something, and I melt at her cute little sentences about the book!

This was such an easy way to “measure” their learning and it was FUN! I also love going back and reading what they wrote. It’s interesting to see how my 9 year old’s writing has changed, and I notice my 7yo improving in the way she verbally narrates as well. It’s just amazing to see all they remember.

Videos

There were definitely times I couldn’t find a book about what I needed. When this happened, I usually shared a short video with the kids on the topic. This made it easy to have a discussion as needed and move on to the next thing. I will list videos we watched in my list below.

Picture Book List

It is so exciting for me to share this list with you. I hope you and your family enjoy these books together! You can find all of the books linked HERE. I will also link them individually for you for convenience, especially because a couple of them can’t be found on Amazon.

Some of these books are lengthy. Many of them we read half one day and finished it the next. I have little ones, so I totally get the need to cut read aloud time short. It’s hard to keep them quiet and still! Take your time. Enjoy the books for however long you need. Almost every book we were able to read in 1-2 days.

At this point in our timeline, there are so many different people you could touch on in history…Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, etc. We could read for days and days! I chose a select few before finishing out our unit before Christmas. Here’s what I went with:

WOW! It is exciting to reach the end of this list and share! Of course I missed things. I am human, but I doubt you can find a textbook that covers every single detail either. The point is to experience the joy of learning all of this. By using picture books, that joy comes effortlessly, and the events and people are memorable in story form. I hope you feel that same way!

Do you want to see how we lined all of these books up and turned it into a history unit? I have it detailed and explained in my unit that you can find HERE.

Videos List

The following videos helped us fill in some gaps between books:

  • “How did Europeans immigrate to the Americas?” by History on Maps  (Video Length – 11:52) This is a great video to touch on the fact that there were multiple explorers besides Columbus.
  •  “John Smith | PBS World Explorers” by Gerry Dincher  (Video Length – 4:44) A couple books on the list briefly mention John Smith. This is a short video giving more details of his life.
  • “13 American Colonies” by Kids Academy  (Video Length – 4:16) This video explains how the New World became the 13 Colonies.
  • “Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre” by The History Channel (Video Length – 6:08) You will read about the Boston Massacre in one of the books, but this video looks into the life of Crispus Attucks, one of the first men killed during the events of the American Revolution.
  • “Treaty of Paris 1783 | Daily Bellringer” by The Daily Bellringer (Video Length – 5:01) A peace treaty is mentioned in the couple of books that we read, but this video will go into detail about what it is and what it meant.

Coloring Pages

I have also linked the coloring pages we used for our narrations on a Pinterest board titled “American History Coloring Pages”. There are lots of options online, but be sure to check out the board for a few to start with.

I would love to hear from you if this list is helpful! Be sure to check out the unit I put together that schedules all of these books and videos together. (Click here to view)

Have you read any of these books? Do you have a favorite on this list? Any you never heard of? Share with me in the comments and connect with me on social media. You can find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Helpful Links

American History Curriculum

Picture Book Links

Coloring Pages

Individual videos linked above.

American History through Picture Books – Complete Curriculum

I am so excited that this history curriculum is now complete. This has been a project I have been so passionate about over the last couple of years, and I am thrilled to share it all with you. You can now get ALL of the units to this curriculum which makes it a COMPLETE American History curriculum spanning from the explorers in 1000AD all the way through modern times (2000s).

Unit 1 – Explorers through the Treaty of Paris (1000-1783)

Unit 2 – Constitution through Civil War (1787-1865)

Unit 3 – Reconstruction through World War II (1865-1945)

Unit 4 – Post World War II through Current Times (1945-2003)

You can also purchase all of the units as a bundle for a discounted price.

NEW Science Through Picture Books

We had so much fun learning history through these amazing picture books. I knew Science had to follow suit. Read more about it HERE.

Looking for more literature-based curriculum?

For the last few years, my children and I have created a novel-based language arts program that is family-style and enriched with great literature each week. I’m so excited to share a NEW guide with you on how we do this in our home. If you’re tired of an all-in-one language arts workbook or if you’re itching for a great novel to read aloud to your kids, you’ve got to try this method! Below are two of the newest guides available now:

James and the Giant Peach

The Secret Garden

You can watch multiple videos about this method of Language Arts on my YouTube Channel HERE

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The Language Arts Combination I Love

In the middle of our year I found us needing to pause on our regular language arts curriculum, back-up, and review. In this process, I have discovered a language arts combination I love in order to teach my child to read.

Previously, we had used Logic of English to teach reading. It’s a great program, but we hit a wall. We made it all the way through Foundations A and almost finished Foundations B. But getting through the last lessons was starting to become a struggle.

I was really tempted to throw in the towel with LOE and completely switch to another reading program. However, to be more budget-friendly, I decided to do a little research and put together a collection of low-cost resources that I love.

We’ve been doing this for two months now. Not only do we have a great routine in place, but I have seen tremendous progress in my daughter’s reading AND writing progress. This combination has been a game-changer.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

reading curriculum

Why Multiple Books?

The truth is, at this point in our homeschool, reading lessons were a struggle for my sweet girl. I needed something that was simple, fun, and short. I couldn’t just blow off extra practice. She really needed repetition. By combining a selection of books, I’m able to spread out the practice and use each one daily for a handful of minutes per day.

A really long and tough language arts lesson became little bursts of practice, and that has been so helpful for us. Reading lessons are more fun and consistent AND they’re working!

I’ll be honest, for some kiddos that catch on to reading quickly, this combination may be a little over-kill. Don’t think that this is the best combo for every child. I know for a fact that in my own house this wouldn’t work so well for one of my other daughters. Each child is unique, and I have seen that come to life over the last five years of our homeschooling journey.

Even if you don’t use all of these books at once, they are all VERY helpful resources to teach reading. You might enjoy browsing through each one to see if it’s a good fit for your sweet kiddo.

phonics pathways

Phonics Pathways

I bought this book last year because I heard such great reviews about it on YouTube. When it came in the mail, I looked through it and was immediately overwhelmed. So, it sat on my shelf for a good year before I pulled it out again and started using it to supplement our Logic of English lessons.

Well, one day a BIG light bulb went off when I remembered that this was a full-blown phonics/reading curriculum! I quickly began studying how to use it and was hooked.

Each day when I start our lesson, I set a timer for 10 minutes. (That’s it!) I get through as much as I can in that time frame.

The book walks you through the process and how to use each page, so as long as you’re reading the directions it’s easy to follow. I also save the last couple of minutes for her to practice writing from dictation (suggested by the book). This has been amazing practice and has improved her reading, writing, and spelling all in one!

See a curriculum look-through for Phonics Pathways HERE.

reading pyramids

Reading Pathways

This book is filled with reading pyramids. It helps the reader to develop fluency in reading. It is a fantastic supplement on its own, and that’s exactly how we started using it at first.

I’ve been using Reading Pathways off and on over the last year. It’s actually the partner-book to Phonics Pathways mentioned above. The reason I continue to use it is because the Phonics Pathways book suggests doing one pyramid a day as a warm-up. (Check out this YouTube video for a look through.)

That’s exactly how we use it! Before we open up Phonics Pathways, she reads one pyramid. It only takes her about a minute.

treasure hunt reading

Treasure Hunt Reading

I had never heard of this program until this year – never! And I research curriculum all the time! This is such an incredible resource. You can download and print FOR FREE if you’d like, but to make it even easier you can buy it on Amazon. Every time I look online the price is $11, and that is a steal in my opinion for what this is.

Each lesson in this workbook comes with short video lessons hosted by “Adventure Kate”. She’s the best! She’s easy to listen to, and has almost brought me to tears at times as she encourages little readers to just keep practicing! I love her. You can watch some of the videos HERE. Check out the “Program Overview” video for parents.

I have also recorded a look through of this workbook on my YouTube channel if you want to see a closer look. We actually blew through Journey 1 in a couple of days because my daughter already had letter sounds down. Once we hit Journey 2, we slowed down a bit. On average, we complete about two pages a day. This usually takes us about 10-15 minutes.

Explode the Code

Explode the Code has been a helpful workbook for my daughter. She is currently working in level 2. I do feel like for some kids it can be busy work, and I actually don’t use it with all of my kids. I do love using it in this case because it encourages independence (She can do it on her own.) and the phonics practice is needed.

I’ve also been able to see a lot of progress with Explode the Code. Going from not being able to do an exercise…to doing it with help…to doing it on her own. We have even used their 1/2 levels to reinforce a few skills and I’m so glad that we did.

She completes a page of Explode the Code daily during her independent work time. This happens right after she gets ready for the day and finishes her morning checklist. It only takes a couple minutes for her to do.

Other Language Arts Components

The following components are technically language arts, but they happen naturally in our day. I’m going to list them here though because I think it’s important to point out that not all reading and language has to be learned in workbook form.

Independent Reading: I aim to have her read to me for 10 minutes a day. I am really bad about sticking to this. However, the goal remains, and I do try to reach it.

Narration: Narration has impacted our homeschool in the best way. If you’re unfamiliar, I highly recommend looking into it. It has simplified our days while enhancing our conversations about what we are reading. The book “Know and Tell” by Karen Glass was a huge help to me with this. I could go on and on about this book, but I’ll be sharing another blog post about it soon. 😉

Family Read Alouds: We read aloud constantly. Every morning we read devotions and picture books during morning time. I read throughout the day, maybe during the afternoon. I also read a novel to my big girls every night. Reading aloud doesn’t feel like school, but it’s technically part of language arts. To us, it’s life!

Audiobooks: We love audiobooks in my house. My daughter is an audiobook super-girl. It’s her favorite thing to listen books, and I love that she’s been exposed to so many. I can barely keep up with what she’s reading most of the time. We get our audiobooks free from the library. I check out the CD’s and we have a system at home in their room using a simple CD player. We also use the Libby app from our library, which I love!

Lesson Timeline

Lastly, I want to break down a language arts lesson in the simplest form to show how our routine plays out. It looks a little something like this…

  • Independent Work – Explode the Code – First thing after breakfast and chores (1-5min)
  • Morning Time – Read alouds and narration
  • Phonics with Mom (10 min)
    • Reading Pathways
    • Phonics Pathways
  • Treasure Hunt Reading with Mom (10-15 min)
  • Independent Reading (10 min…when I remember! Just being honest.)
  • Evening Read Aloud

Yes, it’s a lot of pieces but the short bursts of learning are fun for her and it honestly feels like less work for me too!

As I share this post, I hope for a few things. One, I hope it exposes you to some resources that may be helpful to you and your family. Two, I hope it encourages you to always do what’s best for your child. And three, don’t be afraid to mix things up! Have fun with learning…and make sure you’re having fun as the teacher too!

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No-Sweat, Simple Composer Study – Beethoven

One afternoon, my girls and I were enjoying a snack around the table when I decided to play classical music. This is not something I normally do. With four young children, the day fills quickly, and subjects like music tend to be pushed aside. (I’m sad to admit it.) However, I decided to try it, because I had just finished listening to a book that really encouraged me. (Modern Miss Mason by Leah Boden)

Turns out the music quit playing and I didn’t even realize. (oops!) No one could hear it. When I finally remembered it was on, I quickly grabbed my phone to figure out what was going on. I turned it up and saw the name of the song. It was a song by Beethoven.

My oldest daughter has an ear for music so I decided to “quiz” her on the spot, just for fun. “Do you know who this is?” I asked her. She looked at me like the answer was obvious and responded, “Yeah…it’s Beethoven!”

I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t even know that, but how cool! I asked her how she knew, and she just said that it just “sounded like him”. Well, this got us thinking…what does he sound like?

A quick YouTube search, and we were immersed in the world of Beethoven!

At the end of this afternoon snack, I had this boost of confidence – I can do this! I can add this in without sweat. It was so easy to sit back and chit chat about a song over a snack. Of course, in homeschool mama fashion, I laid out a plan in my head to figure out how to make this work with consistency. The following is what I came up with and some tips on how to make it work.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Choose your Composer

This sort of fell in our lap, but there’s a couple ways you could do this. If you’re studying a specific time period, you could look to see if a composer lived during that time. It would be a great way to link your subjects.

The other option would be to just pick something you’re familiar with or something that sounds interesting to you. For our first one, Beethoven was such a great fit, because it’s a well-known composer and I also knew the name well. So, it was fun to learn so much about it!

Lastly, you could pick at random from a good list of composers! Check out this website from Simply Charlotte Mason for a list of suggested composers to study.

Snack and Drink

Little ones always seem to listen better when they’re eating. So, you may want to pick a time of day where a snack fits in.

I chose the afternoon after our quiet time, but I have heard of people that do studies like this at breakfast or during a mid-morning snack. Now, a drink is not necessary, but my girls love a tea party. So, it’s turned into a little routine.

We have a cute tea set that one of the girls got for Christmas one year, but other than that our “tea party” is not fancy! Our snack has been as simple as apple slices to something more intense, like homemade muffins. Always pick what feels easy for you.

You want this time to be relaxing and enjoyable. Nobody has fun when they’re running around like crazy. Choose simplicity!

I’ll be honest, the first week we did it, I did kind of feel like a crazy person. Balancing everyone’s tea, and the honey, and the mixing, and the temperature adjusting – it was a little nuts. However, the more we’ve done it, the easier it gets.

I wonder if I should share some of my tricks with you?? If you’re interested in tea, I’ll let you know what we do to make it flow better. First, I prepare while my kids are still in quiet time. I boil the water and steep the tea.

Next, I get the snack ready and at the table (usually I just put it on a paper towel!) I set out enough tea cups for everyone, and I actually put two ice cubes in each cup. This helps cool the tea quickly so no one burns their mouth.

I also give each girl a little spoon (that came with the set). When it’s time to add the honey, the kids know the rule – fill the spoon and mix. No more 😉

Just as a side note – I treat myself to a snack and drink too. I could drink tea with the kids, and sometimes I do, but I usually like to make myself a yummy iced coffee! It’s such an afternoon treat.

beethoven books

Books

To keep it simple, I decided to look for books I could find at my library/local used bookstore. I put books on hold, and picked them up as they were ready. Since this study took about 7 weeks, I wasn’t in a rush to get them all at once.

My goal was to try to read one book a week. Sometimes we did this in just one sitting. Some books, we split up into two different times. I basically just read until I feel like I’ve lost their attention. (This is usually around 15-20 minutes, sometimes even shorter if my two-year-old is awake)

The books we got were great, and we learned so much! I’m going to list them here for you and I’ll put them in order of how much we enjoyed them. The first is the one we enjoyed the most!

You’ll notice I didn’t have a book for every week. There was a week or two when I was waiting on a book so we just looked up some information about a song on the internet. It was a quick way to learn a little bit about the song/musician, even without a book.

Music

If you do a Google search for “Ludwig Van Beethoven Compositions” you’ll get a big list. I chose a small handful to look at over a 7 week period. I will list those below.

I really don’t think it matters what order you listen to the songs. You could do it chronologically, but that would take a little research. I chose the songs based on the ones I recognized first. Then, I chose ones that were brought up in a book we read or that came up on an internet search.

For each song, I used a YouTube video to play the music. There are a couple different ways I would integrate the music into our homeschool.

First, I would try to play it while I prepared our afternoon tea. When we started reading, I would turn it down. When we finished our book, I’d play the music again and this time we would listen very closely. We might point out if it’s soft or loud. I might ask what instrument they could hear.

Sometimes we would even pretend we were playing and move our body according to the feel of the music. It sounds silly, but Beethoven’s music is very up and down. One minute it’s quiet and playful and the next it’s loud and aggressive. We had fun acting this out on a pretend instrument.

Lastly, I would try to play it a little bit throughout the week. I wasn’t always good about this, but I did try. Sometimes I could just play it in the house or I might play it while we were picking up.

Playing the Music on the Piano

Every once in a while my kids will do a piano lesson on Hoffman Academy. One afternoon, my oldest realized that there was a teaching video for “Fur Elise”, one of Beethoven’s compositions.

So, instead of doing the normal Hoffman Academy lessons, she has been working on “Fur Elise” for a couple weeks. I thought it would be such a great way to experience the music, and it now had so much more meaning.

Easy Break-Down

Let’s break this down to visualize an easy-to-do checklist. Sometimes seeing it like this really shows off the simplicity, and that’s my hope here. A composer study can be this simple and still be so beneficial!

  • Prepare Snack and Drink
  • Gather around the table
  • Read a book about the composer aloud
  • Listen to a song by the composer
  • Discuss the book, the music, the instruments

That’s it! No worksheets, no extra activities, just fun conversation and good food around the table. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

Simple, Fun, and Memorable

“Hey, Mom, what’s Beethoven’s favorite fruit?” This was a joke my daughter read in a magazine and shared with me one night. Of course, after listening and learning about him for so long I was determined to get this joke. “Moonlight Banana,” I said. “SO CLOSE!” She responded. And then she sang the answer, “Ba-na-na-naaaaaa”

Did you hear it? It’s from his Fifth Symphony. How cool that we can recognize that together. A silly joke suddenly has so much meaning.

It’s such a beautiful part of homeschool. I knew very little about Beethoven, and now my children and I can all share in our learning together. I used to think that a composer study was just one-more-thing to add to our day. How in the world was I supposed to get it done?

However, with this approach, not only was it simple, but it became one of the most relaxing parts of our day. I so much enjoyed pausing are afternoon to connect over music, food, and a good book about a GREAT musician.

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Knights and Castles – Middle Ages Mini Unit

coat of arms

We are beginning to study the middle ages in our homeschool, and I’ve decided to make it into a bunch of different mini-units. Our first one will focus on knights and castles.

Read further for all the books we read as well as the activities we did, but come back soon and check out our other middle ages units as well. I will be posting them on the blog as we complete them!

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

the door in the wall

Read Aloud Novel

“The Door in the Wall” by Marguerite de Angeli takes place in the middle ages. It follows the story of a young boy who is destined to become a page but is suddenly ill and unable to fulfill his duty. A monk comes to his aid and encourages him to learn new things and work on becoming stronger. His hard work will soon pay off as he will play an important role in protecting the castle.

This book came highly recommended (from many other homeschool mamas online) as a historical fiction novel to read while studying the middle ages. The language can be tricky to understand, and by reading it aloud, I was able to explain what many different things meant. (I also learned some things myself!)

The book is 121 pages and contains 10 chapters, most of which we were able to read in one sitting. The last two chapters were much longer and took us a couple of days to get through.

I also love the message and theme that surrounded the story. Hard work and perseverance can really pay off. When one opportunity ends, another one might come along. You may think about a modern day phrase, “When one door closes, another opens”. All of these ideas brought on great discussion with my kids.

We all enjoyed this book so much. Although we used it to study history, we also used it for my oldest daughter’s language arts lessons. (Read about that here)

More Books

I love using the library as our main source for books, and for this unit, I even visited a local used bookstore. That may get dangerous in the future. I could’ve bought so much! I found tons of good reads and I’ll share the best ones here. You can also check out my YouTube video where I share a peak inside of the books as well.

coat of arms

Coat of Arms

Almost every book we read about knights talked about a coat of arms. Knights would decorate their shields in a way to represent who they were. This was a fun activity to express who we are and decorate our own pretend shields.

You could definitely cut cardboard and paint if you wanted to go all out. We just used white paper! I cut the papers into a shape of a shield and I offered a couple of options. Decorate the whole shield or divide it into 2-4 pieces and add different designs to each piece. They each did something different, but I loved seeing what they chose to add to their shield.

I had them tell me about their designs and what it meant to them so I could write it on the back. It’s a great piece of art for their portfolios.

cardboard castles

Create Castle and Drawbridge

This activity and the two following activities were completed after reading portions of “Castle” by David Macaulay. This book seemed a little intimidating to me because it’s quite long, but it was highly recommended. It turned out to be absolutely wonderful and we learned so much! It did take about 3 days to get through it all.

We created a castle using a cardboard box from our pantry. This blog post breaks down the entire process. Since I have younger ones, I did a little bit of prep to help the activity run smoother. By the time we were ready to start, I already had the boxes shaped.

I had my two oldest each decorate their own castle. I will admit that once it was time to create the drawbridge, I could only help one at a time. If you had older kids, it may be fun to hand them the supplies and say – how can you make this work?

With my two (ages 6 and 8), we talked about it as we went, and I had to do a lot of the work so that the drawbridge would do what it was supposed to. Even still, they loved the finished product and immediately got their Barbies out to start acting out a castle attack. It was pretty cute to watch, and such a fun way to assess what they’ve been learning – through play! I love it!

Castle Drawing and Narration

Before we read our Castle story one morning, I found a video that taught my girls how to draw a castle. Now, we love Art for Kids Hub, but their castle drawing could only be watched if you pay for a subscription on their website.

So, we did something crazy and decided to just draw the Ice Castle from their YouTube channel. I encouraged my girls to decorate it like the castles we have been reading about. My oldest did just that and kept the snow. My other two girls just went full blown Frozen and kept the ice castle.

Either way, it was still fun and I decided to use their pictures as a visual for their narration of what we read that morning. I wrote something for my two oldest girls and kept it in our yearly portfolio. I love how it turned out.

Build-A-Castle Rotation

Just one more day of reading this book (“Castle”), and I wanted something fun to finish it off. We have a few open-ended toys at our house, so I chose four different bins full of blocks to get us started.

I set out four blankets for our morning time and put a bin on each blanket. We had Magnatiles, Mega Blocks , Duplo Legos, and wooden blocks. I told each of my kids that I would set a timer for five minutes and they’d have to build a castle out of that specific toy.

At the end of the timer, no matter if they finished or not, they would rotate to the next blanket and build another castle. They thought this was the coolest. It really broke up the time well! They made all kinds of castles and it was the perfect way to finish off the book while keeping hands busy and ears listening. It was also neat to see their creativity and became a beautiful way to assess their understanding!

Still on My Wishlist

I always like to have a few ideas in my head of what I want to do for our unit studies. I’ll usually make a board on Pinterest (See my middle ages board). The thing is, I don’t always get to every single one. That’s because they are mostly enrichment! And if it adds more stress to complete it, then I put it off for another time.

I love homeschooling with this philosophy because I don’t feel pressured to check a bunch of things off. We still learn so much through our readings! The next couple of activities are ones I wanted to do but didn’t quite get to during our unit. However, they’re too cute not to share! I’ll be saving them for a rainy day, but I hope they might inspire you if you’re studying the middle ages!

Sir Cumference

The Sir Cumference series is so much fun. They are picture books based in the medieval times that teach math concepts through stories.

We found ours at the library. I checked out four of them and we simply read them together before bedtime for a few nights in a row. My kids loved them!

Although we didn’t do an activity to go along with it. I kept thinking how fun it would be to do a simple graphing idea with some candy or cookies, just like in the “Roundabout Battle” story. Check out this candy bar graph for an idea of what I mean. You can also see this photo of an M&M pie chart for another type of graph the book used.

These are such simple ways to bring the book to life and experience the graph in our own hands instead of just the story.

Armor of God

One of the books that we read had a Christian message, and it was called “The Brave Young Knight”. The book was great alone, but I had this idea to do a little armor of God study to go along with it.

You can find the armor of God in the bible in Ephesians 6:10-20. Once we read about it in scripture, I wanted to create a fun, easy knight using aluminum foil shapes. This link will give you a better idea of what I’m talking about.

As we review the armor of God, I hoped to cut the different pieces of the armor out of the foil, glue it on construction paper and label it. I just feel like this could be such a fun way to link our study of knights to what we learn in scripture. It’s also a great visual to help us memorize the verses.

Movies/Shows

We have a family movie night on the weekends, and I love when I can match it up to what we are learning. During this unit, we watched a couple of movies that were related to knights and castles.

First, was The Sword in the Stone. This is an old Disney film that follows the adventures of a young boy who wants to be a knight. It is very magical, but it does take place in the time period. Since I have kids ages 2-8, it was a great one that we could all enjoy.

Another weekend, we let the bigger kids watch A Knight’s Tale. Now, this one is rated PG-13 and it took a little editing on our part.

First, we had to talk with the kids about the language. We also had to be prepared to skip a love scene in the film. The only other thing was one of the first scenes. You see a man’s butt and there’s also a visual of someone hanging in the background. Beyond those few parts, the rest of the film was fantastic!

I highly suggest you read through the Common Sense Media page, and as always, choose what you think is best for your family. Everyone has a preference for movies, and as parents we get the privilege to choose what is shown in our home. In my opinion, it was worth the watch, even though we skipped a small bit. The film portrays that time period so well. You can really see the different classes of people as well as things like jousting and coats of arms, all of which we discussed together the weeks before.

More Unit Studies

Come back soon for more unit studies related to the middle ages. If you liked looking through these ideas or if you try one at home, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

We’ve been doing unit studies like this all year and I have most of them on the blog. I’ll link some of them below if you’d like check them out!

Ancient Egypt

Weather

Space

Ancient China

Vikings

Thanksgiving

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The Door in the Wall – A Charlotte Mason Inspired Novel Unit – The Middle Ages

The Door in the Wall

The Door in the Wall is a novel that takes place in the middle ages. This Charlotte Mason inspired novel unit will connect both history and language arts. The living book will provide passages that allow your child to study grammar, spelling, and vocabulary while practicing the skills for copy work, narration, writing, and dictation.

I talk a little more about this method of language arts in this post. It has given us so much freedom in our studies and I have enjoyed very much linking multiple subjects (history and language arts) to one book. Because of this, I almost feel like I have less on my plate, which I think can be helpful for any parent out there!

This novel was a part of our middle ages history unit study, which I will also link for you (COMING SOON). In that post you can see many different activities we did as we studied the time period, but they could also be great activities as a tag-along to this book! We are currently studying the middle ages now as I write this, breaking it into little mini units that I will post as we complete them.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

The Door in the Wall

“The Door in the Wall” by Marguerite de Angeli takes place in the middle ages. It follows the story of a young boy who is destined to become a page but is suddenly ill and unable to fulfill his duty. A monk comes to his aid and encourages him to learn new things and work on becoming stronger. His hard work will soon pay off as he will play an important role in protecting the castle.

This book came highly recommended (from many other homeschool mamas online) as a historical fiction novel to read while studying the middle ages. Our family used it as a read aloud which worked out great. The language can be tricky to understand and by reading it aloud, I was able to explain what many different things meant. (I also learned some things myself!)

The book is 121 pages and contains 10 chapters, most of which we were able to read in one sitting. The last two chapters were much longer and took us a couple of days to get through.

We all enjoyed this book so much. It was wonderful to read a book that took place in the time period we were studying for history. I also love the message and theme that surrounded the story. Hard work and perseverance can really pay off. When one opportunity ends, another one might come along. You may think about a modern day phrase, “When one door closes, another opens”. All of these ideas brought on great discussion with my kids.

Chapter Summaries and Discussion Questions

I wanted to include chapter summaries and discussion questions in this post for a couple reasons. First, I think it’s helpful to know more about what is in a book before reading it with your kids. When I have more information about a book I can come up with different activities or topics I may want to learn about with the kids as we read through it.

Second, someone reading this might want to assign this book as a silent reading option for their child. I feel like these summaries and questions may help guide you in assessing how that silent reading is going.

I did not include answers to the questions. Most of them are meant to start a discussion and can have a lot of different answers. I hope that if you are practicing narration with your kids that these questions might allow you to challenge your kiddos in what they tell you about the book.

SPOILER ALERT – If you read these summaries, some of the events in the story will be spoiled. Unfortunately, I couldn’t avoid that, but I do hope that even still you find it helpful.

Chapter One

SUMMARY: Robin, a son of a noble family, has reached the age where he is ready to be sent away to learn about becoming a knight. Right before he is supposed to leave he becomes ill. A wandering friar hears of Robin’s condition and travels to help him.

How do you think it feels to leave your parents at such a young age?

What is the plague?

What do you think Brother Luke means by a door in the wall?

Chapter Two

SUMMARY: Robin arrives at St. Mark’s where he is cared for by Brother Luke. He is learning new skills while getting accustomed to his new living space.

What was it like at St. Mark’s?

What kind of things does Brother Luke do to help Robin? What skills does he teach him?

Why do you think Robin got upset with the boy that called him Crookshanks?

Chapter Three

SUMMARY: Robin works hard on his whittling project and learns a helpful lesson about patience. He makes a plan with Brother Luke to learn many different subjects with the help of other monks.

What does Robin learn while learning to whittle?

What kind of things does Brother Luke want to teach Robin?

What do we learn about Robin and his illness after reading the letter to his father?

Chapter Four

SUMMARY: Brother Luke takes Robin fishing where he sees a group of boys playing. He experiences different emotions as he yearns to be well, but he also gets the idea of making himself something to help him walk.

How did Robin feel when he saw the boys swimming?

How does Brother Luke plan to help make Robin stronger?

How do you think crutches could be a door in the wall?

Chapter Five

SUMMARY: Robin receives a reply from his father and makes plans to travel to Shropshire. Robin, Brother Luke, and John-go-in-the-Wynd travel together by foot. The journey is not easy and a fork in the road causes a delay.

What did Robin’s father say in his letter?

How does the fork in the road affect their journey?

What kind of attitude does Robin have on the trip?

Chapter Six

SUMMARY: Robin, Brother Luke, and John continue traveling and stop at a place to sleep. Unfortunately, they are forced to leave because of two evil men and must quickly find a new place to rest.

How did Brother Luke feel about staying at the White Hart?

What did Robin overhear the two men talking about while he was supposed to be sleeping?

Chapter Seven

SUMMARY: Robin, Brother Luke, and John pause their journey for Robin to experience a fair. After a quick stay at an old cottage in the woods, they reach their destination. Robin meets Sir Peter and begins his duties as a page.

How does Robin feel about meeting Sir Peter?

What kind of things will Robin do for Sir Peter?

Chapter Eight

SUMMARY: Robin gets stronger and stronger as the days pass. A thick fog threatens the castle and they are attacked.

Robin has learned many new subjects and skills since he became ill. What are they?

Why is the fog putting the castle in danger?

What do the people inside the castle do while they are under attack?

Chapter Nine

SUMMARY: The people in the castle are running out of supplies while they are under attack. Someone must sneak out to get help. Robin volunteers and heads to John’s Mother’s cottage. John sends a message to get help for the castle.

Why do the people in the castle need help?

Why does Robin think he can be the one to get help?

What was Robin’s journey like?

What is John’s plan for getting back into the castle?

Chapter Ten

SUMMARY: Sir Hugh arrives to help defeat the Welsh. Robin is a hero! However, he still desires to see his family. Soon enough, he sees them and makes plans to travel back home to be with them.

How did Robin play such an important role in this defeat?

Who arrives at the castle on Christmas Eve?

What kind of blessing and reward did Robin receive from the king?

Where will Robin go to live now?

Unit Schedule

The following is a brief outline of what I hope to accomplish each day of this unit with my child. For more details on each piece, be sure to read my explanation post.

In this post I will share the passages we studied and how we broke them down each day in case you’d like to try the same sort of method.

For a VERY brief overview of how our time is used for language arts – I read aloud the novel to all of my kids, usually in the evening before bed. For daily grammar practice, my daughter uses Fix it Grammar. I love that it can be done independently and takes about 5 minutes to complete. Copy work is also completed independently (5 minutes). I set a timer for our actual language arts lesson for 20 minutes.

When you read through the lists for each day, think of it as a checklist. As you can see in the way we split our time, this is getting accomplished all throughout the day at different times. It’s spaced out in a way that works for us.

DAY 1

  • Read novel and narrate [whole family]
  • Grammar Workbook [independent work]
  • Copy work – complete 2-3 lines of selected passage from novel [independent work]
  • Study passage – focus on grammar [language arts lesson with parent]

DAY 2

  • Read novel and narrate [whole family]
  • Grammar Workbook [independent work]
  • Copy work – complete 2-3 lines of selected passage from novel [independent work]
  • Study passage – focus on spelling and vocabulary [language arts lesson with parent]

DAY 3

  • Read novel and narrate [whole family]
  • Grammar Workbook [independent work]
  • Copy work – complete 2-3 lines of selected passage from novel [independent work]
  • Written Narration [language arts lesson with parent]
  • **Option – review passage/spelling words if necessary

DAY 4

  • Read novel and narrate [whole family.]
  • Grammar Workbook [independent work]
  • Copy work – complete 2-3 lines of selected passage from novel [independent work]
  • Dictation [language arts lesson with parent]

DAY 5 (OPTION)

  • Read novel and narrate [whole family]
  • Silent Reading (15-20 minutes) [independent work]
  • Narration [language arts lesson with parent, about 5 minutes]

Passage Selection – Week One

I selected two passages to use for our copy work because it took us two weeks to read the book. Each week, we studied one passage during our language arts lesson time. I will share with you how we study these passages throughout the week.

Now, if you wanted to simplify this even more, you could only focus on what connects to your grammar workbook. Point out what you’ve studied so far, and that’s it. That way it’s consistent between the two. However, I enjoy looking a little deeper than that. There are times when I don’t really know why a comma is there, and I just look it up online right there with her. That’s what it’s all about – learning together!

The following is our passage for week one:

“Always remember that,” said the friar. “Thou has only to follow the wall far enough and there will be a door in it.”(The Door in the Wall, Chapter One, Marguerite de Angeli)

An important thing to keep in mind here is I am not trying to have her reach mastery with these discussions we have about the passages. The mastery will come from her grammar workbook practice. However, I do want her to observe the grammar usage in a way that is meaningful to her, through our family novel. Our lesson is more of an opportunity to have a conversation about why this passage is written the way it is.

I picked this passage because it’s the first time the book mentions the door in the wall. I felt it would be an important part of the story, and it really was. By studying this passage, it allowed my daughter to really think about what the door in the wall means.

On the first day of our schedule, we focus on grammar and punctuation. The following is what we discussed for this passage:

  • Capitalization and end marks
  • Quotation rules
  • The comma after “that” goes at the end of the quote, before the actual quotation mark.
  • “Thou hast” is another way of saying “You have to…”
  • For the word “there” we made sure to discuss why it was spelled that way.

As we study these topics we might practice different examples on the board or practice them orally, if possible. This might seem brief, but as you discuss each one with your child and provide alternate examples or even just look for more examples in the book, the time will go quickly.

Spelling and Vocabulary

For our second day of lessons, we are still using the same passage. This time we focus on spelling and vocabulary. I first ask my daughter if she knows what certain words mean based on the context. If we need to, we look them up in the dictionary.

The vocabulary words we looked at for this passage: friar, and we reviewed “thou hast”

For spelling, I quiz her with many of the words from the passage and see which ones are mastered and which ones need practice. I have her write them on a board. You can make this list based on your child’s needs, but our list looked something like this: always, remember, friar, thou, hast, only, follow, enough, there, door.

Any word spelled incorrectly we practice a few times. I will also try to quiz her the following day as well to see if she can remember the word(s) she missed.

Passage Selection – Week Two

Week two follows the exact same schedule, just with a different passage. So for this section, I will list the passage as well as what we studied to go along with it.

“They knelt in the woods, as if it had been a cathedral, as indeed it looked to be. For the trees, bare of leaves, arched overhead in the very same way that the groined arches of stone swept up high overhead in the Gothic churches.” (The Door in the Wall, Chapter Seven, Marguerite de Angeli)

I loved the image that this passage created, and I liked that it mentioned Gothic churches, something we plan to look at while we study the middle ages. Once we started looking at it together, I regretted my choice because the commas in the first sentence were difficult for me to explain (or even understand myself). BUT! We kept on…this is a learning experience for the both of us and my goal is not mastery here, but instead it’s exposure with meaning.

The following is what we discussed for this passage:

  • Capitalization and end marks
  • The commas in the first sentence – This was the confusing part I mentioned. Based on my research, those commas are there because “as” is a subordinate conjunction. Now, I am no expert, but this is what we went with! Honestly, I’m not stressing about it. I’m 35 and have to google it so I feel like this is one I can let slide. 😉
  • The commas around “bare of leaves” are there because the clause is not essential to the sentence.

Later in the week, I realized I could have also looked at similes. I believe the first sentence contains one. So, if that is something you are interested in, it’s another option. We will save similes for another day.

Spelling and Vocabulary

On the second day of our week we look at spelling and vocabulary from the passage. The spelling words we practiced were as follows: knelt, cathedral, indeed, looked, bare, leaves, arched, overhead, groined, swept, Gothic, churches

The vocabulary words we studied were cathedral, bare, arched, groined, and Gothic. Don’t forget to use context clues first, and then try the dictionary.

Optional Activity – Connecting the Grammar Book to the Passage

Our spelling and vocabulary lesson goes pretty quick, so I like to use this day to connect her grammar book to our passage. She is using Fix it Grammar and marks up a sentence each day with certain symbols and letters. I write out the passage from our book for her on a piece of paper with no capitalization or punctuation and have her practice editing the sentence using the same marks she has learned from her Fix it Grammar. You can see a preview of this in the image above.

Honestly, you could do this with any grammar workbook. If you are practicing adjectives, find the adjectives. If you’re underlining the subject once and the verb twice, do the same here. See if you can combine your grammar book with your novel one day – It makes the workbook feel relevant!

Final Thoughts

If you want to check out another novel we have done before, click here. We are studying the middle ages for the rest of our school year, so our next couple of novels will most likely fall in that category.

Do you use a similar method to this? Does it help to share all of this info? Let me know if you feel like this is something you might like to see more of!

NEW Novel Guides Available!

For the last few years, my children and I have used this novel-based language arts program that is family-style and enriched with great literature each week. I’m so excited to share a NEW guide with you on how we do this in our home. If you’re tired of an all-in-one language arts workbook or if you’re itching for a great novel to read aloud to your kids, you’ve got to try this method! Below are two of the newest guides available now:

James and the Giant Peach

The Secret Garden

You can watch multiple videos about this method of Language Arts on my YouTube Channel HERE

More Learning with BOOKS

I love using literature in our homeschool. Although this method of language arts is newer to us, we have used books to learn in our homeschool since the beginning. I will link that below for you if you would like to check it out:

The Secret Garden

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

The Boxcar Children

The Courage of Sarah Noble

Caddie Woodlawn

The Adventures of Reddy Fox

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A Simple Approach to Learning the Calendar in our Homeschool

As a new month arrives, it’s a reminder for me to practice using the calendar with my kids in our homeschool.

When we first started homeschooling, I thought it was necessary to have daily calendar practice. So, of course, I bought the cutest set I could find for a good deal, made precious binders, and encouraged my children each morning to complete it. The set included things like tracing days of the week, filling in the numbers for the calendar, and recording the temperature and weather.

Well, the truth is – it got really boring after a while, and it just felt like busy work. So over time we’ve made some adjustments, and I’ll be sharing our super simple approach to learning the calendar. The best part – it works!

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Daily Calendar

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with practicing the calendar daily. I know there are children that truly enjoy working in a notebook or something similar and filling out their pages each day.

In our home, I soon realized, that learning the calendar comes quite naturally, and a daily calendar wasn’t needed for us. So, we got rid of the daily practice and to keep it simple, I use each new month to practice calendar skills.

New Month = Calendar Time

We have a calendar in our school room to display the month. This is a great visual that we can refer to often. Each month I have to change out the little cards so that it displays the correct order of days and month.

When I do this, I gather the kids and we practice a few simple things to get acclimated with the calendar. So this means we practice about 12 times in the year (as long as I remember each month!) That’s it! Easy peasy.

Months of the Year

You’re about to see that we love using songs to memorize. We sing a months of the year song a few times in a row to start memorizing the names of the months. All of my kids participate, including my two year old. He tries to follow along with us – it’s adorable!

Sometimes I like to write the names of the months on the board so that my child that is learning to read can start practicing to recognize the months in print. Next month I’m thinking I’ll have my oldest write the months out for us. Then, I can see how she spells the months – great practice!

If I feel like we need to mix it up we can sing loud and soft or fast and slow. The link I shared with you for the song actually repeats the song about 3 times. So, even just listening to it one time through works!

Days of the Week

Once we finish the months, we move on to the days of the week. This is when my childhood Barney episodes come into play. The song we sing is one I remember from my own childhood! It’s still in my head – proof that songs stick! (Be sure to check out the link to that song for a trip back to the late 80s, early 90s)

I have my kids take turns pointing to the days on the big calendar as we sing them. Everyone likes a turn doing this, so we end up singing it 3-4 times. It’s also fun with a silly pointer, which we have used in the past.

Calendar Questions

Finally, I’ll ask questions about the calendar that are relevant to us and the kids will take turns answering. Below are some questions I might ask:

  • Today is Tuesday. What is tomorrow? What was yesterday?
  • We have a field trip on the second Friday of the month. What day is that?
  • What day of the week is the 15th?
  • What day is Stella’s birthday on?
  • We meet with Adventure Club on Fridays. How many times will we go this month?

It Works and It’s Fun!

We have been doing this for a little over two years now, and I can see how it has worked with my littlest ones. For example, my current four year old has the songs memorized! So she knows her days of the week and months of the year already just by singing along with us each month.

My older two have known the songs for a while, so each month I challenge them with the calendar questions. It really doesn’t take much effort because I just ask questions about our own calendar.

The rest of the calendar practice comes up naturally in conversation. If the days of the week get brought up, we can sing the song quick to answer a question. For example, a question I get all the time is “Mom, how many days until my gymnastics class?” This is the perfect opportunity to put our songs to use!

This is something that has worked well for our family, and it’s been so nice not to have to worry about a sheet to fill out or print out. Every family will be different. It might be helpful to have your children sit and work on something like a calendar each day. If that’s true for you, I encourage you to keep on with it! I only share our experiences as a way to share ideas – I hope it can be helpful or inspiring to you!

What’s your favorite way to learn the calendar? Do you do something similar or do you prefer daily calendar work? I’m curious what other songs might be sung in your homes!