Category: Unit Studies

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Teach Science through Picture Books in Your Homeschool

I love to teach science with picture books in our homeschool. The thing about picture books is they’re great for every age. From toddler, to teenager, to me – the adult! We can learn so much through one book.

Over the last couple of years I find myself moving further and further away from textbooks and workbooks in multiple subjects and focusing more on literature-based learning. It has been such an engaging and memorable way to learn.

There’s something about a science textbook where every time I open up to start the lesson, I dread reading it out loud. It’s like I already know it will be hard to keep their attention the whole time. This year I bought a science text for my older girls that they were taking in our co-op and thought we could just use it as a family study since it was made for elementary ages…I couldn’t do it!

The thought of reading it to my youngest ones (ages 5 and 6) was overwhelming. I’ve been thinking a lot about my youngest two and how fun these elementary years can be – so much wonder and curiosity and play through learning. I want to take advantage of these years and enjoy what we are reading. This is what led me to create my newest literature-based curriculum – Science Through Picture Books.

In this blog post I’ll share a little more about what it is and how it works. I’ll let you know my plans as I work on piecing units together over the next couple years to create it for my own family. Picture books have brought so much joy to our homeschool, and I hope it can do the same for you.

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!

An Overview of Science Through Picture Books

Science Through Picture Books was created as a family study for your children ages kindergarten through fifth grade. It will be made up of multiple units, and each unit will contain a list of twelve books.

These twelve books can be read at any pace you like. Read one per week and finish the unit in twelve weeks OR two per week and finish the unit in six weeks. Read three per week and finish in four weeks…and so on!

You have the choice to read as many as you’d like throughout your week, making the unit fit into your family schedule as you desire.

Each book is paired with an optional video. These are short videos to enrich the lesson from the stories and can provide more visuals and discussion opportunities with your children.

As you read these books, I will guide you in introducing and discussing the stories with your children. (See example in photo above) For each book, I give you notes on reading it aloud, a script for introducing it to your kids, and optional discussion questions and narration prompts.

Science note booking is also an option. I will teach and encourage you to practice narration as you read this books. The unit will list multiple ways to keep record of your science notebooks in order to differentiate your note booking for different ages and skill levels.

Finally, I provide you with a list of enrichment activities that you have the option to add to your studies. The activities range in prep and difficulty containing super simple ideas or more complex projects that take a little more time.

What is a Lesson Like in Science Through Picture Books?

Picture this: Gather at the table, snuggle up on your couch, or lay out a blanket in the grass. Read a book and have your children narrate to you. It’s that simple. If you’re not familiar with narration, I’ll guide you through all of that in this guide. 

Some of you may like to go a little further, and that’s encouraged if it brings you joy! You’ll see in the section above all of the additional videos and activities that are included in this unit. The point is, you can make this as simple or as complex as you’d like.

Unit Topics – Meeting the Standards

As a homeschooling mom, I try not to focus so much on the standards, but at the same time I know that some may feel peace of mind knowing they are following a certain standard as they teach their child. So, in this section, I hope to do my best to meet both sides in the middle.

As I researched science standards while developing this curriculum, I realized that they are not the same across the country. Common Core standards exist, focusing on literacy through science in grades K-5, which is great, because you’ll get plenty of that through these books!

Some states have their own unique science standards while others have adopted the Next Generation Science Standards, released in 2013. (NGSS)

My hope is to provide a variety of science units for families to choose from to help build a foundation of knowledge in the subject. These units will focus on three out of the four disciplinary core ideas listed in the NGSS: physical sciences, life sciences, and earth and space sciences.

These categories will guide me as I choose themes for the different units. The standards will not be stated in these units, because my intention is to make this a family study, which would be an extensive list covering multiple grade levels. However, if you’re curious about what these standards are, I encourage you to do your own research on their website which provides free, downloadable lists of the standards for each grade. 

One thing you may notice is the majority of the standards can be met through these books and your discussion. Reading the standards can feel very “official” or possibly overwhelming, but remember that the goal of these elementary years is to build a foundation – the NGSS will tell you the same thing! We aren’t trying to reach a mastery of topics. We are encouraging curiosity and igniting their desire to learn even more!

Look-Through the Curriculum

Want to see inside one of these units? I know sometimes that can help get a better idea of what a specific curriculum is all about. Head to my YouTube channel to learn more about this and see inside the unit guide.

Watch the Video Here.

Future Units

These units will be published as I complete them with my own children. I have a goal to complete four this year. We may or may not get to more than that. Here’s what you can expect this year:

Each unit will follow the same pattern as I mentioned above in the overview.

Choosing Books

I work really hard to research and read tons of books for these units. I enjoy it very much as I get to know authors and illustrators while increasing my knowledge on different topics.

There are hundreds of books on these topics. However, my goal is not to provide you with tons and tons of books. I hope to give you a simplified, streamlined list in order to help you build a foundation of science knowledge with your kids.

A beautiful, informative picture book always engages my children and me. Some people might refer to these as living books. These are the books that draw your attention and make you eager to listen and learn. It never fails when I read a great picture book with my kids, we are wanting to read more! It’s like it can spark a certain curiosity to dig deeper. 

That’s exactly what science should be in these elementary years. We want to spark our children’s curiosity to learn more about the world and increase their desire to explore and experiment and even question ideas. All of this will develop their knowledge of science topics as well as their critical thinking skills. 

When it comes to collecting these books for your family, the library is such a great way to do that. With the list of books in hand, you can easily put books on hold as you prepare for the unit! It’s such an inexpensive way to learn science with your kids.

How to Use these Units

In my own home, I use these units as our whole science curriculum. I don’t find it necessary to add anything else. Even as I research standards, I am confident that the content and the discussions provide my children with an excellent foundation in science knowledge.

You do have other options to consider:

  • As stated above, use this on its own for your homeschool science curriculum. More units coming soon!
  • Use the book list as a supplemental resource to enhance a science textbook you plan to work through.
  • Let the booklist be your guide as you create your own unit study stretching across multiple subject areas. 

However you decide to use it, I can promise you one thing – You’re going to love these books! 

Stay in-the-know About Releases

If you’re not on my email list already, you’ll want to join now, because that’s where I will announce new releases. Each time I publish a unit, I’ll send out an announcement with a link. I know joining email lists can be frustrating at times, but it’s the best way to communicate with you all.

Emails are sent to announce product releases, sales, and to share the videos I make on YouTube. I hope you’ll connect with me there!

Interested in more Literature-Based Studies??

American History through Picture Books – Work through the timeline of history, one picture book at a time.

DIY Language Arts Novel Guides – Make LA a family study with these novels! No more workbook.

DIY Language Arts Picture Book Studies (K-2nd) – Practice LA skills through books you know and love.

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Homeschool Novel Study – DIY Language Arts

Novel study has been the most fun and engaging way for us to learn language arts in our homeschool, and adding in a DIY outlook has been so freeing. Two and a half years ago we actually eliminated an all-in-one language arts curriculum workbook to solely focus on novel study, and it’s been the best decision for us.

We like to call this method DIY Language Arts because we are able to take any novel of our choosing and use it to learn all the parts of language arts including spelling, vocabulary, grammar, narration, handwriting, and more.

After a couple years of adjusting and finding good rhythms for this, I am now able to share these novel studies with you. Multiple studies are available, but sometimes it’s nice to see inside one, and that’s exactly what I want this blog post to be for you.

Included in this post is a download to receive an entire week free for one of the novel guides. In the text below, I’ll walk you through how it works, so you know exactly how to incorporate it into your homeschool. I can’t wait for you to try this!

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

Look-Through a Novel Study

If you would like to see a video of this particular novel study sample for “The Sign of the Beaver”, you can check out this link where I share more details. You can also see a complete look-through of one of the first studies I published. This will give you a better idea of all of the information and resources that come with the novel study. The novel studies have been updated since then and look much nicer now, but the content is still the same.

Language Arts Overview

Included in this sample is the “Language Arts Overview” page where I break down the subject explaining exactly what it is and how this novel guide meets the criteria for the subject. A clear and simple chart will show you this evidence.

Language arts can be so overcomplicated in our minds, but by breaking it down and understanding what it is, we can get a better idea of how a novel can truly allow us to study the subject in its entirety.

What age is this novel study for?

These novel studies were created to be for the whole family. I’ve used them in my own home with one of my six year olds all the way up to my eleven year old. All of your kids will enjoy these novels, and the activities and work that are included are made to be able to adjust for different levels. If you purchase a novel study, I include the steps to walk you through this entire process in detail.

Weekly Pattern

Each week follows a pattern. Your daily tasks will look very similar (reading, discussion, narrating, copy work), but we will rotate an additional activity each day. This makes scheduling easy, and it allows you to loop different language arts skills for better focus instead of cramming everything in to an all-in-one lesson. The looping looks something like this:

  • Day 1: Spelling and Vocabulary
  • Day 2: Grammar
  • Day 3: Enriching Literature and Writing
  • Day 4: Dictation and Bonus Activity

Let’s take a look at each day. As I describe each of these activities, you will have a better idea of how to use the free sample provided in this blog post.

Spelling

On the page labeled, “Spelling and Vocabulary Samples”, I have provided a couple of pre-made spelling lists. Multiple options are provided to help differentiate the words for the level of spellers you have. This is just an example to help you get started. You are encouraged to pick whatever words best suit your children. The words/list you choose can be recorded in the chart on the daily task sheet.

On the day one task sheet you’ll notice “Spelling Activity” is listed. I’ve got you covered with options for this. Practicing the words can be as simple or as hands-on as you’d like. In this sample, I have provided you with multiple spelling activities to try with your family. Some are extremely simple. Others are a little more involved. The great thing about this is you can do what feels right for your week.

As you practice the words, make a note of the ones your kids know well and the ones they don’t quite have memorized yet. This could be a simple checkmark next to the word in your spelling chart. Then, each day after that, remind them of these words. Have your child practice the missed words throughout the week. Spend about a minute or two each day reviewing the words that are needed. The final spelling assessment will be in their dictation.

Vocabulary

Optional vocabulary words are chosen for you in the “Spelling and Vocabulary Samples” list. Once again, you have the option to choose the best words for your family. We aren’t doing matching worksheets or flash cards. Instead we will focus on meaningful discussion the whole family can participate in. When you read the weekly passage aloud to your children, this discussion will come pretty naturally. A discussion might look something like this:

  1. Ask your child, “What do you think ____ means?” It doesn’t have to be a formal definition. Sometimes my child will describe to me with motions or sounds and then try to explain herself. Let this be casual. If she knows it well enough, move on to the next word. If not, move to step two.
  2. Next say, “Let’s look at the sentence and see if it can give us some clues to make a guess on what ____ means.” Read the sentence again that includes the vocabulary word. Then, encourage your child to make a guess.
  3. If the child is still not able to come up with a definition that is close to the real thing, look it up in the dictionary. This is a great way to practice dictionary skills. Sometimes you can even practice the process of looking it up on a phone or computer.

Grammar

There are many, many grammar lessons that can be taken from a passage. Throughout the guide I will provide you with one grammar focus on day two of each week. You have the option and are encouraged to practice more grammar, if you desire. In the full novel guide, I provide you with detailed information about grammar studies and how to engage in meaningful grammar lessons while practicing passage study.

In my home, we also enjoy using a grammar review workbook alongside these novel guides. We have used Fix it Grammar in the past and now we use Easy Grammar. (See this video for details) The novel passages give us more opportunity to review what we have learned in those workbooks and see it in a more meaningful way.

Enriching Literature and Writing

On day three of the week, a picture book is chosen for you to read aloud to your children. This particular book will teach a little science as we learn about the life cycle of bees.

I encourage you to check your library for this, but I will mention that it’s also read aloud on YouTube HERE. This picture book is an enriching option that provides your children with an exciting story related to the novel, and it will allow you to stretch your novel study across multiple subjects.

I also use these picture books to practice written narration with my older children. Written narration has been such a beneficial practice in our homeschool (watch this video to hear more). Once I read the story, my oldest child will write a narration about the book.

Dictation

Dictation happens on the fourth day of the week, and I have provided you an option to help your younger writers in this process. Not all of your children will be ready for dictation yet, but those that are can complete dictation in two different ways.

The first option is for your beginning writers. I have provided you with a fill-in-the blank dictation option that uses a shortened passage and contains the spelling words from one of the spelling lists.

The other option is a full dictation where your child will write down the passage as you read it out loud. Feel free to dictate just one or two sentences, especially if you’ve never practiced dictation before. If you have a strong writer, you could try dictating the entire passage.

For more information about dictation and how to do it, check out this article.

Copy Work

The copy work will match the weekly passage. You have multiple options when assigning copy work in order to best meet the needs of each of your children. In this sample, I have included the shortened copy work as well as the full passage.

The goal of the copy work is to finish it by the end of the week. It may not take that long, but I challenge you to encourage your child to go slower with their best effort. I like to give short and sweet daily copy work assignments with the reminder that it has to be their best writing. In my experience, these short bits of copy work assigned over the week turn out much better than long, daily assignments.

Download the Novel Study

You can access the free sample to this novel study at the end of this post.

If you enjoy this first week and you’d like to complete the novel study as a whole, you can find the entire guide here. This guide will include much more information about the DIY method and will even teach you how to take any novel that you choose and use these same patterns! The how-to guide is GOLD! You’ll learn so much about language arts and the simplicity of a good novel study.

There are multiple novel studies available and more coming soon. To see more novel options, click here.

Picture Book Studies for Grades K-2

If you like the idea of book studies in your homeschool, check out my new picture book studies for your younger ones. These one-week units focus on one beautiful picture book and provide you with a passage for the week. This passage will allow you to practice copy work, spelling, vocabulary, and grammar.

Each week also includes an outdoor activity as well as an optional bonus activity at the end of the week. These book studies are so much fun! Use them for one week or grab a themed bundle for the month!

See all of the picture book studies available HERE.

Download Free Sample

Join my email list and receive a free one-week sample of the novel study for “The Sign of the Beaver”. This is such a great way to get an up-close look at what this DIY Language Arts learning style is all about.

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    Learning American History Through Picture Books (FINAL Part)

    American history books

    Two years ago I was on a mission to learn American History through picture books, and I am thrilled to say that we did it! It’s been hard work getting here in regards to research, but we have all enjoyed the process – I have learned more American History than I ever did in my own schooling, and my kids have actually enjoyed each and every history lesson we’ve learned together.

    In the beginning of this project, as I researched different picture books for specific topics, I always ran into the same problem – there were so many! Which one should I read? Which one would give me the best information to teach the topic? The more and more books I found, the more I wanted to stream line the idea and make it much simpler. That is exactly how Learning American History through Picture Books came to be.

    As you journey through the timeline of American History, a picture book will take you through each event, and all the books are chosen for you – one book per topic. (We’re focusing on quality over quantity here, and I’m so excited about it!) I’ve organized them all into a simple book list making it easy for you to follow along, check out books from the library, and plan for simple history lessons.

    Starting as early as the Viking explorers in Unit 1, this curriculum will take you all the way through current times. To learn more about this curriculum and the different units, start 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!

    The Final Unit – Part 4

    It’s bittersweet to come to the end of this since it’s been a big project of mine for the last couple years. My kids and I have learned so much, and we have had a blast doing it.

    This newest unit will cover the time period after World War II through current times. You will touch on topics like the Cold War, the space race, the Vietnam war, 9/11, and so much more! Specifically this unit ends about the year 2003, as the last book in the main book list covers the invasion of Iraq in that same year.

    The following is a breakdown of each unit and the time period it covers:

    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.

    American history picture books

    Favorite Books

    Since the whole point of this unit is for me to research and pick what I think is the best book for each topic, it’s so hard for me to narrow down my favorites! However, if I had to pick a few, the following were the ones we enjoyed the most. I share these to give you an idea of the kind of beautiful, engaging books you’ll be reading to your kids. You will look forward to reading these books each and every lesson!

    Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot

    Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race

    Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11

    HELPFUL LINKS

    The favorite books listed above are the types of stories that walked us through history. They are unforgettable! Each picture book beats a textbook paragraph any day of the week! You can find ALL our favorite American History books in my Amazon store front HERE.

    Each of these units comes with a list of videos to enrich the learning of certain stories. Not every book is connected to a video, but sometimes I felt like some background information was helpful. Or, at other times, the video might fill in a gap from one story to the other. The following is the direct link to each video listed in part 4. For more information on each of these videos, you’ll want to check out the descriptions in the curriculum.

    Videos List

    Cold War by Christian Palacios (Video Length – 4:31) 

    The Korean War: 5 Things to Know | History by HISTORY (Video Length – 3:54)

    Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech | History by HISTORY (Video Length – 4:57)

    Vietnam War Simplified!  By Maomaw (Video Length – 4:33)

    Apollo 11: Landing on the Moon by NASA (Video Length – 2:36)

    A soldier’s account of the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom (Video Length – 2:43)

    Coloring Pages

    Finally, I’d like to share a link to my Pinterest board that contains the coloring pages we used to help us record our narrations. This is an optional part of the curriculum, but it’s such a simple task that I enjoy so much. The narration process is amazing to me, and I love looking back and reading their words of how they remember each story. It’s the perfect little product of learning to hang on to.

    Pinterest Board – American History Part 4

    history picture books

    What’s Next?

    Honestly, I have no idea (ha!) Here’s the thing…I have poured my heart into this over the last two years. I am so passionate about what it is and how much better it is than any kind of history textbook you will ever buy. With that being said, I am having such a hard time trying to decide what we will do next as a family. I don’t want to let this style of learning go!

    I am in prayer about this, because I don’t want to give up reading picture books…EVER! However, I am in a busier season of life that makes it tricky to create and research. I also feel a pull to focus on science for a bit because I feel like a slacker in that subject! My point is – something is brewing…I just can’t pin it down quite yet.

    You’ll probably never stop hearing about picture books from me – I use them in almost all of our subjects. So, I hope you’ll stay tuned for what’s to come…even if that’s not clear to me just yet. Although deep down, I know a textbook won’t cut it for me. 😉

    (EDIT – It’s been a few months of prayer, reading, and writing…and I’m back with more literature-based curricula! See below)

    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!

    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 (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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    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

    Posted on by — 6 Comments

    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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    Vikings – Homeschool Unit Study

    It’s time to learn about Vikings in our homeschool! I’m so pumped because I don’t know much about them (HA!) That doesn’t scare me! It makes it all the more exciting doing it with the kids. We will be learning so much together, and I’m thrilled! So, as we go through our unit, I’ll be writing this blog post. I hope to share the books we are reading for our unit study as well as the different activities we do.

    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!

    Library Haul

    My first step in any unit study is to collect books from the library. I’ve shared this before, but my main strategy is to just head to the non-fiction section and start putting books in my bag.

    This time around I did have a few books I put on hold just in case. So, I grabbed those first and the rest were a surprise.

    I’m so excited! For this unit I had some time to make a YouTube video sharing all the books we used. Check that video out here.

    Below are just a few of the books that we got and loved for our unit. The first three were great to read front to back as a fun read aloud. The rest are good reference books that we used to research other topics, like geography, art, clothing, and more.

    planning a unit

    Planning

    Next, it’s my turn to do the studying. I like to just flip through the library books and skim through the pages. The pictures and text inspire me before I start hunting for different activities on Pinterest. This also helps me know which books will be easy to read to my kids and which ones might just be a good reference book on our shelf.

    As I looked through each book, I made a note of some focus topics that the book discussed: ships, food, Viking men and women, recipes, clothing…anything.

    Next, I headed to Pinterest and looked for some inspiration of any topics that I knew would interest me or my kids. I’ve saved all of my pins in one board called “Vikings” if you’d like to take a look.

    Read Alouds

    We always do our read aloud novels before bed time. This has been so great for us. We read so much more, my kids can wind down, and most of the time it’s quieter than our morning time.

    For this unit, I’m trying something new and reading TWO books at bedtime. One is nonfiction – “Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Vikings”. The other is a fictional novel – “Imagination Station: Voyage with the Vikings”

    In addition to that, each of my bigger kids (8 yrs and 6 yrs) listened to an audio book separately during their quiet time. Through our library app (Libby) we checked out “Magic Treehouse: Viking Ships at Sunrise” The book is only about 40 minutes long so they were each able to listen to it in one day and had a chance to exchange what their favorite part was.

    These three books alone will teach my kids and I so much. Having this as the backbone to our unit will help us learn all sorts of information, but it also gives me confidence that I don’t need a ton of extras. We will be soaking in facts and fun through books!

    Extra Activities

    Now is the part where I get to share the fun, “extra” things we did for our unit. I personally think reading together is great and the following things aren’t necessary to learn. However, it brings me joy planning them and my children LOVE them. So, we continue to add a few fun things here and there in our units. I hope sharing them with you may inspire your family, as well!

    geography activity

    Geography

    The Vikings lived mostly in Scandinavia, but they sailed to many different countries. I felt like this was a great opportunity to talk about our seven continents.

    First, I found a free printable online that was blank, black and white, and would allow us to label the continents. Once we did that we colored each continent a different color.

    I also shared a couple of videos online that talked about the different continents and what you may find there. One is shorter, animated, and silly. The other is a little longer, has real pictures, and LOTS of facts. Both were great to watch!

    We were also able to use a few of our library books. Almost every book has some sort of map in them, but a few had maps that showed different routes the Vikings traveled.

    During our second week of study, I printed out a Viking Map that I found online for free. We were able to mark where the Vikings lived, where they raided, and where they settled. It was super simple and easy to do together. The website where I found this gave an example of the finished product so there was no guessing or researching for me.

    baking Birka bread

    Baking Bread

    I planned to make a bread recipe that we found in one of our books from the library, “Viking Longships”. The recipe was for something called Birka bread. I’m not sure what happened, but it smelled bad, and it looked like slop. It did not have a dough consistency, so I was unsure how it would turn out.

    I quickly found another recipe I saved on Pinterest and threw it together so that we could try both breads. It was really easy, and I happened to have all of the ingredients already in my pantry.

    The Birka bread was sort of like a pancake consistency and had a sweet flavor. It definitely tasted better than it smelled. A couple of my kids actually preferred it over the other. The other bread was very dense and pretty dry. It was good with butter and honey.

    Either way, it was fun to make and eat what the Vikings may have eaten long ago!

    Viking lunch

    Viking Lunch

    This was probably the easiest themed lunch I’ve ever done. I had everything already at home and decided to throw it together last minute. I found the idea from a blog post that suggested to read “Leif the Lucky” along with it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find that one at the library OR a good quality read aloud on Youtube. So, we just ate the lunch!

    All it took was a PBJ sandwhich, pretzels, raisins and bananas. My kids were so surprised and thought it was so cute. Now, if you see the picture, the bananas act like horns on the helmet. However, from what we’ve been reading, that’s actually a false representation of a Viking helmet. Real viking helmets did NOT have horns. Fun fact of the day!

    viking runes

    Art/ Runes

    The Vikings art was really in their craftsmanship. The carvings, and weapons, and jewelry were all really neat to see in our library books. We were also able to see runes, which are kind of like a Viking alphabet. We used one of our books that had a chart of all the runes to do a simple and fun activity.

    Using a toothpick, we carved words into Play Doh to make it look like runes on stone. It was neat to see our names written that way.

    My oldest and I enjoyed cracking the code a little bit. Her and I would come up with a 3-4 letter word and use the chart to try and decode the message. This can get tricky because some symbols represent multiple letters.

    drinking horn snack

    Snack – Drinking Horns

    When I saw that the Vikings used drinking horns, I was certain there was a craft for that, but didn’t find anything! So, I came up with my own simple little snack to pretend we were Vikings.

    You’ll need the triangular shaped waffle cones to be your horn. We filled ours with yogurt and granola to make a simple parfait, but you could definitely fill it with ice cream or something else.

    That’s it! It was so silly and fun, and the kids loved saying “Cheers” before eating it.

    Music

    The DK find out! series had a page on the music that might have been played during Viking times. Over lunch one day I read through this page as we observed the different types of instruments and read about how they were used.

    I found this GREAT selection of videos from YouTube that shared more about the same instruments and the guy hosting the video even played them. It was really neat, and it brought the instruments to life for us. The videos are short and sweet and made the instruments very memorable!

    viking language arts

    Language Arts

    During this unit, I was re-evaluating our language arts program and trying some new things for my oldest daughter. While doing that, we were able to use the history books we read for a few language arts lessons, which was really a lot of fun.

    I would read a story about the Vikings from the library. Then, my daughter would write 2-3 sentences about what we read. I’d sit down with her and help her edit her sentences or add to them if we needed to.

    As a treat, I’d let her add a picture from an online drawing video. I’ll link the two videos we used below:

    This was really a great way for us to incorporate our studies into language arts and it really inspired me to do it more.

    Notebook/Portfolio

    At the end of each unit we do, I like to have the kids draw a little keepsake for our study. It’s very simple. I have them tell me about something they learned and write it down on the paper (Sometimes my oldest will write it on her own) Next, they draw a picture.

    While we did this, we listened to an audio book about vikings, “How to be a Viking” by Cressida Cowell. This book was written by the author of the “How to Train Your Dragon” series. We learned that this picture book was the one that started it all!

    We keep all of these drawings in a binder, and it’s so neat to go back and look at all of the things we’ve learned together over the year. This is my first year doing a portfolio like this, and I will definitely continue!

    We loved studying the Vikings!

    This was such a fun study for us. A couple random things to add in…We did watch How to Train Your Dragon 2 during our study because it’s technically about Vikings. I was actually kind of disappointed with it. The movie itself was fine, but the Vikings didn’t look like what we studied and they didn’t even ride in longships! So, that ended up being kind of a bummer for me. Maybe the first one is better about that? I haven’t seen it in a while.

    This next thing is not really kid-friendly…but I’ll share anyway. During our unit study, my husband and I started watching the series called “Vikings”. It was originally produced by the History Channel but eventually it moved to the Prime app. We started it about a week before our unit kicked off, and it got me really pumped up to begin our study. JUST A HEADS UP – this show is very gory, creepy/disturbing at times (I’m talkin’ human sacrifices and such…yikes!), and there are some love scenes as well. Like I said, NOT child friendly at all. However, it was very fun to connect with my husband in a way that related to our homeschool studies! So, watch at your own risk…everyone has their preferences.

    Well, that about does it for our history unit! I always hated history as a child, but I am loving it as I study with my children. I feel so blessed to have these days with them. Have you studied the Vikings yet? I’d love to know if you do any of these activities! Comment below or tag me on Instagram @simply.learning.together. I love hearing from you guys!

    More Unit Studies

    NEW – American History

    Ancient Egypt

    Ancient China

    Space

    Weather

    Knights and Castles

    Novel Units

    The Secret Garden

    Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

    The Boxcar Children

    The Courage of Sarah Noble

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    Simple Thanksgiving Unit Using Picture Books

    When we get to the holidays, our schedules tend to fill up. I know in our homeschool, I’m ready to wind down as we prepare to celebrate. I’m always looking for something super easy, and the solution for us has been books! This Thanksgiving I invite you to simplify your routine and try this out.

    Below is a list of four books. Each book is absolutely wonderful on it’s own, but sometimes it’s fun to add a little something extra. With each book, I have described a simple activity to go along with it.

    Choose one of these, two of these, or do them all. That’s it! No worksheets, no schedule, just read the books with your kiddos. If you want to add in the activity, go for it! We have loved using picture books to study this Thanksgiving, and I hope it can do the same for you and your family too!

    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!

    thanksgiving story trail mix

    The Story of the Pilgrims

    BOOK: “The Story of the Pilgrims” by Katharine Ross

    This book is cute and kid-friendly. We read it each year in our house and the story covers a little bit of everything about the Pilgrims. It starts with why they left to what happened when they got there. It describes how the Native Americans helped them and ends with a feast at the end. It’s a very simple, and easy-to-understand story.

    ACTIVITY: Thanksgiving Story Trail Mix

    This trail mix recipe can be downloaded for free! It’s the cutest thing and it’s so fun to do along with this book. For example, one part of the recipe says to add marshmallows because the Pilgrims had to survive a long winter. When you get to the page in the story that talks about that, pause to add your marshmallows. It really is a perfect pairing! (We do this one every year – it’s a blast!)

    three sisters craft

    Keepunumuk: Weeachumun’s Thanksgiving Story

    BOOK: “Keepunumuk: Weeachumun’s Thanksgiving Story” by Danielle Greendeer

    This is a newer book and it is so, so wonderful. The book is beautifully illustrated and the story is told from the perspective of the three sisters – corn, beans, and squash.

    ACTIVITY: The Three Sisters Craft

    This craft was inspired by another blog, but we added our own twist. The supplies you’ll need are construction paper, pipe cleaners, yellow pom poms, hot glue, and beans. (TIP – if you want to simplify this even more take out the pipe cleaners, beans, and hot glue and just use markers to draw it on)

    As a side note, the process of growing the three sisters is so incredibly interesting to me. If you are not familiar with it, read more about it here.

    You’ll need to cut out the shapes, and it may help to do it in advance. See the photo above for a visual of these items. For each craft you’ll need a corn stalk, 3-4 pieces of corn, 3-4 green husks, and squash leaves.

    Glue all of the paper pieces to your background paper. Next, take your pipe cleaners and wrap it around a marker. This will give it the twirl-y look. We used two per craft. Glue the pipe cleaners onto the stalk (this is the vine for the beans). Finally, glue the beans and the yellow pom poms to finish.

    mayflower craft

    Three Young Pilgrims

    BOOK: “Three Young Pilgrims” by Cheryl Harness

    This book is really special as it follows the journey of the PIlgrims through the perspective of three young children. The illustrations are so beautiful, but the book does an amazing job teaching the reader that the voyage was not all fun and games. The book also provides factual information through pictures, maps, and extra pages at the end. I can’t wait to add this one to our personal library.

    ACTIVITY: Interactive Mayflower

    I found this craft from another blog, but I want to share how we changed it up to fit our family. First, we used watercolor to paint the ocean. I let the kids decide how they wanted to do the sky (colored pencils, more watercolors…).

    Next, I prepared the pieces for the ship. This was easy to cut out right before we started. Each child needed 1 brown ship, 2 white sails, 2 toothpicks, and 1 craft stick. After putting one together for my youngest, my older children were able to assemble their ship on their own, using my example.

    Finally, I cut a slit in the paper plate, and we were finished. Each child added their own special touch and played with the interactive boat for a while. When they finished I taped the craft stick on the back of the plate and hung it up on our art display!

    wetu

    Squanto’s Journey

    BOOK: “Squanto’s Journey” by Joseph Bruchac

    This book tells you all about Squanto’s life, starting before the time he helped the pilgrims. There was a reason he was able to learn English, and this book allows you to learn all about what he went through. His story is one to remember!

    ACTIVITY: Wigwam/Wetu Craft

    This craft is one we did with another story we read (directions linked here), but it’s the perfect activity to go along with this book as well. Native Americans lived in many different types of homes, depending on where they were and what tribe they were from. The type of home that Squanto may have lived in is like a wigwam. From the stories we read and the research I did, the house was called “wetu”.

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    Building a Roman Road Dessert

    roman road dessert

    As we studied Ancient Rome in our homeschool, I looked for fun ways we could use food/snacks to further our learning. I love doing this because we already eat every day – so adding a food activity doesn’t take much extra time out of our day.

    I was searching on Pinterest and came across a recipe for building a Roman road as a dessert – Now, this is my kind of activity. The problem was I couldn’t understand the reasoning behind the food choices, and honestly it didn’t seem like it tasted that great to me.

    So, I brainstormed a few ideas of how to put one together, and we successfully learned about and ate a Roman road in the process!

    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!

    All about the Ancient Roman roads

    I highly recommend doing a little research with your kiddos before jumping in to do this. It will make a lot more sense as you complete the process. We used a few YouTube videos and some of our library books to learn about the building of the roads.

    Almost every Ancient Rome library book had a little something about the roads, so that was easy to find. We used this reference book which is very kid-friendly and has great pictures with easy-to-read bits of text.

    The best video we watched was an animated video, but it really broke down the process of how the roads were built. This is what I based my recipe on, so be sure to check it out after you glance at the recipe and it will hopefully all make sense.

    Supplies

    • Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
    • Oreos
    • Golden Oreos
    • Brownie Mix (and the ingredients needed to make it)
    • Ziplock Bags
    • 8×8 Pan
    • Rolling Pin (for smashing cookies)

    Just as a heads up, our grocery store had a large, family-sized package of generic creme-filled cookies (that look like Oreos). It came with both regular and golden cookies so to save money, I purchased it. I kind of wish we would’ve used the brand name cookies, but all in all we still learned a lot and the product was delicious!

    cookie dough curb

    Setting the curb

    First we used the chocolate chip cookie dough to set the curb. We tore off small pieces of the dough and shaped them into little cylinder-like pieces. Then, we placed them along two sides of the pan to create the curb, just as the Romans would have done in stone.

    cookie dough layer

    Large Stone Layer

    To keep it simple, this part is also made of the cookie dough. We tore off little chunks to represent the large stone foundation that was laid between the curbs.

    Smaller Stone Layers

    The next step in the road building process was laying smaller stones and sand on top of the larger stones. This would fill in gaps and create a solid foundation. We did a couple different cookie varieties for this.

    oreo layer

    First, we put chocolate oreos in a bag and crushed them into chunks using a rolling pin. After sprinkling those on top, we filled a bag with vanilla oreos. The vanilla oreos were crushed into a sand-like powder.

    golden oreo layer

    Finally to bind everything together, we mixed a box of brownies together and poured it all on top – YUM!

    brownie mix on top

    We had a few extra cookies left so we decided to take some of the cookie pieces and break them up. These were used to look like cobble stones on top of the road.

    roman road dessert

    I pretty much followed the time on the brownie box to bake these. Be sure to let them cool all the way and then get ready to cut inside and see all the layers! What’s incredible is I was certain the brownie mix would mix all throughout the dessert, and it really didn’t.

    roman road dessert layers

    But doesn’t that just prove the uniqueness and success of the actual Roman roads? Those things were solid! No wonder some of them are still around today.

    This was such a fun little cooking experiment for us. It doesn’t hurt that they were absolutely delicious to eat, as well!

    If you’re studying Ancient Rome, give this dessert a try! Snap a picture and tag me on Instagram @simply.learning.together I love to see other families learning together!

    Check out all of the activities we did while studying Ancient Rome in my blog post.

    More Unit Studies

    American History through Picture Books!

    Space

    Weather

    Ancient Egypt

    Ancient China