A Daily Picture Book is Born, Part 2
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(This is the second post in a series, please read A Daily Picture Book is Born, Part 1 first)
Our Next Adventure
With the realization that through birthdays and anniversaries we could create deep meaningful relationships with pretty much anyone or any event in history, we embarked on a new journey. The main caveat being that there had to be a picture book about the person or the event.
I started looking. At first I did not expect to find much, but as I started looking around and doing some research, I found out quite the opposite! It was a feast, a banquet, a celebration! So many picture books! So many days in the year! So many opportunities! It started as a simple spreadsheet of the year, and we were on our way.
A Picture Perfect Childhood
First I started looking into my go-to resources, especially A Picture Perfect Childhood by Cay Gibson. This book had been one of my favorites for quite a while, but now it became the cornerstone of my new adventure. It inspired me to go picture book hunting. In her wisdom, Mrs. Gibson established a list of books related to each month, some of them with the day on which the event took place.
A Picture Perfect Childhood by Cay Gibson and specifically the chapter “Children’s Hour” were the inspiration in what was to become my life’s quest: a daily picture book and homeschooling through picture books.
The booklists in A Picture Perfect Childhood by Cay Gibson are pure gold! This book is still my best resource. Out of all the books of book lists (oh yes, it’s a thing) it is still my favorite. It is out of print at the moment but can still be found used. I highly recommend hunting it down.
Picture Book Hunting
The easiest place for me to start was with saints’ picture books, as I had already accumulated a few and it was easy to find their feast days. For each upcoming feast day I started looking up different saints and tried to find a picture book unique to him or her. Unfortunately I could not find as many as I wished, but still our collection grew.
I still dream that one of my children will become a saint picture book author/illustrator, lol.
My next favorite place is the thrift store. It is amazing what people get rid of! I have made so many accidental discoveries there. You cannot go picture book hunting at the thrift store with a particular title in mind, you have to go with an open mind, and time. Once there, take your time to peruse through the titles, totally judge a book by its cover, and read little samples here and there. You will find rare treasures!
Next are library sales! Wow, these are something else, it’s almost like going into battle! I recommend at least one stroller, multiple bags or boxes, no kids, agility and speed.
Just grab a book, put it in your box,and keep going until you cannot go anymore. Then once you have everything that you think you want, go back through your plunder more leisurely and put back what you don’t actually want. You’re competing with other moms, but most especially with online used book sellers… And it is truly a competition! But again, so many treasures are found there. It’s even more fun if you are doing it with a friend.
Keeping track of the books
I quickly realized that I had to be somewhat organized to be able to keep track of the books, and the days and dates for each book. I started with a simple Excel spreadsheet. One column per month, one line per day, simple but very efficient. Home from a hunt I take the time to sit down, enter each book in my www.LibraryThing.com account, then into my spreadsheet.
And then I set the book aside on my “to be read on the right day shelf”. These books are loosely organized by month.
Our home and school library is organized by genre, mostly. I will dedicate a whole post to my library’s organization shortly.
How to use all these wonderful books?
At first, very simply by just reading the book on the right day as part of our Morning Time. Slowly, however, we started going down rabbit trails and berry picking*. I soon realized that we would all have a much better experience if I could plan a little ahead of time so activities based on the book. These can be activities that I am interested in or ones that I know the children will be interested in.
And we all love to eat, so a food item was a must, either a snack or a dinner. A dinner is always better because then meal planning is taken care of as well. Two birds with one stone!We have so much fun exploring each book and dipping our toes or deep diving with each. We are starting our 6 weeks forage with Beatrix Potter and mycology on Monday. Who else is joining us? Psst, both Beatrix Potter forages are 50% off today, July 28th in honor of her birthday!
And that’s how the monthly booklists came to be, just a mom educating herself and her children through picture books. I truly believe that it is the best education I have ever received. Not only the best, but the most freeing and the most enjoyable as well. It is a wonderful adventure and I can’t wait for more of you to join us!
What does a well rounded education mean to me?
It means that my children can carry on a conversation in pretty much any circle and know what people are talking about. (Except, maybe if it’s rocket science, lol). That means, for our family, that they know who Babe Ruth is, or who John Glenn is. These would not be names that come up naturally in our family as we are not baseball fans nor are we NASA aficionados. But we can learn about them, we can discover who they were and what they did. We can become friends, or at least acquaintances, with them.
Picture books open the door to infinite possibilities. The moment you open a picture book, magic happens, relationships happen and learning happens. All within your reach, in just 20 minutes.
Our logo
I just wanted to briefly explain our logo. The book is obviously a picture book, it contains discovery and knowledge of many, many topics. It triggers excitement and curiosity: what will jump at me from the pages of these books? What will I discover? Who will I encounter?
I want my children’s education to be rooted in excitement, curiosity, discovery and knowledge. Rooted in self education through picture books. And that is where the roots come in.
Have a lovely day,
Mattie
*Berry picking: the different topics or subjects related to a main topic (a forage).
A forage: a unit study
