Announcing the April Booklists and America250 Kick-Off!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, this means that I will make a small commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you.
April!? How did we get here so fast?? The April booklists are loaded and ready for you! Come explore all the amazing lives and events that April has to share with us. Recently, I shared with you my Rule of Six and how it brought about the birth of A Daily Picture Book. Today I would like to share with you my process for building the booklists and why I get so excited about them.
A Picture Perfect Childhood
While discerning which school subject applied to each point of my Rule of Six I was also reading the book A Picture Perfect Childhood: Enhancing your child’s imagination and education in 15 minutes a day by Cay Gibson. Unfortunately this book is now out of print and hard to find, but if you ever come across it, snatch it up! It is worth it! In this book Cay Gibson has a whole chapter called: The Children’s Hour (A Twelve Months Historical Timeline). “ The Children’s Hour is a twelve month historical timeline for families. I have done my best to ensure that every illustrated book listed is the very best of vivid imagery. Promising an eyeful of educational beauty, knowledge and education to adults and teenagers alike with a smattering of colors for preschoolers as well. My main focus was to gather a selection of historical and biographical titles and list them within a dated timeline.” This is Cay Gibson’s introduction to her chapter.
The Children’s Hour
Cay Gibson’s chapter of a twelve months historical timeline became the new springboard to flesh out my Rule of Six. We borrowed from the library every title she had listed and we devoured them. Life was coming back to my home education! It was being resurrected with the best of literature. This resurrection made us want to find more titles similar to the ones suggested in her timeline. And that is how the quest began.
The quest
The quest was to fill the days that did not have a historical or biographical picture book in Cay Gibson’s list. As a historian (I graduated with a degree in archaeology and a minor in history) it was the best hobby horse ever! Picture books + history = one excited mama! So I started by paying closer attention to the picture books on the library’s shelves. Which ones were biographical and historical? Then I started borrowing them, researching the person or the event and finding out which date they belonged to. And slowly but surely the timeline grew and grew. My children and I enjoyed more and more picture books that were significant, that were beautiful and that we could learn from.
A growing timeline
I’m a bit of a glutton and as I found more and more books I became greedy! And now the goal is to have a picture book for every day of the year! I am not quite there yet, but it’s getting mighty close! This search for historical and biographical picture books has taken me and my family down so many fun and exciting rabbit holes! We have a saying in our house when we hear about an interesting historical event or person… “Is there a picture book for that?” With my kids becoming adults it has turned into a family treasure hunt. An interesting historical fact on Instagram: “Is there a picture book for that?”. A news story that relates a new archaeological find, “Is there a picture book for that?”. It is so very fun but it also really truly grows the booklists.
The booklists
So that’s how the booklists are created and that is why I love them so very much. They are the fruit of a family treasure hunt, discoveries and memories born along the way with my children as traveling companions. And I want to share them with as many families as will join us. To me it is the most delightful education possible. It helps encompass all the points of my Rule of Six in an effective, yet so simple way. The booklists have helped us through times of smooth sailing with home education and they have been our anchor in the storms of life (new babies, moving, new jobs, etc…). They are the simplest go-to tool in my home education, they cover almost all subjects and enrich our lives in simple yet rich ways. I would like to encourage you to come and join us for this month of April. It’s so good!
April and America250
No, it’s not a typo. America 250 is what starts in April: the 250th anniversary of this great country of ours! You’d think I would have been ready for this but it totally caught me by surprise! On April 19th we will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the shot heard ‘round the world. The commemoration of the Battles of Lexington and Concord ignites a year and some dedicated to celebrating the events that made America. Wow! This is no small thing. The booklists will be replete with American history and revolutionary war picture books. Over the next year or so we will be able to study American history on a grand scale through picture books and unit studies. What an amazing opportunity!
America250
Why is it important to celebrate our country’s history? Because we live in a country like no other in the world. Our history is unique, our geography is unique, our political system is unique. We are a unique country in the history of the world. American culture is unique in so many ways, its richness, its wide array of subcultures, all united into one. In 2016, Congress established the US Semiquincentennial Commission to plan and organize the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This commission has been hard at work at America250 and the festivities leading to our anniversary start on April 19th. The towns of Lexington and Concord have a fantastic line up to get things underway. If you are in the area, I would highly recommend paying them a visit! And for some fantastic America250 swag, head to Nelson’s! They’ve got the coolest t shirts and American paraphernalia that you could wish for. All made in the USA by Americans. We love supporting small family businesses and it’s even better when they ARE family ;).
April
Let’s gear up for an amazing discovery of the month of April in its richness and abundance. Easter is also around the corner on April 20th! What a full month! I am very much looking forward to it and I hope many of you will join us and enjoy a cornucopia of picture book goodness!
Love,
Mattie
