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Happy First Birthday to A Daily Picture Book!

A Daily Picture Book is ONE YEAR OLD! Woot woot! This went by so very fast! What a year it has been! I have learned so much and made so many new friends. And read SO MANY picture books (way over 500 to be almost exact!) and I am still finding and discovering new ones! I am looking forward to this coming year and all the new adventures that it will bring. But first let’s take a little trip down memory lane.

The beginning

What started as a place to share my love of picture books and hoping to help other moms introduce wonder and excitement in their families through picture books has become quite the hub for beautiful picture books and instilling a love of learning. It has renewed in me a passion for picture books and home education that was going a little dormant. It has been an incredible adventure and I look forward to a whole new year of wonder!

A Daily Picture Book

Picture books

I revel in choosing wonderful picture books for all occasions, outside of the booklists. I loved creating bedtime story lists, as well as seasonal and thematic ones. I am planning on transferring all these lists to the Storybook Nook, so that you can find them more easily.The monthly Picture Book Explorations have been so delightful to really deep dive into and it’s truly my favorite blogpost of the month. So many of you have said that you have learned so much through this past year, especially through the great titles found in the booklists.

The booklists

The monthly booklists have been absolutely amazing! So many amazing people have been read and learned about. So many extraordinary places have been discovered. And so many incredible events have been understood better. The monthly booklists have been the cornerstone of A Daily Picture Book totalling 363 picture books for the Booklover Membership, 130 for the Bookworm Membership and 65 for the Bookling Membership! So many picture books! And this coming year looks even better!! My librarian is always in shock when I come to pick my piles of picture books, lol!

12 best picture books of the last year

I have read so many picture books this year! Many were old friends but quite a few were new encounters. Some were about well known persons or topics, some were surprises and some were a completely new discovery. It was a very rich year of wonder and exploration. A quick look back through the monthly Booklists had so many wonderful titles jump out at me. Here are the ones that immediately triggered a fond memory:

And to make it a complete baker’s dozen:

The Best of Year One

August Booklists

From Saint John Marie Vianney to Doctor Temple Grandin, August is a feast of ideas, events and personalities. A few America250 picture books are also part of the feast. I am having so much fun finding the best picture books to celebrate our countries 250th anniversary! Things started with a bang (pun intended) on April 18th and 19th and will keep going for a whole other year! July 4th of 2026 will mark the 250th anniversary of our independence. If you are still on the fence about joining one of our booklist subscriptions, wait no more, August has a fantastic line-up of picture books and it is a great time to introduce A Daily Picture Book into your Morning Time.

Home education support

Instilling in our children a love of learning is easier when you have support and structure. From organizing our time to having narration prompts handy it has been wonderful to discuss all the fundamental principles of a Charlotte Mason education. So many of us get bogged down in the details when really we should remember that you could summarize home education as reading beautiful  living books and narrating what we have learned from them. Yes, the 3Rs have to be there as well, of course, but really when we are in a tight spot and life is taking over our educational time we can always get by with a living book and a narration. But my very favorite part of home education is to be with my children and to learn alongside them.

Joys

From Poetry Tea Times to a Sauntering Summer, home education provides us with the greatest, and most joyful, opportunities to learn. Unlike brick and mortar schools where everything is standardized to cover the demands of the curriculum, we are able to customize our education to meet the needs of each of our children. And of our longest standing pupil, ourselves. From gaining a beautiful music education to discovering the great artists of the world, we are enriching our lives in ways rarely achieved before in history. Being able to be the first one to see the wheels clicking in place when our child discovers a new knowledge and gets so excited about it, is a treasure to value above all else.

Matilda, Roald Dahl

In gratitude

I am so grateful for all those who have been supporting me and helping me over the last year. Especially my family who has been putting up with picture book chaos as well as my library who has been providing so much goodness! And for my dear friends who have been providing suggestions, ideas and support. Yall are just so wonderful! All of you wonderful readers and subscribers have been incredible to get to know and to talk picture books and home education with. This community is wonderful and I am so excited to be a part of it. Home educating, picture book reading parents are just the best!

The year ahead

I have so many plans for this upcoming year and I can’t wait to share them with you! New monthly booklists, new thematic booklists, America250, and a big Christmas surprise are all in the works. I get giddy at the thoughts of all the picture books! Like Matilda, see quote above, I want to travel through time and place, even if I do not leave my living-room. I look forward to it all, so come and join me and bring a friend or two, the more the merrier!

To an exciting year ahead!
Love,
Mattie

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