Seven Reasons to Celebrate Picture Books

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Seven Reasons to Celebrate Picture Books

At Sonlight, we believe picture books are a vital, wonderful part of a child's education. So to celebrate Picture Book Month in November, here are seven reasons to snuggle up with your children and read a picture book right now. We believe all our lives will be richer for it.

1. Picture Books are a Chance to Connect

While adults often find pleasure in picture books (who doesn’t love the hilarious hippos George and Martha?), it is best to enjoy them with eager children. And picture books don’t expire. You may find yourself intending to read to the 4-year-old, and the 10-year-old wanders in to join you. Treasure these moments! What a gift!

2. Picture Books are Masterpieces of Storytelling

Rather than sprawling tales of 800 pages, you get a moving story in several dozen pages, often with only a few words per spread. One of the true masters of the craft, Robert McCloskey, tells an astonishingly intricate story about One Morning in Maine. How he manages to interconnect teeth, feathers, clams, spark plugs, and ice cream . . . it’s a wonder!

3. Picture Books Build Vocabulary

They are more challenging to read than early readers, so don’t stop reading them too soon! Many have advanced words and story-lines that would discourage a beginning reader. In fact, one study found that kids books use more rare words than adult television. So turn off the tube and read some good picture books. For example, James Herriot’s Treasury for Children has some of the most incredible language imaginable. Don’t miss it!

4. Picture Books Are Greater than the Sum of Their Parts

The written word interplays with the illustrations, creating something unique and precious. You might be able to recite the entirety of Horton Hatches the Egg, and it would be a cute enough recital. But without the illustrations of steadfast Horton, and disgruntled Mayzie, and attendant animals . . . you’d be missing so much. Watch for those bits of genius, and enjoy.

5. Picture Books Offer a Range of Art

Watercolors and whimsy, a cartoony style or a detailed drawing, bright colors, muted, black and white.... If you are facing gray November days, find some cheery picture books to boost your spirits and offer a visual feast. And if you can find Goldbug on every page of Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, so much the better!

6. Picture Books Help us Make Sense of Life

If your spouse ever wonders what you do all day, you can offer If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and feel at least partly understood. If you want to explain to your children the wonder of reading, try The Bee Tree. For a gentle look at loss, read Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs. For an inspiring tale of perseverance, read Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel. Expand your children’s (and your spouse’s) idea of the world.

7. Picture Books Provide Ongoing Value

Although many Sonlight customers keep their Sonlight books for future grandchildren, and many Sonlight students don’t want their parents to part with their books, the program that enjoys the most continual use is the picture book program Sonlight Preschool. Parents report that their children take these books out regularly from ages 2 to about age 8 (and sometimes beyond). With great art, and great story lines, excellent vocabulary, and the wonder of connection, it’s not hard to see why!

Curious to see what an education filled with great picture books might look like for your family? Go to SmoothCourse to explore your options.

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Extension Activities for James Herriot’s Treasury for Children

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I love to supplement the literature-based approach of Sonlight with hands-on crafts and extension activities. Besides the Hands-on History kit available for purchase, I like to add on even more projects inspired by the great books we read. I find that besides keeping my daughters happy, creative, and busy, the fun we have inspires their own book-based pretending during their free play time.

James Herriot’s Treasury for Children is one of my favorite books from Sonlight's History / Bible / Literature A. Besides the delightful collection of stories, each page has beautiful illustrations. The lovely art and the heart-warming stories of pets and farm animals inspired these extension activities, projects, field trips, and learning activities listed below,  organized chapter by chapter.

I hope you enjoy them as much as my daughters and I did! These ideas will probably inspire your own creative activities based on whatever craft supplies you have on hand and what interesting locales you have in your community.

Chapter 1 Moses the Kitten: Enact the Chapter

I bought kitten stuffed animals from the dollar store for acting out the story of Moses the kitten. First he was lost and abandoned, then found by my little girls, and finally taken home to be cared for and cuddled. I had my girls practice a few times, and when their father got home, we put on a little play to narrate the story.

Chapter 2 Only One Woof: Charades

In this chapter, Gyp the dog manages to live without vocalizing. We had a short talk about muteness and why some people can’t speak. Afterward they practiced communicating without speech. I gave them a variety of situations to express without words:

  • needing help
  • being hungry
  • wanting to take a nap
  • feeling lost or lonely

Although we had several false starts, eventually they were able to express themselves without saying a word.

Chapter 3 The Christmas Day Kitten: Draw a Picture

For chapter three, one of my girls came up with a simple activity. She suggested we draw a picture of a Christmas gift suitable for a cat.

Extension Activities for James Herriot’s Treasury for Children

Chapter 4 Bonnie’s Big Day: Pretend Pet Show

In chapter 4 of James Herriot’s Treasury for Children, Bonnie wins an award in the pet show. My activity was an at home pet show, complete with awards.

Instead of actual animals, I improvised with photos I found online of children with animals or pets. My girls had to judge the animals in the photos, arrange them in winning order and award the two blue ribbons (also simple paper crafts) they felt were the best.

Later that afternoon, they grabbed their own stuffed animal menagerie and began lining them up, awarding ribbons to their favorite pets. They did this imaginative book-based play several times, with my 6-year-old taking special pains to make sure that each animal won at least one award.

Intro to the World: Cultures History / Bible / Literature A
Intro to the World: Cultures History / Bible / Literature A

Chapter 5 Blossom Comes Home: Making Butter & Safety Pointers

When it came time to read this story, I poured half and half and a dash of salt into a glass jar.  I had my girls take turns shaking the bottle as we read chapter 5. I told them to keep shaking it until the liquid turned solid.

When our story was done, our container was still sounding rather liquid, so we spent some time talking about safety, namely what to do if you are lost. We discussed these actions:

  • looking for someone safe to ask for help (someone in a uniform, or a woman with small children in tow)
  • waiting and not wandering around because their father and I will always start looking for them in the last place we saw them
  • staying calm and trying to think and pray, instead of crying and screaming
  • memorizing mom and dad's telephone numbers and full names
  • never going away with strangers
  • always sticking with their buddy or sibling, so they are never alone

When we finished this talk, we opened our container and discussed dairy products. I had my children compare the bit of half and half in the bowl, tasting and touching it, comparing it with the butter we had just made. We then spread our butter over cinnamon rolls and had a snack with milk.

Chapter 6 The Market Square Dog: A Trip to the Market

We live in Mexico, and almost every day, the tianguis are open, so we have a nice open-air market to visit all year-long. We took my girls to the market, and gave them each 20 pesos (about $1.50 USD) to spend. On our trip, we even managed to see a dog in the market, just like in our story.

If you have an open-air market of any type, including a farmer’s market, take the time to take your children on a quick field trip. Look at items you normally don’t peruse and experience it through fresh eyes by paying attention to all the surrounding sights, being careful to look for any animals. Or you might enjoy going to a kennel or a dog pound, pet store, or anyplace new or interesting where an animal might be walking about.

Chapter 7 Oscar, Cat About Town: Decorate Hats

The hat-making competition in this story from James Herriot’s Treasury for Children inspired own hat-making project. At the dollar store it was a cinch to find cheap straw hats, ribbons, fake flowers, and hair bows. After we read this chapter, I put my 5- and 6-year-olds to work, making their own hats for our competition.

When w judged the hats, one of my girls won the award for most creative hat, and the other won the award for using the most decorations. Printed paper blue ribbons were the prize!

Chapter 8: Smudge, the Little Lost Lamb

This chapter would have been a great time to visit a petting zoo, but we didn’t have time for a trip like that when we read this story. Maybe you will!

Instead we made our own lambs from these simple craft supplies:

  • paper and foil
  • tape
  • glue gun
  • cotton balls
  • toothpicks or matchsticks
  • small googly eyes
  • scissors

We rolled paper into a ball shape for the body of the sheep, taping down the edges to help it hold its form. Then using a cold glue gun, we glued cotton balls over the surface of the ball to create the sheep's fleece. Toothpicks formed the legs, and construction paper scraps became the head. We glued on the eyes, and our little sheep were complete to run and play as little sheep do.

After the Book: Even More Extension

James Herriot also wrote several other books, and although many of them are for adults, if your children love animals, they may enjoy hearing you read them as long as you’re willing to edit out some long passages or sadder details. There are also two movies and a TV series about his adventures as a country vet. My girls found them hard to sit through as they are geared toward an older audience, but a true animal lover might enjoy them.

If you love hands-on crafts, take advantage of this easy to use kit with 9 projects and nearly all needed supplies.

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Back to the Basics–An Alphabetical Guide to Homeschooling

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Whether you’re just starting off on this journey of homeschooling and need a little guidance or have been at it a while and need a pep talk, sometimes it’s good to review the basics. What better way for a homeschooler to do that than with this homeschool alphabetical guide, ABC-style.

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STEM Students Need Literature, Too

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STEM Students Need Literature, Too

My second son is a junior this year. STEM subjects come naturally to him. For example, he is currently holding a solid A in calculus, and given the choice between spending an afternoon testing physics laws or digging into Shakespeare, well… the Bard would lose.

I’m parenting and homeschooling a high schooler who doesn’t have a strong literature bent, and I know I’m not alone.

Science, technology, engineering, and math fields (STEM fields) are highly touted. But friends whose teens have similar interests are often surprised that we’ve chosen Sonlight for our STEM-leaning son.

  • “My daughter wants to be an engineer. Sonlight isn’t a good fit for her, because she doesn’t need all that literature.”
  • “My son is very science-minded and doesn’t really like reading. All those books would just drown him.”
  • My daughter plans to study science in college. A literature-based program won't work.

Getting Past Easy and Challenging the STEM Student

People do have their strengths. I’m not saying they don’t. But when a child is an ace crawler, we don’t decide that they don’t need to walk.

In every area of parenting, we are to encourage our children to branch past their comfort zones and try their wings in newer, challenging areas. That doesn’t change just because your daughter is older and her interests are becoming more specific.

Mix and Match High School with Sonlight

Just as you wouldn’t have given up on reading instruction earlier on when her math skills took off, you now need to continue offering progressively more complex literature. Higher math and science and advanced reading are part and parcel of a rich education.

Scientists Need Great Books, Too

If your child thinks that great biologists, engineers, statisticians, and computer programmers are ignorant of the vast body of great literature, they’re misinformed.

  • Albert Einstein was known to maintain a prolific library
  • Steve Jobs felt that 1984 (and several other classic titles) should be required reading for everyone.

People who are successful in their area of expertise are rarely the type who never pick up a book. Great literature is the universal common denominator among innovators from all fields. It’s the background music to which the symphonies of science and math are written. So STEM students need great literature, too!

STEM Students Need a Foundation of Cultural Literacy

Besides simply being an excellent exercise for the brain, great literature like the selections from Sonlight’s high school curriculum allow teens to enter in to the Great Conversation— the tradition of great writers and thinkers, expanding on the ideas presented in earlier works. The majority of adults in America have read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and The Chosen. These titles are a starting place for engaging with others in the context of a body of shared knowledge.

Literature also provides a window into the emotions, experiences, and worlds we otherwise can’t touch, giving us a deeper human experience and one that develops us into well-rounded and empathetic people willing to be used by God for His glory. Reading about men who’ve experienced war, women who have suffered mistreatment, and political regimes run amok makes us better able to bear the burdens of our neighbors.

Given those qualifiers, the life of every man is clearly made better for the books he has read. There’s no reason not to enjoy a buffet of great literature throughout high school. Personally, I’d be delighted for one of my children to become an auto mechanic. I’d be even more pleased if he or she was an auto mechanic who had dipped a toe into Jane Eyre.

Sonlight High School Catalog

Sonlight has homeschool consultants available to talk to you about choosing the perfect high school curriculum for your teen. Click here to schedule an appointment.

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Homeschooling Multiple Children: A Day in the Life

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Have you seen the video where someone is trying to line up a litter of cute, cuddly kittens? If you haven’t, let me spoil it for you: it doesn’t work very well! As you can imagine, it’s a full thirty seconds of constant redirection, repositioning, and mayhem. To everyone watching, it’s hilarious, but to the poor person trying to herd those kittens, it's exhausting. This image hits close to home for homeschool moms of multiples. Some days, homeschooling multiple children is very much like herding cats. As soon as you get one seated, another pops up and wanders off, and the day is similar to the old whack-a-mole game. Can you relate?

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4 Benefits Homeschooling Affords Parents

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For obvious reasons, people want to know the ways homeschooling can be good for their children. Many people also talk about how it benefits the adults, but always in context of their role as a parent or the family as a whole.

What about the parents as individuals? What opportunities will homeschooling give a parent to grow as a person, not only as a mom or a dad?

Homeschool Benefit 1. Managing Your Time

There’s simply no way to add the major commitment of homeschooling without it impacting the pace of your days. Regardless of your natural bent in this area, you’ll have to make some changes as a homeschooler.

If you tend to be a structured person who thrives on schedules, you’ll have to flex. You will discover the ability to set aside your plan and move forward with a smile on your face.

If you’re one who usually goes with the flow, you'll have to be disciplined. You will experience the value in setting firm boundaries and enforcing timelines.

Learning to swing a little toward the opposite end of the time management spectrum is one big way you will grow as a homeschool parent.

Homeschool Benefit 2. Appreciating Your Strengths

What is your homeschool super power? Is it one of these:

  • finding creative ways to memorize facts
  • having lots of patience when people are slow to understand
  • knowing how to encourage without enabling
  • coming up with activities that are both fun and instructive

Whatever it is that you’re good at, homeschooling gives you a chance to either discover an latent strength or confirm one you already knew about.

Although a prideful attitude that believes your strengths determine your worth is a problem, an awareness of what you do well is a positive thing when you look for ways to use your strengths to improve your own life and bless other people.

Homeschool Benefit 3. Identifying Your Weaknesses

There’s nothing like sharing a roof with people to make your own weaknesses clear as day! Homeschooling ramps up the intensity of that awareness.

How is this apparent negative actually a positive? First, it keeps us humble. As we see and accept that areas of our life need improvement, we’ll more easily accept and have patience with the flaws in others. Second, it gives us an opportunity for personal growth. As the saying goes, acknowledging a problem is the first step toward resolving it. Rarely does a weakness manifest in only one area, so our efforts to make changes pertaining to weaknesses in homeschooling will have a ripple effect in the other parts of our life.

Homeschool Benefit 4. Growing Spiritually

Homeschooling provides ample opportunity to seek the peace and wisdom that only God can give:

Whether it comes from frazzled desperation or contented gratitude, anything that consistently drives us to our knees in prayer and leads us to read our Bibles is a good thing. The more our own spiritual tank is filled, the more we’ll have to share with others.

These four benefits will clearly make an impact on your family as you homeschool, but they’re also life skills that will serve you and those in your life well long after your nest is empty or your kids have transitioned to other schooling options. Homeschooling, after all, isn’t just about the kids. It’s about everyone in the home, including the parents.

Curious to see what a homeschool lifestyle might look like for your family? Go to SmoothCourse to explore your curriculum options.

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5 Tips for Reining in Young Kids When It's Time for Homeschool

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5 Tips for Reining in Young Kids When It's Time for Homeschool

Your Instructor’s Guide is highlighted and indexed. Pencils are sharpened, and your  basket holds all the books for the day. Your coffee is hot. The Bible is open to the right page.

Everything is perfect. Then, it dawns on you. Something is missing. Where are the kids?!

I can relate to this scenario because it happens to me regularly. Reining in a first grader, a kindergartner, and a preschooler is no small feat. Add in the infant who equates napping with medieval torture, and wow! I’m sure you can understand why I hum the Mission Impossible theme song as I make breakfast each morning.

Fortunately, I have a tried and true arsenal of tricks to rein in my kids. Through trial and error, toil and strife, I have found joy in homeschooling, too. I have a strong belief that homeschooling, although hard (cue that Mission Impossible music), is the right choice for our family!  I also come equipped with a lot of caffeine and complete faith in Jesus: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

1. Rein in Kids with Food

Truth? You have to feed them anyway! Use this fact to your advantage. While your kids are eating, you have a captive audience. After you satiate their minds with knowledge and their bellies with food, they’ll be ready for a mind break and off to play. In the wake of the storm, your coffee will taste so much better!

2. Rein Them in Outside

All those books that are wonderful to snuggle up to on the couch are just as enjoyable, if not more so, outside.  Read under a favorite tree, on a picnic blanket at the beach, or on the front porch just before a storm.

3. Rein Them in on the Go

Homeschooling would be a piece of cake if it weren’t for all our other earthly needs. Still, cars need oil changes and pantries need groceries. No matter how hard I pray, dinner still won’t make itself. Being portable is the solution.

Couch Time

Take your Couch Subjects™ with you! I keep our current Read-Aloud, Readers, and reference books in a ready-to-go bag that I can grab on the way out the door. We have spent many an oil change reading up on Greek myths. Just ask Bill, our service guy. He’s learned a ton too!

Table Time

Table Subjects™ work the same way. Invest in a few clip boards with internal storage, so the kids can quickly unearth copywork or science worksheets on the go. I recommend keeping a glue stick and a pair of safety scissors handy as well.

4. Rein Them in On the Road

You’re going to be in the car anyway. Plus, the kids are trapped. Go for it!

  • Sing and memorize scripture verses.
  • Listen to audio books.
  • Quiz your kids with flashcards on a ring.
  • Discuss your latest Read-Aloud

Lyrical Life Science is a current favorite with my kiddos! You really haven’t explored all science has to offer until you’ve sung about cold blooded vertebrates to the tune of When Johnny Comes Marching Home!

5. Rein Them in with Music

Sometimes I need everybody in one place when it’s not meal time or driving time. My solution? I play chopsticks on the piano. Seriously, it works!

When they hear chopsticks being played, the kids run to the room and have a seat on the carpet for announcements. I make sure to reserve this method for when I’m calling them to do something fun like poetry tea time or hands-on history!

Now, here’s the whole truth about what happens when I have finally achieved the perfect homeschool flow:

  • The baby will wake up and need a diaper change.
  • The timer on the stove will ding.
  • The mail carrier will drop a package at the door.

Fear not! Just take a deep breath, pray, and pick any one of the options above to get back on track!

Your turn! I’d love to hear and try some of your suggestions! What methods work for you? How do you reign the kids back in when they go off course?

To find out more about Sonlight's complete book-based homeschool programs, order a complimentary copy of your catalog today.

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