Bon Voyage: Passport to the Francophone World

Bon Voyage: Passport to the Francophone World

by | Jun 16, 2025 | Craft Tutorials

Ready to take an imaginary trip around the French-speaking world? Our printable francophone world passport adds joy to the journey!

We suggest some possible ways to use the passport (but your own inspiration is totally okay too!). See our video for a preview of how to use the passport. The printable passport is available on Etsy.

FRENCH CLASSROOMS: If you have a classroom of students, students could be divided into groups and each group assigned a French-speaking country to research. Each group could then present their research to the class. When the presentations happen, the presenters could have the audience pretend to go through customs and “stamp” the passports (with our printable stickers that come with the passport printable) as they begin their presentation. Then the audience could take notes on the presentations in the appropriate passport pages.

HOMESCHOOLERS: If you are a homeschooling family (or a family who just loves to learn together), we suggest (see below) a Charlotte Mason-style feast of books that you can enjoy for 5 different countries in the French-speaking world. Before you begin each country, give your children time to write what they know and what they wonder about the country. Then give your child a passport “stamp” (stickers that come with the passport printable). As you read the books, children can narrate (with drawings or writing) some of the things they remember from the books in the “What I learned” page for each country. You can read as many (or as few) books as you like, and go at your own pace. Enjoy the journey!

FOR EVERYONE: To make your journey even sweeter, consider making a food from each country too. We suggest one food idea for each country. Movies could also add a lot of fun to the imaginary trip. I hesitate to suggest movies, but I am including some. Please do your own research to see if the movies are appropriate for your children before you show them.

Below is our suggested list of books, movies, and foods (with links). Bon voyage!

La France

There are so many lovely books about France, we found it hard to narrow down our suggestions. If you have other favorites, please use those as well. The books we chose have a Paris focus, while the movie takes place in the south of France. (Please use the links to find out more about the books, food, and movies.)

Non-fiction overview book:

France (Enchantment of the World series by Scholastic)

Picture books:

Madeline*

The Girl and the Cathedral: The Story of Notre-Dame de Paris

Kiki and Coco in Paris*

The Red Balloon*

*Click here for additional free activities related to these books in our post, Paris Picture Books.

Novels:

The Family Under the Bridge A heart-warming story about caring for others that also gives a window into the scenery of Paris.

Family Sabbatical   This book is laugh-out-loud hilarious! So much fun as a read aloud!

Food:

Crepes

Movie:

My Father’s Glory   One of my favorite movies, as I spent some of my college days in the south of France. The landscape is beautiful, and the story is endearing as well.

Le Canada (Québec)

 Our family has had the opportunity to travel to Quebec in the lovely summer months, but it’s probably no surprise that there are a number of picture books about Quebec in the winter months. (Please use the links to find out more about the books, food, and movies.)

Non-fiction overview book:

Canada (Enchantment of the World series from Scholastic)

Picture books:

F is for French: A Quebec Alphabet

The Sugaring-off Party

The Hockey Sweater

The Lion and the Bird  – This book is by a Quebecois author and tells the story of a lion who hosts an injured bird over the winter. Of course you would want to mention that lions don’t live in Quebec, but this books is so lovely, I had to include it in the list. (Our family has this book in French… it’s a great story for children learning French, as there are very few words.)

Novel:

Shadows on the Rock  – This book really brings to life Quebec in its early days. I’ve read it and listened to it more than once, and I would read it again!

Food:

Maple Syrup Taffy

Movies:

Blizzard  This movie uses Quebec City as the setting for the North Pole.

 

Le Sénégal (and other Francophone African countries)

Some of the books suggested here are for countries in French-speaking Africa, in addition to Senegal. (Please use the links to find out more about the books, food, and movies.) The novels we suggest here are quite intense, so please preview them to see if they appropriate for your family. 

Non-fiction overview book: 

Senegal (Enchantment of the World series by Scholastic)

Picture books: 

The Red Bicycle   My daughter was inspired to donate her bike to Bikes for the World after reading this sweet and inspiring story!

The Water Princess  We have free printable activities to accompany this story. Find them here.

Senegal: On the Way to School

Novels:

One Shadow on the Wall This novel has a sad beginning (parents dying) and tells the story of many difficulties faced by children in Senegal. The overarching message of the book is the love of family and community. However, parents should read this book before deciding if it might be appropriate for their older children (not appropriate for younger children). This book could provide an opportunity for great discussions on morals and facing difficult situations.

The Bitter Side of Sweet This novel, about slavery in cocoa production, tells a very important story. However, the violence is graphic and intense (I found I had to skim some parts), so it is definitely not a book for young children. Parents should read it before possibly considering sharing it with teens.

Food:

Chicken Yassa

Movie:

Kirikou – Back in my days as an au-pair in Paris, the kids were singing the song from this movie and it still rings in my head, “Kirikou n’est pas grand… mais c’est mon ami…” I have not watched the English version of the movie, but I imagine it still has catchy songs. The movie can be watched for free in French through archive.org.

 

La Polynésie française

Books that take place in French Polynesia seem to be hard to find, but hopefully these can provide a starting point. Some of the suggestions here are not specifically about French Polynesia, but Polynesian culture and geography in general. (Please use the links to find out more about the books, food, and movies.) If you are looking for books in French that take place in French Polynesia, we suggest looking for books at Lire en Polynésie .

Picture books:

Animals of Tahiti This book is simply contains photographs and names of animals in Tahiti, but my children said they enjoyed it.

The Swimmers: Paper cut-outs with Matisse  Matisse spent time in Tahiti, and his time there is said to have inspired the vibrant colors and shapes in his cut-outs. This book does not mention his time in Tahiti, but the reader could add in this information. The book gives directions for how to make cut-out art of your own.

The Brilliant Deep  This book is about the corals in Florida, but also about the need to save corals around the world. I am including it here, as there are beautiful corals surrounding Tahiti as well.

Novels:

Call it Courage  A Newberry Award classic. Be aware the story begins sadly with the death of the main character’s mom.

Treasure in Tahiti  This book is out of print, and we have not had the chance to read it, but we mention it as there are not many books about Tahiti available in English.

Food:

Tropical fruit inspired treats

Movie:

Moana or Moana 2  Animated Disney movies that show the island landscape of Polynesia.

 

La République d’Haïti

We found many sweet books about Haiti ! (Please use the links to find out more about the books, food, and movies.)

Non-fiction overview book:

Haiti (Enchantment of the World series by Scholastic)

Picture books:

Tap Tap

My Day with the Panye

Haiti: My Country

Freedom Soup

Novel:

Serafina’s Promise  This book is lovely and inspiring. It is written in the form of a long poem. Despite very difficult conditions, the story is full of faith and hope in the Lord. My girls (6 and 10) wanted me to keep reading it any time it was time to stop reading… “Just one more page, Mom?”

Food:

Soupe Joumou (Freedom Soup)

Movie:

Egalite for All: Toussaint L’ouverture and the Haitian Revolution  This in an informative documentary. I listened to it without watching it, as I can’t handle watching violence.

Ready to travel? You can find our Francophone World Passport in our Etsy shop. It’s an instant download, so you can print as many copies as you need for your family or your classes. Watch the videos below to learn how to assemble and use your passport. If the video images to not load, please use these links:

How to print and assemble the passport

How to use your passport to take an imaginary trip

 

Bon Voyage!

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

Helping Children to hear God’s Voice

Helping Children to hear God’s Voice

by | Feb 9, 2025 | Craft Tutorials

I had the blessing this January of reading Hearing God’s Voice: A Catholic guide to listening prayer by Jonna Schuster.

I’m a cradle Catholic with a deep love for the Lord and my faith. I love to pray, but still, this book was able to add clarity and depth to my prayer life. (I will add, though, that I think this book would be loved by anyone who is open to God’s voice or is seeking for God, even if not Catholic. So if you are a reader of another faith, this book is still for you!)

Jonna’s book helps explain questions like, “Was that God speaking to me, or was that just me thinking that thought?” or “Why would God, who is so big, want to talk to me, who is so little?”

Jonna so beautifully explains how to listen well to God, and the overarching message in the book is that God loves us so much and wants to speak to us of his love. When I finished the book, I felt like I had been on a retreat, and my heart was so full of that message of God’s love… weeks after finishing the book, that deep message of love remains in my heart and mind.

As I read the book, I thought, “I wish I could have had this depth of understanding of hearing God’s voice my whole life, rather than waiting until now.”

I also kept thinking, “I really want to share the ideas in this book with my children!” So, I decided to create a worksheet for my children to help to share the main ideas in Jonna’s book. We had such a delightful time using this worksheet and talking about how we can hear God’s voice, that I decided to share this lesson idea on our blog, so that you can share these beautiful ideas with your children too.

Our printable worksheets and lesson plan ideas are available in our Etsy shop. They are designed for families and faith formation classes.

The printable worksheet has a heart image and the words “God is love” because the main message in the book is that God loves us so deeply and wants to share his love with us.
Once you, the parent or teacher, have read Hearing God’s Voice, you can print out any version of the Hearing God’s Voice heart printable you like, and then follow our ideas about sharing it with your children (or use it in a way that works for your family or class).
Inside of the heart are a number of words from the concepts in the book of the ways that we may “hear” God. I tried to select many key concepts from the book, while keeping it at a reasonable number of concepts for children. You’ll find after reading the book that talking about these concepts will come naturally.
You can certainly add other words into the heart that you find important. As you talk about the concepts with your children, you can also explain that the opposites of these words would not be ways that God speaks to us. For example, God is encouraging to us – He does NOT speak mean and discouraging words to us that make us feel bad about ourselves (those things are from the evil one).
My six-year-old, ten-year-old, and I did this Hearing God’s Voice lesson this past Sunday in place of our regular faith formation curriculum (Into the Deep, which is wonderful, by the way. Definitely check it out if you are looking for a lovely faith formation curriculum!). The lesson went really well, and we are so excited to share the idea with you! 
Here is what we did:
  • We started with the sign of the cross and an “Our Father” prayer.
  • Then I told my children, “Today we are going to be talking about listening to God.” I asked, “Can you tell me about how you hear God?” They thought for a bit, but they were not sure how to answer. I then rephrased the question as, “When do you feel closest to God?” They said, “When I pray,” and “When I’m at Mass.”
  • I then told them about this great book that I read about listening to God and that I wanted to share the ideas with them because there is no need to wait until being an adult to have a clearer understanding of how to listen to God.
  • I let them each pick a version of the heart picture that they liked best, and I gave them some colored pencils.
  • I let them take turns picking the words that we would talk about (in any order). Once they picked a word, they colored in the block letters while I shared with them about that concept. I shared information I remembered from the book, as well as my own life experiences. I asked them questions about how they might have experienced listening to God in that way, and they asked great questions too!
  • I had thought that we might only get through a few of the words and continue the lesson another time, but to my surprise, they were really into this and wanted to keep going and talk about all the words in one lesson! (If you do this lesson with your children, listen to their cues… no need to finish it all in one sitting.)
  • At the conclusion of the lesson, I wanted to include a song. I thought about picking one in advance, but instead, at the end of the lesson, I asked my children what song they thought of after our conversation about hearing God’s voice. They very quickly said, “Ooo child, don’t you know I love you?” (the song is actually called, “Just as you are” by Ryan Stevenson). I love it that they thought of that song, as that song really captures the essence of the message in the book… how much God loves us! We had such a joyful lesson, that we actually had a little dance party to that song… so fun! 

Would you like to get the heart worksheets and lesson plans? You can find them in our little Esty shop.

Yes, please, I want the printables!

Note: You can find the Hearing God’s Voice book on Amazon. Reading this book is essential before using this lesson plan.

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

A Year of Printable Garlands to grow in God’s love

A Year of Printable Garlands to grow in God’s love

by | Jan 30, 2025 | Craft Tutorials

Bring joy to your decor all throughout the year!

Would you and your family like to have a bundle of sweet and simple crafts ready to make to celebrate all year long?

In celebration of Sparkles and Sprinkles turning 3 this year, we put together a bundle of our holiday garlands we hope you will enjoy.

When our family started our little homeschool learning blog 3 years ago, our signature printable became garlands (we are not sure what inspired this, but we just kept thinking of ideas for more…). Our first one was a Valentine “Love is…” garland with scripture from 1st Corinthians. Each of our garlands has a message of God’s love. What a gift it is to have visual reminders in our home of how much God loves us!

For the first time ever, we have created a bundle (at a big discount) of all of our holiday garlands. Now you don’t have to pick and chose which garland you might like, you can download the whole bundle at once, and have it ready to print as each holiday arrives. The bundle includes Valentine’s Day (in French and English), St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

The garlands are easy to put together with simple supplies (cardstock, hole punch, scissors, and ribbon or yarn). All of the garlands are digital downloads, so you can download them all at once, and print them as needed, year after year. Most of the garlands have room for personalization, giving you and your family a joyful opportunity to gather around the table and color and talk together.

We hope you and your family will enjoy these garlands just like Kristine, who said in her review:

“I absolutely loved this. This is perfect for families, individuals, Sunday schools , children, and adults.” 

The 3rd Anniversary garland bundle includes the following garlands:

Individual garlands are normally $3.99, but the bundle has a special discounted price. The entire holiday garland collection is only $12.99 (likely less than buying just one store-bought garland). Plus, until February 14, 2025 the garland bundle is an extra 10% off (no code needed).

Click here to get the garland bundle on Etsy

Wishing you and your family so much joy all throughout the year, with sweet reminders of God’s abundant love!

A Christmas Carol – printable quotes to grace your home throughout the Christmas season

A Christmas Carol – printable quotes to grace your home throughout the Christmas season

by | Dec 26, 2024 | Craft Tutorials

We love printable garlands, and we’ve been meaning to make one for the Christmas season. Today we are sharing with you some printable wall art and garlands with quotes from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

 

What inspired us to create these printables? Reading A Christmas Carol as a family this Advent season and spending the first 3 weeks in December doing the Read Aloud Revival Christmas School. Though we had heard of it before, we never took the leap of faith to switch gears from our regular curriculum and do Christmas School (which really takes place during Advent, to prepare for Christmas). We are so glad we did this year!

We so much enjoyed doing the Read Aloud Revival Christmas School that we were actually sad when it ended, even though Christmas vacation was about to begin. We hope hanging up these quotes in our home will help us to remember the joy of Christmas School… and if you did Christmas School, or you are just a fan of Dickens, perhaps you’ll love them too. You can find the printable quotes to frame and the garland in our Etsy shop. 

 

Thanks to Christmas School, as we headed into Christmas vacation this year, our hearts and our home felt so much more ready for Christmas than they normally do when Christmas vacation begins.

I felt inspired to spread the word about Christmas School because it was such a blessing for our family, and we imagine some of our readers might like to learn more about it. Christmas School is designed for homeschoolers, but it could be used (at least partially) by all families (perhaps on the weekends or evenings during Advent).

Christmas School is different every year, but this year Christmas School was based around Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Christmas School provided us with a complete curriculum (except for math) for 3 weeks in December, including writing, grammar, art, music, science, and history. I’m not usually one to completely follow a curriculum (because I like to go along with my own inspiration), but I was so happy to follow the Christmas School curriculum… truly a feast of beautiful learning!

We found ourselves looking forward to getting up every morning and reading from Little Christmas Carol (lightly edited and sweetly illustrated for children by Joe Sutphin), and then filling the day with things like learning about the history of nativity scenes, and then putting up our own… learning about conifers and evergreens, and going on a nature walk to find some in our neighborhood, and then heading out to pick out a Christmas tree… making punch to celebrate Dickens-style… learning about Christmas songs… reading and writing poetry… baking… doing art projects… and so much more!

 

Our 5 year-old says, “Christmas school is the funnest!” And though we might say it differently, we all feel the same! Christmas school allowed us to learn and grow in the typical school subjects, while also preparing our hearts and our home for Christmas. 

Because our hearts are so full of sweet memories of Christmas School this year, we decided to create printable wall art and a printable garland with some of the most beautiful quotes from A Christmas Carol.

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”

Whether you did Christmas School this year too, or you just love Charles Dickens, you might like to print these printables as a reminder to keep celebrating throughout the Christmas season. You can find them on Etsy. (Your purchase from our little Etsy shop helps us to cover blogging expenses. Thank you so much for your support!)

Once the printables are downloaded, you can re-print them whenever you like, year after year. You’ll want to print them on cardstock or printer-friendly watercolor paper. For the garland it is helpful to have a 1/8″ hole punch, a 2.25″ circle punch (or scissors), and narrow ribbon or twine. Complete instructions are included in the download.

After the stockings come down on Christmas morning, the garland could perhaps take their place along the mantel… as a reminder to always keep the spirit of Christmas in our hearts. Little framed prints can be placed around the house as a happy reminder that Christmas continues as well.

To find out more about Christmas School, you can visit Sarah Mackenzie’s Read Aloud Revival. Read Aloud Revival is our go-to place to find peace and reassurance in our homeschool all throughout the year too.

Wishing you a joyous Christmas season!

You might also like…

Gluten-free cut-out cookies

Does Santa need some gluten-free cookies at your house? These are also low-carb, making them a bit heathier than your typical cookie (but still yummy!).

diy santons de provence

Make your own nativity

Learn about Santons de Provence (French nativities), and the many figures that surround the nativity. Then have fun making your own!

french valentine garland

Valentine Scripture Garland (in French or English)

Print and decorate this sweet garland for Valentine’s Day.

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

Homeschool kick-off week: a joy-filled way to start the school year

Homeschool kick-off week: a joy-filled way to start the school year

by | Oct 3, 2024 | Craft Tutorials

Looking for a way to make the start of the school year something to look forward to? And bring happy memories for years to come? How about a homeschool kick-off week?

We’ve been doing homeschool kick-off weeks in one way or another since our oldest daughter started kindergarten. That year we went to a pick-your-own flower farm on the first day of school, as we had decided to name our homeschool Little Flowers School after Saint Thérèse. The reality was that a trip to the flower farm was a bit stressful with little ones – see the signs in the photo below: “Do not walk in the flower beds” and “Choose carefully. You are required to pay for ALL flowers you pick.” It was not the idyllic day of carefree frolicking in flower fields I envisioned, but we did come home with some pretty bouquets, and the day at the flower farm is still a happy memory. Homeschool kick-off days have gotten better from there, and in this post we share with you some examples of our homeschool kick-off days. 

While our homeschool kick-off weeks are quite different every year, there are three things they tend to have in common:

  • some surprise gifts
  • a slow start (doing just one or two subjects a day – more on that below)
  • fun family together time activities 

We usually base the especially fun days on what we plan to study for social studies or science in the coming year… this way our activities relate to everyone, as we tend to do science and social studies as a whole family.

 

Special Gifts

Our kick-off days start with an idea I borrowed from German teacher at the school where I used to teach. She so kindly wrapped beautiful little gifts to have on each student’s desk on the first day of school. She told me that it is a German tradition for students to be given gifts to start the school year. They are called Schultüte. Her generosity amazed me to do this for so many students! And I’m sure it brought joy to so many students over the years.

Inspired by this, we try to start off our school year with some fun gifts as well. Somehow a beautifully wrapped gift to open brings lots of smiles, even if there might be sadness in summer coming to an end. Rather than just the necessary school supplies, we try to find something special, like pretty pencils with inspirational quotes, or unique pencil cases found at gift shop over the summer. Sometimes we include books and a book journal. For children who are not officially school age, we pick gifts of toys that they might enjoy playing with while the older siblings are doing school work. One year when the big girls needed a real microscope, our little ones received an educational microscope toy.

Here is what our kick off week looked like this year… 

We’ll also share with you some of the curricula we are using this year – we are always grateful for learning about curricula other families love, so we hope our favorites might be helpful to you as well. We have a penchant for a Charlotte Mason approach to learning.

Monday: History Day 

This year we will be studying ancient history, so a brand new DK Eyewitness book about Ancient Greece was sitting by the breakfast table. These books bring history alive, and are so fun to peruse – no one needs to tell a child to pick this up and learn, it just happens!
We then read from Spend the Day in Ancient Greece, which tells the story of a fictional Ancient Greek family and gives numerous craft ideas. We made the first project in the book: an owl made out of clay to represent Athena’s wisdom.
We also started our read aloud from Famous Men of Greece (suggested in the Mater Amabilis curriculum).  The girls did narration and drawings about what they learned in their history notebooks. (History notebooks are so fun, by the way… they give each child a way to express themselves at their own level, whether it be a lengthy written description by a teen or a simple drawing by a preschooler.)
We continued the Greek theme with making Greek salad for lunch and Amygdalota (naturally gluten-free almond flour Greek cookies that symbolizes new beginnings) for dessert. 
ancient greece

Tuesday: French and Music Day

We started our day by cuddling up together and reading from a French children’s book.

The girls then opened some fun gifts – a 3D puzzle of Paris and audio flashcards (a screen-free activity that still allows independent language practice). The 3-D puzzle of Paris turned out to be a hit! It was so fun to put together, and actually provided for hours of (gentle) play in the days to come (as there are little people that can be moved around).

We also took the time to do our Hoffman Academy online piano lessons. (I was at first skeptical of the idea of online piano lessons, but we have now been using Hoffman Academy for years – it teaches not only how to play piano, but incorporates music theory as well, in a very well-thought-out and fun way.)

The highlight of our day was going to a beautiful French cafe for lunch and spending some time playing at a local park with friends. On our drive to the cafe, we listened to the Busy Kids Love Music podcast. (I’m trying to incorporate music history into our curriculum this year without adding in any prep work – this podcast is delightful.)

Wednesday: English Day

The gift for the day was a bookmark making kit and a beautiful newly published book, Because Barbara, about the life of author and illustrator, Barbara Cooney.  (We have at least one budding author and illustrator in our family, so this book was a good inspiration, and everyone loved it!)
I spent time helping each child with their grammar and spelling books. (This year, we are using Catholic Heritage Curricula  for the older girls and The Good and the Beautiful for our Kindergartner.)
The plan was also to make a visit to our local library, but we ended up opting to do this another day as everyone was tired this day. It’s good to flexible and go-with the flow for a joy-filled kick-off week.

Thursday: Math Day

I was able to do a math lesson with each child so that we could get to know the math program. This year, for the first time, our girls are all doing The Good and the Beautiful math – true to its name, it is a visually beautiful program that uses a spiral learning approach.
Our fun activity for math day was really pretty simple… a nature walk where each child gathered nature items of their choice in a little bag, then we came home and thought about how they could relate to math. How many petals are on this flower? Why do flowers have so many seeds? What shapes do you see? How far do you think we walked?…

Friday: Science Day

While we often do our biggest kick-off day on the first day, this year it worked best to do our biggest kick-off day on Friday. My husband takes the day off of work for this day to join us in the fun and add some words of encouragement and special blessing prayers for the start of the school year.
We started the day with pancakes in the shape of bears for breakfast and a gift of pencils with animal erasers… as a little foreshadowing that our special trip would be to the zoo. (Side note: We use our healthy gluten-free cupcake recipe to make the batter for our pancakes. These pancakes are packed with protein for a great start to the day.) 
A trip to the zoo was such a fun way to kick-off our study of biology this year. Below are a few of the many photos we took of the animals. To top off the day, we were able to stop in for some prayer time at church on our way home to thank God for the gift of His creation, and ask God to guide our school year too.

With such a long day at the zoo, we actually waited until the following week to start our science book work. We are using The Good and the Beautiful biology program this year, starting off with mammals. So far I am totally impressed, and the children love the program. I really love how the program has one main teacher guide, and separate (scaffolded) nature journals for each age group. They seem to be spot on for the level of work that seems appropriate for their ages. 

A Slow Start…

You may notice that we only do one or two subjects per day during our kick-off week. I call this a “slow start,” and there are so many reasons I love it:
  • Doing only one subject a day to start gives me time to work one-on-one with each child on each subject, without feeling rushed.
  • As I see how the child connects with the curriculum for each subject, I can better think about how much time each subject might take, and how to weave together a schedule for the year (rather than just guessing at it). Planning a schedule for the year can be overwhelming, nonetheless, so I always try to remember to take it to prayer… with God all things are possible!
  • If there are projects still left undone from the summer (fun things like making photo albums, or not so fun like cleaning out closets), part of the day can be spent wrapping up those things.
  • Doing just one or two subjects a day at the start of the school year provides a more peaceful transition from the freedom of summer to the demands of the school year… both for me as the teacher and for my children.

A few more fun ideas:

Truly, every year is different, so in case it sparks more ideas for you, here are some of our favorite memories from years past:

  • Getting toy boats and sailing them across the neighborhood swimming pool the year we were studying early American history, pretending one end of the pool was Europe and the other end America. (Another benefit of homeschooling… being at the pool while everyone else is at school!)
  • Using couch cushions to make a pretend time machine, then getting in and pretending to blast off to different time periods to get a preview of what we would be learning about in a world history year. Daddy even had the thought to play some time machine sound effects and make a control panel from a cardboard box! Each time we made a stop, there was an activity related to the time period in a different room of the house (an art project, a book to read, music to listen to…).
  • Spending the day seeing monuments in D.C. to kick off the year that civics was our social studies focus, then coming home and trying to make the monuments out of cake and frosting… Is it Cake? style. It was quite a mess on the counter (with frosting, cake, cookies, pretzels, and more… and yes, I had to temporarily give up my “stay away from refined sugar” norm that you see in our blog recipes.) Our girls are still asking if we can please do Is it Cake? again!?
Of course coming up with your own ideas to suit your own family and curriculum for the year is best (and most fun), but we hope these ideas might spark some ideas for you, and add joy to your school year.
May God bless you and your family as you learn and grow together!
P.S. If you are reading this in the middle of the school, you could tuck away the idea for next school year, or maybe do a week like this in the middle of the school year to add a little variety. Kind of like doing a “Just because we can day” (have heard about this great idea from Sarah Mackenzie?) but instead a “Just because we can week!”

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