Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comToday, I’m sharing a conversation with my friend and colleague, Cindy West.Cindy teaches at No Sweat Nature Study, a homeschool nature study program that takes the guesswork out of nature study by teaching your kids directly. Cindy is also the host of the No Sweat Nature Study podcast, which features short episodes about nature. (My kids absolutely love it!)Cindy and I recently had a conversation for her community about how to use picture books to teach nature study and today, I wanted to share it with you.Because nature study kind of has a name for itself in the homeschooling world. We've sort of built it up as the supreme science activity and it can be wonderful - getting out in nature, observing and learning about the world around us …But we also tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves about it. There are just times in life when getting out in nature is harder than others – maybe you have a new baby, maybe someone has allergies, maybe the weather is just plain terrible. There are plenty of reasons why you might need or want to do some of your nature study from the couch or the kitchen table.And that’s why on today’s episode of the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast, Cindy and I are talking about teaching nature study through books.In this episode, you’ll hear: 
How “living literature” helps you kids make connections between books and the world around them
How making connections through picture books can relieve some of the pressure around nature study
Why picture book biographies are great launching points for all ages
Learn more about Cindy West:
No Sweat Nature Study
No Sweat Nature Study Podcast
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Read Aloud Revival
Waxwing Books
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Mentioned in This Episode:Nature Study Book List and Activity Guide

RAR #224: Cozy Couch Nature Study

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comI have a theory that if I were to ask a hundred of today’s children’s book authors and illustrators to name a book that had a profound impact on them, I bet an unusually large number of those authors and illustrators would mention the work of E.B. White.I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard authors say that E.B. White’s books have made such a huge difference in their lives and writing.I’m a big E.B. White fan myself, and while I love Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, my absolute favorite is The Trumpet of the Swan.And that’s what we’re reading this spring in RAR Premium for our Family Book Club. Plus, we’re going to look closely at first-lines (E.B. White was a master of this) for a WOW: Writer’s on Writing Event.It’s going to be quite the fabulous E.B. White spring here at RAR!  So today, we’re revisiting an episode from 2017 with children’s book illustrator Melissa Sweet discussing her children’s biography of E.B. White, called Some Writer.In this episode, you’ll hear: 
How each story informs Melissa’s process of creating mixed media illustrations
How a family of crafters and makers inspired Melissa to become an artist
How Melissa’s research into E.B. White’s work led to the visuals for Some Writer 
Learn more about Sarah Mackenzie:
Read Aloud Revival
Waxwing Books
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Mentioned in This Episode:RAR #202: For Kids Who Don't Like Sad StoriesBooks Mentioned in This Episode:Charlotte’s WebStuart Little The Trumpet of the SwanSome WriterA Boy, A Mouse, and a SpiderThe Baby Bear SeriesThe Pinky and Rex SeriesThe Boy Who Drew BirdsBrave GirlBalloons Over BroadwayA Splash of RedYou Nest Here with MeThe Right WordA River of Words

(Fixed!) Bonus: Join us for an E.B. White Spring

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comEvery year, the Read-Aloud Revival team watches the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards together. This is the award show where the medals that are considered the most prestigious in children’s publishing are given.Today I’m joined by Kortney Garrison, our Community Director, Kara Anderson, our Creative Director, and Harmony Harkema, or brand new Managing Editor at both Read-Aloud Revival and Waxwing Books.We are going to talk about the winners that were announced on January 30, 2023. We’ll talk about the books we were delighted to see honored, as well as some books that we think should have been honored. And you know we have opinions about that. ;)In this episode, you’ll hear: 
The impact the awards can have for authors and illustrators
The announcements that made us cheer
The book gems that didn’t make the list and why we love them
Learn more about Sarah Mackenzie:
Read Aloud Revival
Waxwing Books
Subscribe to the Newsletter
Mentioned in This Episode:
American Library Association announces 2023 Youth Media Award winners
Kate DiCamillo
Tomie DePaola
James Ransome
Read Aloud Revival: Picture Book Biographies
Sophie Blackall Stops by The Yarn to Talk About Farmhouse
RAR #177: Teach Your Kids to Think Like a Scientist (with Books You Already Have)

RAR #223: The Books That Won (And a Few That Should Have)

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comOh boy, do we have a treat for you today!Our team here at Read-Aloud Revival has been hard at work on a brand new booklist for you and I’ve invited Kortney Garrison and Kara Anderson from the RAR team back to this side of the podcast to tell you all about it.Nature study can be an intimidating subject that carries a lot of expectations in the homeschooling world. It’s something we want to do, but it can get pushed to the side because we don’t always have the energy to tramp around the woods with a watercolor set.So this project started with our team asking, how can we simplify nature study and make it more likely to happen? Could it really be as simple as reading a book and doing an activity?We think so! And that’s where our brand new booklist and activity guide comes in.In this episode, you’ll hear: 
Why we chose 12 books per season, and why you don’t have to read them all
How we paired books and activities to make them as accessible as we could
How the guide brings know, do, and love to nature study
Learn more about Sarah Mackenzie:
Read Aloud Revival
Waxwing Books
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Mentioned in This Episode:
Get the Nature Study Booklist and Activity Guide
RAR #220: Essentialism for Homeschoolers
RAR #177: Teach Your Kids to Think Like a Scientist (with Books You Already Have)
RAR #62: Inspiring a Love of Nature Through Books, Greta Eskridge

RAR #222: Read Books, Go Outside: Simple Science for Homeschooling Families

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comWhat do you do if you notice that your child isn’t finishing books?How can you get your kids to widen their reading taste outside of a single genre?How can you describe what you do for literature on a high school transcript when you take a more relaxed Read-Aloud Revival approach to the subject?And what can you do to help boost your child’s emotional intelligence and reading comprehension while reading? Today, I’m answering listeners’ questions about their kids’ reading habits, from bouncing from book to book to getting stuck in a genre rut, and more.In this episode, you’ll hear: 
Is it okay if your child is reading from rather than through?
How can we expand our child’s reading repertoire (without assigning them books)?
How to describe literature on a high school transcript
How picture books can help a child having difficulty with social and emotional cues
Learn more about Sarah Mackenzie:
Read Aloud Revival
Waxwing Books
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Mentioned in This Episode:
RAR #215: Whimsy and the Power of Childhood Reading
RAR #141: Why Re-Reading is Possibly the Best Reading

Homeschooling for College by Design - Heather Woodie

RAR #221: What to Do When your Child Doesn’t Finish Books…and Other Questions You’re Asking

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comFull show notes are here.

Bonus: Spring Preview - What We're Reading Next

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comI want to help you think about what’s most essential in your homeschool. I’ve invited Kortney Garrison and Kara Anderson from the RAR team to chat with me about a favorite book when it comes to essentializing.We've been talking and thinking about the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown a lot here at Read Aloud Revival, especially as it relates to homeschooling. We're reading the book in our Mama Book Club in RAR Premium in January and I will tell you this book is easily one of the books I can say has changed my life.That is not an exaggeration. I think Read Aloud Revival itself has been built on the principles in Essentialism. I've probably reread it a dozen times.This book has changed the way I've thought about my own life and maybe this is due to me being a mother to half a dozen kidsbut this idea of less but better really appeals to me. Today, Kortney, Kara, and I are going to dig into just the first chapter and how it relates to our homeschools.In this episode, you’ll hear: 
Defining Essentialism and why the concept is so needed for homeschool parents
How doing less, but better can help us set priorities in our homeschools and avoid decision fatigue
How comparing your kids’ progress to the baseline, not the ideal, can give you a better perspective on your successes
Learn more about Sarah Mackenzie:
Read Aloud Revival
Waxwing Books
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Mentioned in This Episode:

Great Homeschooling Conventions Use the code READALOUD23 for $10 off a registration at any location
RAR#209: What Worked? What Didn't? Looking Back on Homeschooling with my 20-Year-Old Daughter

RAR #220: Essentialism for Homeschoolers

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comThe Long Winter is the sixth book in the Little House on the Prairie series. It was first published in 1940, and is an autobiographical novel. Laura Ingalls Wilder based the series on her actual life as a child, settling the west. This particular story, The Long Winter, was set in the southwestern Dakota Territory during the severe winter of 1880-1881 when Laura was 14 years old. Even if you haven’t read the rest of the Little House books, I think you want to read this one. You can read any of the Little House books as stand-alones, but I’m betting that if you give your kids a taste of any of them, they’ll want to keep reading more stories from Laura.And truly, it’s no wonder why. Laura Ingalls Wilder is, to my mind, unparalleled as one of the finest novelists in children’s literature, ever alive.In this episode, you’ll hear: 
How Ingalls Wilder creates an immersive experience with deceptively simple writing
Why re-reading can be the best kind of reading, for us and for our kids
How to handle troubling or problematic content in books with your kids, and why I believe we need to have those discussions
But there is an elephant in the room with the Little House on the Prairie books and we need to talk about it. Today, we’re talking about what makes The Long Winter so gripping and so beloved, as well as how we handle problematic texts with our kids and why I believe that scenes and language we may find troubling aren’t reasons to leave great books on the shelf.Find the rest of the show notes at: https://readaloudrevival.com/219/

RAR #219: Yes, You Should Read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comIn this bonus episode, you'll hear:
How Sarah's Jolabokaflod really went
Can we actually fall in love with the homeschooling lives we already have?
All-new for 2023 -- Circle with Sarah: RAR Premium Homeschool Coaching
For the full show notes, head here.  

Bonus: Let's Fall in Love with our Homeschooling Lives

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comWhat if I told you that there’s an Icelandic Christmas tradition where you spend an entire day (or evening) reading books and sipping hot cocoa? And it’s what you’re SUPPOSED to be doing.Yes, this is a real thing!It’s called Jolabokaflod, and in this episode, you’ll hear: 
Where the tradition came from
3 super-simple steps to your own Jolabokaflod
How other mamas just like you have made the tradition their own
During Jolabokaflod, you gift members of your family with new books, and everyone drinks hot cocoa and spends the whole of Christmas Eve reading. If I didn’t get your attention before, I’ve got it now.Today, I’m talking about when and how this tradition started, and how your family can make Jolabokaflod part of your Christmas traditions.Find the rest of the show notes at https://readaloudrevival.com/218/.

RAR #218: Jolabokaflod: How to Have a Christmas Book Flood

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comBy now, most of us are knee deep in our homeschool year.And no matter how far into your year you are, and no matter what’s happened that you either did, or didn’t, expect to happen, I’m willing to bet that something funny has happened: You’re carrying around a lot of pinecones.What on earth do I mean by that?In this episode, you’ll hear: 
All the ways we end up with a metaphorical 56-pound backpack of homeschool curriculum
What are these pinecones (and why do I keep picking them up?)
How to decide which homeschool curriculum you really need for the rest of the school year
Find the rest of the show notes at https://readaloudrevival.com/217/.

RAR #217:  It’s Time to Put Some Pinecones Back

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comIs it really possible to teach from rest? Even if you’re teaching a lot of different ages? And even if you feel a bit underwater, pretty much every single day in your homeschool?Let’s talk about it. This fall in Circle with Sarah, we’re diving deep into the principles of Sarah’s first book, Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace… and today we’re sharing some of it with you.So let’s get nitty gritty.Find the rest of the show notes at https://readaloudrevival.com/216/.

RAR #216: How to Teach from Rest

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comEvery year in RAR Premium we do Christmas School. What is Christmas School? It’s 4 weeks of Christmas-themed Family Book Clubs that offer your whole family (from preschoolers to high schoolers) a relaxed, bookish learning experience.This year’s Christmas School is brand new and better than ever. Our 2022 Christmas School Guide is open-and-go, so aside from collecting a few supplies at the top of each week, there is no prep. And yep, we’ve got plans for everyone in the family, from your youngest to your teens!Last week, we revealed the books we’re featuring for this year’s Christmas School, and revealed the rest of the Winter Lineup at RAR premium, too. Over 1,100 of you joined us live on Zoom— so fun! 🥳 Find the rest of the show notes at https://readaloudrevival.com/october-preview/.

Christmas School 2022

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comChances are good that you’re already familiar with the picture book sensation turned childhood classic, Bear Snores On.But do you know the woman who wrote it?Karma Wilson has come up with some of her best ideas while eating ice cream or visiting the zoo. She was saved as a child, in a way, by C.S. Lewis’s Narnia. And… she homeschooled her own kids for many years as a way to ensure that they would love reading as much as she felt they deserved to love it.Find the rest of the show notes here https://readaloudrevival.com/215/.

RAR #215: Whimsy and the Power of Childhood Reading

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comHave you ever asked yourself, “Am I doing enough?”I think we’ve all asked that question.If you’re homeschooling your kids, you might ask it every single day. It might even wake you up at night and feel like an elephant sitting on your chest. 🐘Today, we’re going to talk about it.Find the rest of the show notes https://readaloudrevival.com/214/.

RAR #214: Am I Doing Enough?

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comIt’s Victorian London in the late 1800’s… and it’s been five years since the Sweep disappeared.Orphaned and alone, Nan Sparrow has no other choice but to work for a ruthless chimney sweep named Wilkie Crudd. She spends her days doing dangerous work–sweeping out chimneys.The job is thankless, but with her wits and will, Nan has managed to beat the deadly odds time and time again.This time, though, she gets stuck in a chimney fire.She wakes to find herself unharmed in an abandoned attic. And she is not alone. Huddled in the corner is a mysterious creature—a golem—made from soot and ash.The golem we’ll come to know as Charlie. He’s large and lovable, and Nan, our heroine, will raise him almost like her own child. He is, after all, her protector. Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her MonsterThis book, written by Jonathan Auxier, won the 2019 Sydney Taylor Book Award. And it has won a place in my all-time tippy top favorite books. It’s a Charles-Dickens-like adventure about the everlasting gifts of friendship and wonder.In this episode, I want to introduce you to the book… and to the man who wrote it.Find the rest of the shownotes at https://readaloudrevival.com/213/.

RAR #213: Sweep: A Story You Don’t Want to Miss

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comHave you ever REALLY worried about one of your kids?What should you do if you don’t feel like you read aloud well?What’s the point of poetry memorization?What would you tell a mom who is confused about all the different homeschooling philosophies and methods?How do I know that I’m doing enough?What about homeschooling high school?These are all questions you might have… I’ve had them too.Andrew Pudewa and I answered questions just like these at all five Great Homeschool Conventions in 2022. Today on the podcast, we’re sharing a recording of that session with you. Find the rest of the show notes here https://readaloudrevival.com/212/.

RAR #212: The 10 Best Questions We Ever Got, Andrew Pudewa & Sarah Mackenzie

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comLast time on the Read-Aloud Revival, I told you about the inspiration for the creation of Waxwing Books and our first book,  A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden. In this episode, I’ll take you on the rest of the adventure, from connecting with illustrator Breezy Brookshire to bringing on editor Michael Green, and finding art director Cara Llewellyn.Find the rest of the show notes here https://readaloudrevival.com/211/.

RAR #211: How We Made A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comIt’s time! It’s time! It’s time! 🥳We are SO excited to open pre-orders for our first release at Waxwing Books. It’s a story about seeing and being seen for readers who love Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney or The Library by Sarah Stewart and David Small.Find the rest of the show notes here https://readaloudrevival.com/kickstarter/.

Pre-orders are Open!

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.comWay back in August 2018, I was fortunate to spend a morning with the author of The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall. It was a glorious morning, truly, and something surprising came of it. A little idea popped into my head, and it just sort of… rooted itself.Actually… the idea that popped into my head didn’t just stay an idea. It became something much bigger resulting in our biggest, newest project here at Read-aloud Revival: we’re launching a boutique publishing house.Today, I’m telling you all about it. Find the rest of the show notes here https://readaloudrevival.com/210/.

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