December 2024 Monthly Newsletter
December 2, 2024
The following post will be a blog archive copy of Build Your Library’s December 2024 Monthly Newsletter. If you missed the email, subscribe to our mailing list here. [Scheduled to be sent by 12/2/24 8:30 AM EST]
[December 1, 2024 ] – Welcome to our December Video Newsletter!
If you subscribed, you should have gotten our regular monthly e-mail newsletter in your inbox. But you can now watch the video highlights and read the full details below or watch the BYL December 2024 Video Newsletter on Facebook.
Hey everybody, it’s Emily from Build Your Library! If you are going to skim the beginning, here are the main topics in this month’s newsletter:
- Shop our Black Friday/Holiday Sale!
- Build Your Library Updates and New Products
- Build Your Library Reviews and Testimonials
- December Contest
- December Bookish Holidays
- Holiday Unit Studies
- BYL Online Used Book Super Store
- 2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge
- History Book By Book!
- Homeschool Tidbits Blog and Video Series
- “Tea with Emily” Instagram Live Stream
- Build Your Library Support
Now that I have your attention, I have the details on those items and more for you.
Monthly Newsletter
- Chill December brings the sleet,
Blazing fire, and Christmas treat.
~Sara Coleridge (1802–1852), “The Months”
First off, Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa! If I missed your holiday greeting, Happy Holidays! I hope you are having a relaxing and hygge holiday season however you celebrate (or don’t celebrate).
We have a blog post dedicated to many of the various winter holidays: Lighting Up Your Long Winter Nights
For the newsletter, we have some new information to share and some recurring monthly reminders!
Shop our Black Friday/Holiday Sale!
OH MY GOODNESS, Is it already that time of the year?
You can take 20% off of all our products during our Black Friday – Cyber Monday – Holiday Sale. Our sale runs from November 18th through December 8th. This includes all of our digital full-year programs, unit studies, Lit Bites and more!
In the past, we have used food-based codes such as “cranberry,” “sugarplum,” “figgypudding,” “gingerbread,” “eggnog,” “fruitcake,” “turkey,” and “candycane”… So, in keeping with tradition, and since Christmas and Hanukkah coincide this year, you can use the code POTATOLATKES at checkout! Happy Chrismukkah!
Build Your Library Updates and New Products
In an attempt to answer when the next level update will be ready, we have compiled our projected schedule into a post for easy reference. We will periodically update the chart when we make progress or have any changes to our tentative schedule.
Looking for a little something for yourself? Have you seen our newest product, Self-Education: World Cultures Part 1?
“Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.”
If we take that quote to heart, we should continue our education. I’m sure you’ve thought at least once that you are learning so much through homeschooling and maybe even wished to take it further. But knowing where to start in all the busyness of life and homeschooling can be hard.
That’s where our Self-Education units come in!
Because parent culture is such an important part of the Charlotte Mason philosophy, and I wholeheartedly believe in continuing our own educations outside of school, I have created Self-Education units that you can use to guide you through a topic of study.
In each of our Self-Education units, you will have a bite-sized way to learn alongside your children.
In the World Cultures units, you will explore cultures and people groups around the world while reading a piece of literature from each continent/region. Every week, you will read an article, watch several videos, cook traditional foods, enjoy beautifully written poetry and literature, and watch movies to help you get immersed in different cultures as you study. Each Self–Education unit will be similarly structured to help you build a routine and stay consistent with your education!
Self-Education: World Cultures, Part 1 will include the continents of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. This unit will take 10 weeks to complete as written; however, as with all of our lesson plans, it is flexible enough to stretch it out over a more extended period if needed.
Check it out today and begin a life-long journey of continuing education!
I also have the first Morbid Curiosities unit in the works! I got SO MANY requests for the Morbid Curiosities curriculum I created for my daughter. I had no idea there were so many other morbid kids out there! Rather than wait until next year when we have finished, I decided to create individual unit studies as we complete them. These will be high school-level unit studies. The first unit – all about cannibalism – will hopefully be out by the beginning of December! So stay tuned for more information coming soon!
Want to learn more about Morbid Curiosities? Check out this video:
10th Grade Homeschool Plans | History and Science: Morbid Curiosities
Build Your Library Reviews and Testimonials
We have always needed to improve at keeping up with trying to compile reviews and testimonials. Over the past 11-plus years, we have gotten a few here and there, but we really should get on top of them. We would love to hear about your experience with Build Your Library! Your review could be as short as a few sentences or as long as you’d like.
Google reviews make up a significant component of the SEO algorithms. We are told it is as significant as ~1/3 of the equation. With that said… We would really appreciate it if you clicked the link below and showed your support by leaving us a Google review, Facebook Review, or testimonial for our website. Our growth has been focused on customer interactions and building long-standing relationships. Thank you all for everything and for making it so easy to love what we do.
December Giveaway
Congratulations to our winner of last month’s Giveaway!
This month, we are giving away a $50 gift code that you can use on anything in our store!
**PLEASE NOTE*** This contest will run from December 1 through midnight December 24th! The drawing will be held on Christmas morning, December 25th. Merry Christmas! 🙂
Each action gives you entries into this month’s drawing, with some allowing for daily clicks. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received.
Check out the contest page for more details, and come back each month for new opportunities!
Collab with Soul Sparklettes Glitterbombers!
I’m excited to announce that we are collaborating with Soul Sparklettes Art! They have many fantastic art projects that blend incredibly well with Build Your Library. You can sign up for Glitterbombers membership through our affiliate link. Check the downloads on the Purchase Pages for Levels 0 – 5 to see what projects align!
The membership includes hundreds of art projects, videos, and resources designed for homeschoolers and art teachers BY a homeschooler and art teacher team. There are three completely DONE-FOR-YOU curriculums: Global Art Hop, Elements & Principles (PEP), and a USA Curriculum. Everything is included when you join – there are no surprises and no waiting.
There’s a reason kids love these projects – Glitterbombers is the only curriculum out there that is 100% kid-tested, kid-approved, and developed with kid input. All projects are cross-curricular, match with other homeschool curriculums, and offer standards and differentiation. It’s a full art experience for kids – so they can learn THEIR way.
Glitterbombers HIGH is a brand new art membership for grades 7 – 12. It offers so much more than just “how to draw” – your child will explore paint, pastels, sculpture, digital art, and so much more!
Every single lesson has a video AND a detailed PDF with step by step instructions, so kids can choose the way they learn best. Tweens, teens, and adults have all loved learning with Glitterbombers HIGH!
Teens and tweens love the monthly magazine, and there is a monthly art class that features techniques, concepts, and working artists. Kids are given a monthly challenge to complete that enters them into a prize drawing!
Sign Up for Glitterbombers Here!
December Bookish Holidays
December is designated as Read a New Book Month! You are most likely to get a new holiday book sometime this month. December 24 is “Jolabokaflod,“ also known as the Yule or Christmas Book Flood (Iceland).
As far as literary birthdays go, we have Jan Brett (December 1, 1949 – a perfect day to start the Jan Brett Christmas Unit Study) , Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1839), Shirly Jackson (December 14, 1916), Jane Austen (December 16, 1775), and Avi (December 23, 1937).
My family also celebrates what we’ve dubbed “Booknukkah.” It’s Hanukkah, but we exchange books for each of the 8 nights! This is a great way to build a home library that you and your children will be excited about. 😉
Holiday Unit Studies
December is the perfect time for a holiday-themed unit study. With all of the festivities or anticipation, getting much real schooling in may be hard. So why not compromise with festive learning when time is short and attention spans narrow?
You might like to watch this video I made last year about homeschooling through the holiday season:
Homeschool Tidbits: Homeschooling Through the Holidays Do’s and Don’ts
BYL Online Used Book Super Store
We are pleased to announce our newest, most requested feature: an Author or Title SEARCH! We have also incorporated the bookstore into our regular website and consolidated shopping carts so you can purchase both used books and homeschool curriculum in the same place!
https://buildyourlibrary.com/usedbookshop
I have wanted to open an independent bookstore my whole life. A cute, cozy Hobbit hole of a bookstore with new books, used books, maybe tea… After many delays and setbacks, a brick-and-mortar store is currently out of the cards.
However, since I have a storage unit (and house) full of books I’ve been collecting for a store, we have decided to try to set up the BYL Online Used Book Super Store! We are so excited to announce that we are open for business! So yay! Happy book shopping!
We are adding new books almost daily, so keep checking back. We have something for every reader!
2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge
Are you looking for a fun reading challenge for the whole family? Well, look no further! We had so much fun with challenges the past four years, so we’re continuing the tradition! For 2024, we created a new list of 40 reading prompts to help you and your children stretch your reading muscles. This year’s theme is Reading Through History! It’s no secret that I love reading about history, and historical fiction is one of my favorite genres. So this year, I’ve created 40 prompts to help you dig into history! Need ideas for the prompts – I’ve got you! Just head over to History Book by Book!
We’re at the end now – just one month left to complete this year’s challenge! I have just three prompts left to finish out the year! If you enjoyed this year’s challenge, get ready – I’ll unveil the 2025 Reading Challenge at our next Tea with Emily on December 13! Stay tuned!
History Book by Book (HBBB)!
History Book By Book is our database of engaging, entertaining, and educational books about various historical topics. Whenever possible, we have cross-referenced topics, internally linked additional suggestions based on like subjects, and created helpful, categorized lists for you to search and browse. Hopefully, you will be able to glean a vast amount of information and find as many history-related books as you would ever want to find. We discussed it in depth during a recent Tea With Emily Livestream on Facebook, you can view the recording here.
As a long-time homeschooling parent and the author of literature-based homeschool curriculum, we designed HBBB to help:
(1) homeschooling parents looking for additional resources to read to their children,
(2) homeschooling parents looking for more historically based books to give their children to read themselves,
(3) any teen or adult looking for categorized historical reading material for their own enjoyment and knowledge.
Reading your way through history… one book at a time.
History Book By Book Main page
We have recently started to create some blog post articles on HBBB! You can check out our first couple on our HBBB Blog.
Homeschool Tidbits Blog and Video Series
We have an ongoing series on both our blog and YouTube channel called Homeschool Tidbits!
In this weekly video series, I will briefly discuss a homeschooling-related topic. I will share some of my knowledge and expertise as a long-time homeschooling mother of four children, three of whom have graduated high school and one who is a college graduate!
This series will include an approximately 10-minute “quick-bit” YouTube video and a corresponding blog post article.
After 70+ episodes, I’ve stalled out, so I’m taking the rest of the year off to spend some time brainstorming! Do you have a topic you want to hear more about? Send me a message, and I’ll add it to my list!
Most Recent Episodes:
- Episode 66: Homeschool Tidbits: On the Subjectivity of Living Books (2/2/24)
- Episode 67: Homeschool Tidbits: Tips to Overcome the February Blahs (2/23/24)
- Episode 68: Homeschool Tidbits: Is Homeschooling Expensive? (3/8/24)
- Episode 69: Homeschool Tidbits: Homeschooling High School Q & A (3/29/24)
- Episode 70: Homeschool Tidbits: Homeschooling High School Q & A Part 2 (4/19/24)
- Episode 71: Homeschool Tidbits: Book Recommendations for an Election Year (6/21/24)
- Episode 72: Homeschool Tidbits: Planning and Routine in the High School Years (9/6/24)
- Plan a Week of Homeschooling With Me! (9/20/24)
“Tea with Emily” Instagram Live Stream
We hope you all enjoyed our last “Tea with Emily” Instagram Live Stream. If you missed our October “Should School be Fun?,” you can find a recording by scrolling through our Instagram feed.
Our next Facebook Live will be this Friday, December 13, 2021, where we will discuss our Build Your Library 2024 Reading Challenge wrap-up and unveil the 2025 Reading Challenge prompts! Let’s chat about how we did on the 2024 reading challenge and I’ll share some recommendations for the 2025 challenge! The December live is always my favorite – I always end up making a huge mess with all the book recommendations, but it’s worth it because I love building the hype for the new year’s reading challenge! I hope you can make it!
I host a 30-60-minute Build Your Library homeschooling chat every other month. You can ask questions about homeschooling using the Build Your Library curriculum, book recommendations, etc. We will announce the date beforehand, and you can submit questions you want to cover. Additionally, you can also ask questions during the interactive Livestream. Grab a mug of tea (or coffee) and cozy up with our virtual hangout!
Build Your Library Support
For a comprehensive, everything you ever wanted to know about homeschooling with Build Your Library, check out our “Build Your Library University (for Parents).” We have collected the definitive list of articles, videos, and books about Build Your Library, Charlotte Mason, and general homeschooling, all categorized logically for you to peruse.
BYL Social Media Shout Out
We always have our Social Media “chicklets” at the bottom of our newsletters and web page, but we wanted to ensure you follow us on our other platforms. The Build Your Library Facebook is our go-to social media site, and we post there frequently with excellent Amazon products and book recommendations we think you would like, as well as all of our Read Aloud Book Club announcements, blog posts, full-year and unit study product releases and updates, and more.
Our Build Your Library Instagram page regularly posts pictures and insider info about projects I’m currently working on or what I’m doing with my kids.
Although not 100% exclusively Build Your Library related, our Arrrgh Schooling YouTube channel has videos about books and homeschooling, but let’s be honest, it’s mostly books. If you want to see what I’m reading, join my Arrrgh Booked Book Club. This year was especially exciting because I have a new co-host – Tanya from Project Happy Home! Book club has wrapped for 2024, but we’ll be back in January! Be sure to watch my channel in early December to hear what we’ll be reading the first 3 months of 2025!
You can also subscribe to our email list and browse our monthly newsletters.
Wrap Up
I hope you have a wonderful December! I can’t wait to see what this new month brings!
- “December is a bewitching month.
The grey of cold teases
to explode into something worthwhile,
into a dream of cold,
a starlight shower you can taste,
a cold that does not chill.”― A Year of Nature Poems
If you are looking for some more inspiration, here are some articles you might find helpful:
- 12 Days of Christmas Freebie
- Unit Study: A Jan Brett Christmas!
- Happy, Hygge Homeschooling?
- Tips for Homeschooling with Chronic Illness
We have well over 100 blog posts on various homeschooling and book-related topics if you want to browse for more.
That is about all for this month. Again, please follow us on whatever social media you frequent, there will be periodic updates posted there as well, but we will try to keep everyone in the know wherever you are surfing!
Thanks, and Happy Reading! Emily
See Also:
