December 2025 Monthly Newsletter
December 2, 2025
The following post will be a blog archive copy of Build Your Library’s December 2025 Monthly Newsletter. If you missed the email, subscribe to our mailing list here. [Scheduled to be sent by 12/2/25 9:30 AM EST]
[December 2, 2025 ] – Welcome to this month’s Video Newsletter!
If you subscribed, you should have gotten our regular monthly e-mail newsletter in your inbox. However, you can now watch the video highlights and read the full details below, or view the BYL December 2025 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 November” Holiday Sale!
- Build Your Library Updates and New Products
- Build Your Library Reviews and Testimonials
- December Contest
- December Bookish Holidays
- Holiday Unit Studies
- 2025 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.
Monthly Newsletter
“How did it get so late so soon?”
―“I heard a bird sing in the dark of December. A magical thing. And sweet to remember. We are nearer to Spring than we were in September. I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.”
―
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 (extended)!
To kick off the 2025 holiday season, we’re having a sale you won’t want to miss!
No lines, No waiting at BuildYourLibrary.com! All from the comfort of your couch or cozy chair!
You can take 20% off of all our products during our “Black November/Holiday” month-long sale using the code PUMPKIN at checkout. Our sale has been extended a few days and will run through the end of this week on Dec 5! This includes all of our digital full-year programs, unit studies, Lit Bites and more!
Build Your Library Updates and New Products
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 this section when we make progress or have any changes to our tentative schedule.
Currently, I am working on a unit study on how to spot propaganda for middle school-aged students. I also hope to squeeze in a Lit Bite before the end of the year. I have another Morbid Curiosities unit in the works (aiming for an early 2026 release!)…You can learn all about what I have in the works in my recent YouTube Video!
It’s here! Our newest unit – Self-Education World Cultures, Part 2 just dropped!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. Each of our units will tie into a full-year level or unit study to give you a way to deepen your studies!
In Self-Education: World Cultures, Part 2, you will become a world traveler and explore the cultures and countries of Oceania and Europe! If your child is studying either Levels 0 or 7, this is a great way to incorporate your own learning right alongside theirs!
I’ve included a handful of well-chosen books to enhance your cultural studies, along with poetry, articles, videos, recipes, and movies. To help you really dig into the reading, I’ve also included copywork, things to think about, and journaling prompts. There are a variety of resources and activities to help you fully immerse yourself in your studies!
I hope you’ll check out our Self-Education unit studies and continue your education with Build Your Library!
Build Your Library Reviews and Testimonials
We have always needed to improve at keeping up with compiling 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!
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), Shirley 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
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 curricula: Global Art Hop, Elements & Principles (PEP), and a USA Curriculum. Everything is included when you join – there are no surprises and no waiting.
Glitterbombers HIGH is a brand new art membership for grades 7 – 12. If you’re looking for art for your teen or tween, the new Glitterbombers HIGH might just be the answer. From sketching to Procreate, Sculpey to watercolor painting, Glitterbombers HIGH is an all-video-based subscription where your teen or tween can explore different mediums and topics and develop their own art style. There’s even a monthly art technique class with a challenge and opportunity to earn prizes! Usually closed to new members, I have a special link for you where you can sign up right now and still get in at the introductory price. Have younger kids? You’ll love Glitterbombers, designed for PreK-7th!
And in honor of our newest release: Morbid Curiosities, Part 1 – Cannibalism, the team at Giltterbombers has offered a free project!
Free Download: Medical Illustration Skull-GB-Soul Sparklettes Art
This pen and pencil project is perfect for your preteens and teens. Combine art and science as you learn to sketch a skull like a medical illustrator!
If you enjoyed that project, why not consider signing up for a subscription? You can choose between a monthly, 6-month, or full-year subscription!
Sign Up for a Glitterbombers Subscription Here!
New Printing Partnership with Watson Family Press!
I’m excited to announce that we are partnering with Watson Family Press! If you are looking for a place to get your lesson plans printed, they have you covered! They are offering our customers a 10% discount using the code BYL at checkout!
I love supporting small businesses, especially fellow secular homeschool family-run businesses! I hope you will check them out!
2025 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 six years, so we’re continuing the tradition!
This year, we are Reading Banned Books! With this set of prompts, we challenge you to read from a variety of diverse perspectives, with emphasis on books that have been banned or challenged in libraries over the years. Let’s fight back against censorship in 2025!
We are nearly to the finish line, one month left to go! How is everyone doing? I’ve completed 37/40 prompts! I’ve only got 3 prompts to go! I can definitely finish the challenge by the end of the year!
I am very excited about the 2026 reading challenge. I think you are going to love it!! Stay tuned for another great year of reading!
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 stalled out and took some time off to spend some time brainstorming, but hopefully will have some more soon! 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)
- Episode 73: Homeschool Tidbits: Our Five Favorite Science Books (1/10/25)
“Tea with Emily” Instagram Live Stream
We hope you all enjoyed our last “Tea with Emily” Instagram Live Stream. If you missed our “Parent Culture or the Importance of Self-Education“ in October, you can find a recording by scrolling through our Instagram.
Our next Facebook Live will be Friday, December 12, 2025 at 1pm, where we will discuss our Build Your Library 2025 Reading Challenge wrap-up and unveil the 2026 Reading Challenge prompts! Let’s chat about how we did on the 2025 reading challenge and I’ll share some recommendations for the 2026 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. Book club has wrapped for 2025, 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 2026! This upcoming year is especially exciting because Tanya from Project Happy Home and I have a second new co-host joining us—Ashley from This House of Walls. It’s going to be an amazing reading year!
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…
December is all that we give,
And whatever we receive,
It is those who surround us,
And those who have taken leave.December is celebrating light,
Where only darkness dwells,
It is the ripping of wrapping paper,
And tempting culinary smells.December is letting go,
Of all the past year’s fails,
And starting anew in January,
As time again chases its tail.© Stewart Stafford, 2021. All rights reserved.”
―
If you are looking for some more inspiration, here are some articles you might find helpful:
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:
