January 2022 Monthly Newsletter
January 1, 2022
The following post will be a blog archive copy of Build Your Library’s January 2022 Monthly Newsletter. If you missed the email, you can subscribe to our mailing list here. [Scheduled to be sent 1/1/22 8:15 AM EST]
[January 1, 2022 ] – Welcome to our January Video Newsletter! You should have gotten our regular monthly e-mail newsletter in your inbox if you are subscribed. But you can now watch the video highlights and read the full details below or watch the BYL January 2022 Video Newsletter on Facebook.
Hey everybody, it’s Emily from Build Your Library! If you are just going to skim the beginning, here are the main topics in this month’s newsletter:
Now that I have your attention, here are the details on those items and more.
Monthly Newsletter
Happy New Year! Ready or not, here comes 2022!
Hopefully your house is winding down and recovering from a wonderful holiday season. With 2021 in the rear-view mirror, here’s hoping 2022 gets off to a great start. 2022? That just sounds weird!
“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”
― Edith Lovejoy Pierce
As far as the newsletter goes, we have some new information to share, as well as some reoccurring monthly reminders!
2022 Build Your Library Outlook
We are hoping for a great new year going forward in 2022!
Of course, we are planning on continuing our “Tea with Emily” Facebook Live streams in February, April, June, August, October, and December. We are also working on some continuous updates to our lesson plans, with schedule details below. We are also planning some new unit studies, in a couple of interesting new formats. I can’t wait to get more traction on these and release more details, but we are pretty excited!
Build Your Library Updates
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.
We have been on a much-needed update hiatus, but will get back into the swing of things with the New Year! The Level 4 update is underway. This will be a fairly minor update – the history is not changing, but I’m replacing a few out-of-print titles and adding in some new literature and readers that I am excited about. We are shooting for a late February completion.
January Bookish Holidays
Happy Birthday to Charlotte Mason, born 179 years ago, on January 1, 1842! Several other notable authors also celebrate birthdays this month, including Isaac Asimov (also National Science Fiction Day – Jan 2, 1920), J. R. R. Tolkien (Jan 3, 1892), A. A. Milne (Jan 18, 1882), and Edgar Allan Poe (Jan 19, 1809).
If you are trying to come up with some synonyms of commonly used words to spice up your vocabulary, the perfect day is January 18th which just happens to be National Thesaurus Day. The fourth Wednesday in January (Jan 26) is Library Shelfie Day, so snap a picture of yourself at your local library (or your own socially-distanced personal bookcase if necessary)!
Also, although not book-related, if you have any leftover from the holiday season, January 1st is Fruitcake Toss Day!
2022 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 the past couple of years with the 2019, 2020, and 2021 BYL Reading Challenge, we created a new list of 40 reading prompts to help you and your children stretch your reading muscles in 2022. After being cooped up in our homes for the last two years, I thought it might be time for something exciting – the theme this year is “We’re Going on an Adventure!” Head over to our blog and download your checklist today!
In our last Tea with Emily episode, we discussed our “Build Your Library 2021 Reading Challenge wrap-up and unveiled the 2022 Reading Challenge prompts!” (watch Episode 18 video recording here)
History Book by Book (HBBB)!
We have recently started to create some blog post articles on HBBB! You can check out our first couple on our HBBB Blog.
History Book By Book is our database collection 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 useful 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 historical 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
“Read Aloud Book Club” Pack
Our January 2022 monthly “Read Aloud Book Club” subscription pack is now available! The theme is “Dreams + Fate + Destiny”. This month’s selection is an exciting fantasy adventure about a girl who believes herself to be cursed. Can she change her fate? Or is she destined to live under this curse forever? This exciting story is a perfect read-aloud for the whole family!
Don’t forget, we will be hosting a live discussion for the December book – The Root of Magic in the Read Aloud Book Club Facebook group on Saturday, January 15 at 1pm (EST). (Link available in your receipt e-mail when purchased.) These interactive live shows are a great way to connect with you and hear your thoughts on the story. Sarah and I can’t wait to discuss the story with all of you!
You can also watch the unboxing video of last month’s Winter Magic pack here.
“Tea with Emily” Facebook Live Streams
We hope you all enjoyed our last “Tea with Emily” Facebook Live Stream. If you missed our “2021/2022 Build Your Library Reading Challenge“ discussion in December, you can find a recording by scrolling our Facebook or direct links on our past events page.
Our next episode is scheduled for the beginning of February. (Probably February 4th, but more details will follow)
Every other month, I host a 30-60 minute Build Your Library homeschooling chat. You can ask questions about homeschooling, using Build Your Library curriculum, book recommendations, etc. We will announce the date ahead of time, and you will be able to submit questions you would like to cover. Additionally, you can also ask questions during the interactive live stream. 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 in a logical order for you to peruse.
BYL Social Media Shout Out
We always have our Social Media “chicklets” at the bottom of our newsletters and webpage, but we wanted to make sure you are following us on our other platforms. The Build Your Library Facebook is our go-to social media site, and we post there frequently with cool 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.
Wrap Up
Again, we hope you had a great holiday season and wrap up of 2021! As we look ahead to 2022, I would like to offer you two more New Years’ quotes:
“Packaged inside of every mistake there lays a great lesson. And while I don’t want to take the mistake into the New Year, I most certainly want to take the lesson that’s packaged inside of it.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough
and
“What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t even happened yet.”
― Anne Frank
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.
I think 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 where ever you are surfing!
Thanks and Happy Reading! Emily
See Also:
