January 2025 Monthly Newsletter

January 1, 2025

The following post will be a blog archive copy of Build Your Library’s January 2025 Monthly Newsletter. If you missed the email, subscribe to our mailing list here. [Scheduled to be sent by 1/1/24 8:30 AM EST]

[January 1, 2025 ] – Welcome to our January 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 January 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:

Now that I have your attention, I have the details on those items and more for you.

Monthly Newsletter

“No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left.”~ Charles Lamb

Holy Cow! It’s 2025! This past year absolutely flew by. But here we are, stepping into a new year. I am very much looking forward to getting back into my routine and starting a new semester of homeschooling.

The year is ending, so why not start 2025 with a Flash Sale?

Now through Thursday, January 2, you can take 20% off everything in our store with the code “HappyNewYear”. If you were thinking of switching up your curriculum in 2025, now is a great time to check out Build Your Libary and try one of our full year programs, a unit study, or a Lit Bite! Happy New Year from BuildYourLibrary!

2025 Build Your Library Outlook

We are hoping for a great new year going forward in 2024!

Of course, we plan on continuing our “Tea with Emily” Instagram Live streams in February, April, June, August, October, and December while also getting some more Homeschool Tidbits out. We are also working on some continuous updates to our lesson plans, with schedule details below. I also have some new unit studies, Lit Bites, and Self-Education Part 2, in the works. I can’t wait to get more traction on these and release more details, but we are pretty excited!

I also opened a “Monster Squad” membership on my Arrrgh Schooling YouTube channel. If you enjoy my content on YouTube, you might consider joining! You’ll get early access to all my videos and exclusive content for members! I have a Monster Squad discord chat group where we’ll have a members-only Seasonal Reads book club. You will get to vote on and control some of my content and get access to a cute monster badge and emojis! It’s going to be a fun time!

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.

I 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 end of January! 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.

January Giveaway

Congratulations to our winner of last month’s Giveaway!

good-luck

This month, we are giving away a $20.25 gift code that you can use on anything in our store!

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!

January Bookish Holidays

Happy Birthday to Charlotte Mason, born 183 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 27) is Library Shelfie Day, so snap a picture of yourself at your local library (or your personal bookshelf if you don’t make the trip on the 27th)!

Also, although not book-related, if you have any leftover from the holiday season, January 1st is Fruitcake Toss Day.

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!

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!

I’m looking forward to a great year of reading, and I hope you will join me on our reading adventure!

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:

“Tea with Emily” Instagram Live Stream

We hope you all enjoyed our last “Tea with Emily” Instagram Live Stream. If you missed our December “BYL Reading Challenge 2024 Wrap up and 2025 Unveiling“ in December, you can find a recording by scrolling through our Facebook or direct links on our past events page.

Our next Facebook Live will be in February!

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

Are you looking for help or advice on your homeschooling journey? We have compiled our helpful resources into one blog post for you. From the many BYL-related Facebook groups to my book A Literary Education, there is a treasure trove of information and helpful parents to help guide you along your homeschooling adventure. If you have any questions, ask!

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. My co-host – Tanya from Project Happy Home and I will be reading The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon in January! I hope you’ll read along and join us for a great live discussion on the first Saturday in February!

You can also subscribe to our email list and browse our monthly newsletters.

Wrap Up

I hope you have a wonderful January! I can’t wait to see what this new month brings!

“Don’t wait until February to start living in January.”
~ Anthony T. Hincks

“In January
it’s so nice
while slipping
on the sliding ice
to sip hot chicken soup with rice.
Sipping once
Sipping twice”
~Maurice Sendak

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

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January 2025 Monthly Newsletter