Check out our updated booklists at readaloudrevival.com/recommends, or text BOOKS to 33777 and we'll send them straight to your phone. In today’s episode, I’m answering your questions! Listeners have sent in some fabulous questions for me, and I’m going to attempt to tackle them rapid-fire, including about where I get my favorite art prints, what to do with late-night readers, what to do if you don’t feel like you read aloud well, and more. In this episode, you’ll hear:  My favorite places...

Check out our updated booklists at readaloudrevival.com/recommends, or text BOOKS to 33777 and we'll send them straight to your phone. Two weeks ago I shared the first 5 of 10 mistakes I’ve made in my homeschool -- believe me, I’ve made many, many more than that!  But I’m highlighting 10 that stick out most prominently to me. So in the last “Best of Read-Aloud Revival” episode, I shared the first 5 and today I’m sharing the next 5.  Hopefully, hearing these will keep you from making the...

Save your seat at the June 2, 2023 Premium Preview: https://readaloudrevival.com/preview I’ve been homeschooling for a long time, and just like every other homeschooling mom I know, I’ve made a ton of mistakes.  When I was new to homeschooling, I craved the insight of people who had been doing it for a while:  What do you wish you did more of?  What do you wish you worried less about?  What would you do differently if you were starting over again? These are the kinds of things I wanted to...

Why do we make things mean more than they actually mean? We all do it.  We realize a kid doesn’t know how to tie their shoes at age 12, and we tell ourselves we’re forgetting to teach SO MANY IMPORTANT THINGS.  We feed our kids frozen pizza for dinner twice in a week and think it means we don’t care about their health.  We sleep late and tell ourselves we’re lazy.  We have a late reader and think it means we’re not good at this “teaching reading” thing.  We make things mean what they...

Today, 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...

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.com I 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...

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.com I 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...

Order your copy of A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden at alittlemorebeautiful.com Every 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...

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.

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.

Find out what we're reading next, and get the skinny on why we've chosen the books we did.

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.

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.

This year, let's fall in love with our ordinary, bookish, homeschooling lives.

During Jolabokaflod, you gift members of your family with new books, and everyone drinks hot cocoa and spends all of Christmas Eve reading.

Each new year, we think through all the homeschool curriculum we might want or need, and we pack it all in. It's time to put some of it back.

Is 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, In this episode, you’ll hear:  *...

Every 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. Open-and-Go Christmas School for all ages 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...

Chances 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...

Have 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. In this episode, you’ll hear:  * What kind of question is “Am I doing enough?” anyway?* A toll to help you answer this question anytime it arises* What to do if you find yourself...

It’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...

Have 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...

Last 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. I’ll tell you all about the process of getting the book illustrated, edited, and finally, almost on its...

It’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. Every book comes with an audiobook, narrated by me and including those page turn cues that we used to love in our books on tape. (Remember those?) Oh! And book bags. And such....

Way 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...