Month Books {A Learning Idea}

I have a homeschool mom confession.  In my excitement for my kids to learn all the pleasantries of fine art and beautiful music and to hear literature read aloud... sometimes I forget to teach the basics.  Gavin was five years old when he wowed a lady in a department store as he shouted out, "That painting looks like a Monet!" but yet, when he was eight, I discovered he barely knew the twelve months of the year! 

We began a fun no-stress project last January in an effort to correct this information deficit.  While it would have been easy enough for Benjamin (who was 2), he had no interest, so only the three older kids (ages 8, 6, and 4 at the time) participated in creating their own personal Month Books.

First, I stapled twelve sheets of plain white paper inside a manilla folder.  I did this three times, once for each book.

Next I printed out the names of the months.  Each child cut out the month papers and glued one to the middle of each page. We could have also written the month names on the pages, but I liked how the typed font stood out on the white paper.

Near the beginning of each month (or whenever we thought of it), the kids scoured magazines and newspaper ads for pictures that represented the month to them.   They were free to glue these pictures all over the page in any design they wanted.

We could have ended the project there, but I decided to add a little season talk into the learning.  On the blank page to the left of March, June, September, and December, I asked the kids to glue the name of the season that began during that month and draw a picture of the thing they like to do the most during that time. 

Social studies? Check!