National Parks Unit Study

Everything We Used for Our National Parks Unit Study

We are not campers by any means, and our version of hiking usually includes a stroller. However, we aspire to become people of the outdoors, and as such, we have made it a goal to visit all 63 National Parks as a family. Never one to pass up an opportunity for travel or to educate my kids by doing, I designed a National Parks Unit Study that we can dip in and out of as our visits to the Parks occur. This can also be used as a stand-alone unit study.

I am ever-inspired by Charlotte Mason’s description of education as an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life. As such, you’ll find resources below not only to educate your children about the National Parks, but to help them become an integral part of their imaginations and your family culture.

Spine:
We used both DK National Parks For Kids and USA: Lands of Wonder as a wealth of information and for their gorgeous photos. I also liked Wide Eyed’s National Parks Book for lovely illustrations and approachable descriptions. If I have to choose one, I pick Lands of Wonder, but honestly, why choose? Our local library has them all and I bet yours does, too (although I did invest in these as we plan to revisit them again and again).

Activities:
Our kids actually did all of these on our road trip to visit the National Parks. They loved DK National Parks Sticker Book and the
National Parks Activity Book, but their favorite was this Sticker by Number book.

Read Alouds:
We have enjoyed the National Parks Mystery Series. The chapters are short and it has illustrations, making it a perfect fit for our morning time. I was a little bummed that the books didn’t match the exact parks we were visiting (we’ve been to Carlsbad, Hawaii Volcanoes, and Arches so far). I hear the author plans to make it a ten book series, so maybe your favorite park will be next! (Mine is Arches).

Games:
We have one day a week dedicated to gameschooling, and the kids also pull these out at random times for fun during the week. National Parks Trivia, Trekking the National Parks, and this gorgeous Parks Strategy Game are great for older kids. If you have a younger set, I recommend National Parks Bingo, National Parks Memory Game (also gorgeous), and what has probably been the biggest hit in our household so far, the Melissa and Doug National Parks Magnet Matching activity.

Pretend:
For igniting those little imaginations, you have to love Melissa and Doug’s Yellowstone Bear Set and Park Ranger Set.

Viewing:
America’s National Parks doesn’t feature every park, but it was the only series I found that held my kiddo’s attention. After viewing the episode on Hawaii Volcanoes, my 5-year-old was telling anyone who would listen that his favorite bug was a lava cricket — so I know learning was happening during all those leaps between couch cushions.

Ongoing:
As for the atmosphere part, I invested in this Wooden Keepsake Map for our family. It is beautifully made and comes with little green trees that press into the spaces to mark where your family has visited. I was also temped by this more affordable scratch-off poster which is still attractive but at a healthier price-point. I wish I had seen these National Parks Passports before we first embarked. I can’t find the ones we originally bought but am seriously thinking of just transferring the stamps we had into these because they are so lovely! (Also, I don’t have this throw blanket just yet, but it is on my wish list and my birthday is coming up! Hint, hint, husband!)

I also have to mention the Junior Ranger Program, in which the kids can receive badges for activites completed online or by visiting the Parks in person.

Happy hiking!

Will You Just Hold Still?

Our youngest son was the quietest in the womb. “Have you felt the baby move today?” my nurses would ask at our prenatal appointments. “No,” I’d reply, “But that’s not unusual for him.”

That stillness did not last. 

Our third baby is so wiggly that at times, he feels impossible to hold. He loves to “jump” on your lap as he holds tight to your fingers. On a three hour flight, my lap baby refused to nap serenely in our Ergo carrier as our others had. No, he wanted to be out and ready for action. 

He started crawling at five months and pulling to stand at six. Now, you can find him happily cruising the furniture in our living room.

No, wait — he’s up the step and halfway down the hall. 

Having an on-the-go baby has its benefits. Unlike our first daughter who cried even in arms, and our middle kid who was content as long as he was being held, this little guy is happy to explore on his own. He’ll even play contently in his crib when he wakes from a nap (which is lovely except when he wakes needing to be changed and I find his patience is actually preoccupation; he has been finger-painting in his own banana yellow poop).  

Our real challenge comes during diaper and wardrobe changes. Have you ever struggled to pull fitted footie pajamas onto a reluctant cat? No need. You can come over and try to dress Noah.

He pushes. He pulls. One foot in and he pulls the other out. He protests laying on his back by immediately flipping onto his stomach and he’s off, wiggling for freedom at the end of the changing pad. The fall to the floor does not daunt him. It’s just one more daredevil stunt to tackle, and he’s very curious to know what going over the edge would feel like. 

“Would you just hold still?” I find myself asking aloud. There is something about this moment of my son’s bare body wriggling in my hands as he yanks back an arm, flips to his tummy and lunges for the edge a third time. A little piece of grace, maybe.

And suddenly, that question isn’t for my son anymore.

It is a question for me. 

“Will you just hold still?”

Noah’s only quiet time is when he is nursing. He waits until he is starving to let loose a banshee-like wail, and once on my chest, hunts frantically mouth-first like a truffle pig rooting out its prize. He latches, and instantly his body is still and his wailing goes quiet. 

“Will you just hold still?” Our heavenly Father waits patiently for me to settle down, but I am too busy plunging ahead to the next thing. Like Wiley Coyote, I rush off the cliff before I realize I’m no longer on solid ground.

I am a yes or NOW person.

Like Wiley, I inevitably plummet.

Yet, somehow, God never loses patience with me. The invitation is always there, but unlike my frazzled impatience, his voice carries tone of amusement and sorrow:

“Will you just hold still?”

He offers rest and nourishment, and here I am, caught up in my whirlwind. The posture of my soul is not so much that of a nursing infant as it is the Tasmanian Devil.

“Will you just hold still?” he beckons. I can see the outstretched arm, and I long to take it. But I somehow lack the energy. Or the muscle memory. Or the will.

Taking that hand means stepping out of my cyclone. And sure, this cyclone wreaks havoc wherever it goes, but all the rubble means I don’t have to peer into the depths. I cling to chaos because when the cyclone stops, it will be time to clear all the clutter.

Be still and know that I am God.

I know that you are God. But I am just me.

Will I just hold still? Can I just hold still?

The answer is on the tip of my tongue.

///

I’m in a wrestling match with our youngest daughter. She is and always has been a dream baby: restful, joyful, full of smiles and free of fits.

Until today.

At just shy of 19 months, she has decided on a zero-tolerance nap policy. She screams in my arms and flails with such force that I’m surprised she hasn’t given herself whiplash.

A younger me would have felt defeated by this show of force. Four kids in, and this is just Tuesday. I’m unperturbed by this exhaustion-induced fit. I know the signs; her little body is on overload. She just needs rest. I know that if I hold her long enough, she will surrender. Her resistance is futile.

I sing a soft lullaby, hoping to capture her attention. She screams louder. Sighing, I switch tunes, crooning out her favorite: the theme song to a 1980’s baby songs video from my husband’s childhood that has placated all of my children in their early years. The fashion is better than the music.

For a moment, she feigns disinterest, but I can tell this tactic is working. I repeat the refrain of this song I’ve employed countless times to subdue four babies over the years. Irritating as it is, the sweet relief of the silence that follows has imbued it with a sort of Pavlov’s effect on my psyche. My body begins to relax just before hers goes quiet.

I can see her eyelids begin to droop, head lulling forward with the slight rock of our chair. The fight is gone. No longer does she push against me. My patience has paid off. The resistance is gone, and she leans in to nurse. The stiffness leaves her body, and her weight settles against me comfortably.

I move to put her down just a hair too soon, and she protests. I wait, nursing her just a few moments longer.

In the quiet shadows of her room, I raise my eyes to the heavens and sigh. I let my own body go limp.

I surrender.

God has waited me out in these fitful years of my own flailing. He says to rest and be nourished. I am ready to receive, Lord. Not as I will, but as you will.

Just don’t put me down just yet.

The ULTIMATE Catholic Homeschooling Booklist

Living books for all seasons

Building a robust homeschool library is both a dream come true (you mean it’s my responsibility to buy a lot of books??) and a never ending project, akin to a garden which must be consistently weeded, watered, and fertilized according to changing needs and seasons.

And while I hope this list can be helpful for you, it has been borne mostly out of my own need to obsessively curate an environment of living books to entice, attract, and enrich my children throughout their years of schooling.

A few disclaimers:

• Some of these will be read-alouds and others can be independently read. Many will be both. You will have to make the call for your own children based on their maturity and reading levels. There is never an age at which we should stop reading aloud to our children.

• I do not own all of these books…yet; this list is my way of keeping track of the books I plan to acquire slowly over the years at whatever pace my husband’s salary can reasonably accommodate.

• We still use the library. Frequently. I do not wish to acquire every book we read, particularly when diving deep on subjects of science and history. I lean heavily into purchasing religious materials (which our library doesn’t have), works of fiction that are beautiful and edifying (which our library has hidden amongst the twaddle and liberal propaganda), and high quality anthologies and encyclopedias which we will return to again and again.

• A note on “appropriateness”: While I do make every effort to shield our young minds from the pollution of contemporary propaganda running rampant in the libraries of even our very red state, we don’t believe in shielding our children from the realities of life, particularly as depicted in time-tested literature. We subscribe to the GK Chesterton philosophy of fiction: “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” In other words, encountering life’s difficulties via fiction enables children to practice both empathy and resilience. Bad things happen in these books (particularly the latter grades), sometimes terrible things. The content may be beyond the line you wish to draw for your own children in terms of how sheltered you wish them to be. Familiarize yourself with the books in question and make your own call as to your child’s maturity, readiness to grapple with the material in conversation with you, the parent, whose job it is to guide your children in making meaning from these stories.

• This list is a work in progress, changing and shifting as I encounter good books and my children grow. If you don’t see your favorite, drop a comment.
  
  I would LOVE to discover new books from you!

Baby Books

Never Touch a Dragon
Goodnight Moon
Ten Little Ladybugs
A Missal for Toddlers
Little Owl’s Night
Touch the Brightest Star
Llama Llama Red Pajama
The Napping House
Brown Bear

Pre-K

Elmer
Winnie the Pooh
The Velveteen Rabbit
Beatrix Potter
Madeline
Eloise
Brambly Hedge
My Father’s Dragon
Mouse Nuns Series
Lyle Lyle Crocodile
Curious George
Blueberries for Sal
Make Way for Ducklings
Are You My Mother?
Green Eggs and Ham
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Stellaluna
Berenstain Bears/Mercer Mayer
How I Became a Pirate
Mother Bruce
The Monster at the End of this Book
Goodnight Goon
Little Blue Truck
Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site
The Jesus Storybook Bible
Fr. Ben Gets Ready for Mass
I Went to Mass. What Did I See?
Our Lady’s Wardrobe
Our Lady’s Picture Book
The Crippled Lamb
You Are Special
You Are Mine
Because I Love You

Early Readers

Charlotte’s Web
Little House on the Prairie
A Little Princess
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
The Indian in the Cupboard
Mary Poppins
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Railway Children
5 Children and It
Mary, Mother of All
Jesus and the Miracle of the Mass
One Holy Marriage
Jack Giorgio, Future Priest
Lily Lolek, Future Saint
Light of the Saints

I-Can-Read Books That Don’t Make Me Want to Tear My Ears Off

Fancy Nancy
Amelia Bedelia
Dr. Seuss
Princess in Black (we just pretend book #10 Prince in Pink doesn’t exist)
Billie B Brown
Hey Jack
The Magic Treehouse

Primary Grades

The Princess Bride
Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Heidi
The Wind in the Willows
The Boxcar Children
Black Beauty
The Giver
Ender’s Game
Old Yeller
Where the Red Fern Grows
The Secret Garden
Pollyanna
Anne of Green Gables
Little Women
Bridge to Terabithia
A Ring of Endless Light
McElderry Greek Myths
Usborne Complete Shakespeare (content warning; it’s Shakespeare)
Redwall Series
The Phantom Tollbooth
Because of Winn Dixie
Ella Enchanted
Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer
Robin Hood
The Tale of Desperaux
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Hatchet
Holes
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Flowers for Algernon
The Rifle
Swallows and Amazons
The Princess and the Goblin
The Courage of Sarah Noble
Across Five Aprils
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Egypt Game
To Be a Slave
Sing Down the Moon
Jacob Have I Loved
Afternoon of the Elves
Maniac Magee
Out of the Dust
The Princess Academy
Heart of a Samurai
We Dream of Space
My Name Is Philomena
The Princess and the Kiss

Middle Grades

The Hobbit
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Outsiders
The Hunger Games
The Divergent Series
What Happens Next
The Kate In Between
What Happened to Rachel Riley
Harry Potter (yes, we read Harry Potter)
Corrie Ten Boom
Number the Stars
She Said Yes
The Diary of Anne Frank
Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul (check year of publications; who knows what they slip into in the new editions these days?)
Johnny Tremain
Men of Athens
The Fault in Our Stars
Flipped
Wonder
Mockingbird
Watership Down
Animal Farm

High School

Silence
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Three Musketeers
The Brothers Karamozov
Jane Austen
Flannery O’Connor
John Steinbeck
East of Eden
Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde
Frankenstein
The Lord of the Rings
King Arthur
The Divine Comedy
Confessions
The Consolation of Philosophy
All the Light We Cannot See
Brideshead Revisited
The Great Divorce
The Screwtape Letters
The Abolition of Man
1984
Farenheit 451
Brave New World
Death Comes for the Archbishop
Love in the Ruins
Kristin Lavransdatter
Anna Karenena
The Great Gatsby
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Dune
Hannah Coulter
Redeeming Love
Hopkins
Chardin
Rumi
Johnny Cash
Mary Oliver
Emily Dickinson
Robert Frost
Walt Whitman
Thoreau
Into the Wild
Beloved
The Color Purple
The Red Badge of Courage
Dickens
Shakespeare
Bronte
Les Miserables
The Everlasting Man
What’s Wrong With the World

I will likely also add more theology texts, especially, from these 2 lists of the best Catholic books of all time from Bishop Barron.

Encyclopedias, Collections, and Anthologies

Saints Around the World
Saint Stories
DK National Parks x 2
DK Encyclopedias
DK Anthologies
Dover Coloring Books
What Was Series
Magic School Bus Series
Conservation for Kids
One Small Square
Sir Cumference

Be on the lookout for “Our Favorite Gameschooling Games” and “The BEST Homeschool Subscriptions” and “TV Schooling”