Book Clubs are a favorite event to learn, make friends, and relax for homeschool families. I decided I wanted one for my little guy when he was 7 and couldn’t find one at that time in my small town. So I decided it couldn’t be that hard to put together, and I created a flier with what topics we’d read about, and sent it out to the general Carlisle population of homeschoolers.

What ended up being created was beautiful!

My son is now 8 and going into 3rd grade with a bustling group of friends that all read books at their own levels, come to our monthly gathering, show and tell what they’ve learned, hear about their friends’ books, and then enthusiastically run around our yard with Nerf Guns.

Book Club is a highlight of my son’s month!

On the last month of the year before we finished up in April, we moms gathered to figure out what we would read about this coming year. I’m so grateful for these moms. Together we are more than I could ever be by myself. We decided on studying the sciences for the 2018-19 school year. Below is the flier I put together showcasing all of the topics we’ll read about.

Here’s our tentative schedule on our meeting day:

• Gather all the kids on the giant bean bag chair -err the floor, or felt squares or piled onto a couch. 
• I read two to three juvenile fiction books on the topic such as biology. Usually I do a web search on “juvenile fiction biology books” and can almost always find other homeschool moms have done all the work for me of finding the best books on the market. Then I go to my library’s website and put about ten of them on hold so when I arrive at the library they are magically waiting for me on the hold shelf. This part of the process is probably the biggest time saver – and what makes it possible for me to fit book club into our year.
• If I can find something entertaining under 5 minutes in video form either a game on the internet, an audio book on the topic that has pictures too, or a song on youtube about biology, then I will show that as well.
• Next the kids will share what they studied over the month and if they have something tangible we’ll put it into our “Museum”, which is just a coffee table when they arrive, but a visual representation of the month’s topic when they are all finished sharing. I always ask them to please leave their museum specimens for everyone to peak at during their play hour – if they want… and of course, they’re always excited to see their friends’ interest in their work. Here’s one of my all time favorites from my little friend, Liam.
  

• After the kids share, they get an hour to free play and have a snack if someone generously brought something to share. I like to focus on the coffee bar! And the moms that come will sometimes bring their favorite creamer or a healthy treat for the kids!Here’s the schedule for the 2018 19 school year… Feel free to join us or to start your own club using this as a template!

Jen @ Log Cabin Schoolhouse