What if one of the best tools in your homeschool is already free?
On the Brave Writer podcast today, we’re celebrating the library as a place where curiosity gets to roam and the default answer can be “yes.”
We explore:
- how browsing the stacks creates discoveries no search bar can replicate,
- why learning the Dewey Decimal System can empower kids,
- and how a regular library rhythm can enrich your homeschool.
Then we make the case for picture books at every age. From visual literacy and sophisticated vocabulary to science, art, emotional insight, and family traditions, these books offer far more than beginning reading practice.
Grab your library card and come rediscover the stacks with us!
Show Notes
Let the Library Do Some of the Homeschooling
One of the best educational resources available to your family is free, full of surprises, and probably not very far from home.
The library deserves a starring role in your homeschool.
Online research is wonderfully efficient when we know exactly what we want. We type the question, find the answer, and move on. But efficiency isn’t always the friend of curiosity. Some of our richest learning happens when we encounter something we didn’t know enough to search for.
That’s what the library gives us.
You walk toward the shelf looking for one book and discover fifteen more beside it. Your child goes searching for dinosaurs and notices a book about volcanoes. A poetry collection is sitting next to the fairy tales. Suddenly, one question has become five.
Every shelf offers the possibility of an accidental discovery.
Let the default answer be yes
We spend a lot of parenting life saying no. No, we aren’t buying that today. No, that costs too much. No, you don’t need another one.
The library reverses the experience.
Want another book? Yes.
Interested in a giant stack of books about sharks? Yes.
Want the strange book we never would have thought to choose for you? Absolutely.
That freedom matters. When books aren’t scarce, children can experiment with their own interests. They learn what catches their attention and how much they actually want to read.
Consider establishing a regular library day. Weekly is wonderful when life allows it, but consistency matters more than frequency. Bring a rolling cart if necessary. Let everybody fill it up.
Picture books are not just for little kids
While you’re there, don’t abandon the picture-book section just because your child can read.
Picture books are for every age.
A nonfiction picture book can give us a visual, concise introduction to a difficult subject. When we’re trying to understand physics, history, art, or an unfamiliar scientific idea, those pictures give us scaffolding for more advanced reading later.
Picture books also teach forms of literacy we sometimes overlook. Children learn to interpret facial expressions, body language, punctuation, color, mood, sequencing, captions, diagrams, and illustration. They encounter surprisingly sophisticated vocabulary because many picture books are written with an adult reader as part of the audience.
Wordless picture books offer another kind of practice. Ask a child what is happening in the pictures and let them narrate. Don’t worry if the answer is simply, “There are fish under the water.” Literal observation is one milestone on the path toward storytelling.
Create an environment that invites curiosity
Sometimes we can step out of the role of teacher and let the environment do some work for us.
Clear the coffee table. Put two or three beautiful books on it. Say nothing.
Borrow one of those enormous art books you would never spend $75 to own and leave it open in the living room.
Put seasonal picture books away for most of the year, then bring them back when the holiday returns.
Rediscover the books you adored as a child and read them to yours.
Learning doesn’t always need an assignment attached to it. Sometimes it needs a shelf, a comfortable chair, a stack of books, and enough freedom to follow whatever catches the eye.
Resources
- We love the Santa Clarita Public Library’s Dewey Decimal cheat sheet (customized for kid interests!)—a perfect starting point for kids to make a bookmark or bingo card.
- Find Melissa’s Inch and Roly books, Chris Barton’s The Day-Glo Brothers, Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon, and many other Brave Writer favorites in the Brave Writer Book Shop
- If you’d like to spend your school year celebrating the riches of picture books, be sure to take a look at Brave Writer’s Quill collections! These theme-based guides offer reading, writing, and math activities for ages 5-7, using picture books as portals for joyful learning.
- Registration is open now for Middle School Writing: Nonfiction Projects and many other Brave Writer classes!
- Start a free trial of CTCmath.com to try the math program that’s sure to grab and keep your child’s attention
- Visit Julie’s Substack to find her special podcast for kids (and a lot more!)
- Purchase Julie’s new book, Help! My Kid Hates Writing
- Melissa’s books make great readalouds—and there are Darts for The Prairie Thief and The Nerviest Girl in the World.
- Find community at the Brave Learner Home
- Learn more about the Brave Writer Literature & Mechanics programs
- Subscribe to Julie’s Substack newsletters, Brave Learning with Julie Bogart and Julie Off Topic, and Melissa’s Catalog of Enthusiasms
- Sign up for our Text Message Pod Ring to get podcast updates and more!
- Send us podcast topic ideas by texting us: +1 (833) 947-3684
- Interested in advertising with us? Reach out to media@bravewriter.com
Connect with Julie
- Instagram: @juliebogartwriter
- Threads: @juliebogartwriter
- Bluesky: @bravewriter.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/bravewriter
Connect with Melissa
- Website: melissawiley.com
- Substack: melissawiley.substack.com
- Instagram: @melissawileybooks
- Bluesky: @melissawiley.bsky.social
Produced by NOVA
