This post is inspired (and sponsored) by Sonlight.  If you’re looking for a prepackaged/done-for-you homeschool curriculum, this is one of my top picks.  It’s literature-based, so good books are a central feature.  If you’re not looking for a done-for-you curriculum, but appreciate good books, they’re also a helpful source, since they’ve already done the work of curating great books (and on particular topics, no less).

Sonlight provided the books shown below, and will be giving them away to a reader, as well!  Look for the giveaway widget at the bottom of this post.

One of the dilemmas I see parents raise regularly, about unschooling or other “relaxed” homeschooling methods, is that they have difficulty seeing learning happening or knowing how new interests will be raised.  So let’s use a selection of Sonlight books about animals to illustrate some of the ways this might happen.  How might your child begin to connect with animals?

Everyday Life Experiences & Questions

Are there robins nesting on the front porch light?  Toads in the back yard?  Earthworms wriggling to the surface after a rainstorm?  These are among the many opportunities children have to observe the world around them directly.  Some of their questions will be answered simply by continuing to observe these creatures.  Others might require a little bit of research.

Or what about trips to the aquarium or zoo?  (Right now, many of these aren’t open, but you can still visit some of them virtually.)  Your child might ask how baby hippos are born or Why Do Tigers Have Stripes?  (This book provides lots of springboard opportunities for art, too!)

Chapter Books/Fiction

For kids who already enjoy reading (or being read to), chapter books can be a wonderful springboard for learning.  Some connections are really obvious.  Most people, for instance, are aware that historical fiction can be useful for learning about history.  But less-obvious connections are also valuable.

Consider, for instance, the classic, Old Yeller.  A child listening to this story might decide he wants to learn more about dogs and dog breeds.  Or the Civil War and the geography of the United States at the time.  Or the process of farming.

Stories are fascinating, because they can provide a sort of “substitute real life,” where, just as anything in our own lives can create curiosity and a desire to learn more about something, so can anything in the lives of those we read about.

(Movies provide similar opportunities, for all the same reasons.)

Family Favorites

One of my dad’s favorite books as a child was The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be.  The author, Farley Mowat, also wrote its sequel, Owls in the Family.  These are books we can enjoy as among “Granddad’s favorites,” that we might not have otherwise thought to read.

Of course, Owls in the Family could inspire an interest in owls!  It could also inspire an interest in other animals, such as dogs or gophers.

It’s also a potential study in geography, and even in shared culture.  Dad grew up in Michigan, near the Canadian border.  We don’t live there, though, and no one we know had ever heard of these books — until the advent of the internet, when I learned that virtually all of our Canadian friends know Farley Mowat!  He’s a Canadian author, writing stories set in Canada, so he’s a fixture in Canadian culture even while being nearly unknown in American culture.

Art

A number of famous artworks feature animals.  Picasso’s single-line drawings are some of my personal favorites.  Rousseau’s Surprised! features a tiger, and would pair beautifully with Why Do Tigers Have Stripes?  (This page shows a variety of animal art, including the aforementioned painting.)  Children who spend time viewing art may find that they have questions about the subjects or settings within them.

Wanting to create art can also foster an interest.  How do you draw the feathers of a hawk or the scutes (upper scales) of a tortoise, or know how a chameleon’s tail should curl, unless you’ve studied the hawk or the tortoise or the chameleon?

An Existing Interest

Sometimes you don’t really know what originally sparked a given interest; your kids just already have an interest in something.  In this case, the resources we seek out aren’t to spark the interest, but to feed it.  Books like Animal Record Breakers and Usborne’s World of Animals, or non-fiction reading about particular animals, help provide information to feed a child’s curiosity, answer his questions, and increase his knowledge.

(Carefully-chosen YouTube videos have also been a valued resource for this at our house, especially when the subject matter isn’t conducive to hands-on explaration at home.  We can watch science experiments or see a tiger or shark in its natural habitat without having to worry about blowing something up or getting eaten!)

Children’s Picture Books

Even children’s picture books can prompt ideas for further exploration.  Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm and Eric Carle’s Animals, Animals are classic favorites for connecting with animals.  This fun puzzle book, Who’s Ready to Play? encourages littles to pay attention to detail and think critically.  And My Big Wimmelbook: Animals Around the World brings geography and habitats into play.

Giveaway

Sonlight is celebrating their 30th anniversary this year!  Thirty years of helping families connect with God and with one another — and they’re celebrating by helping families connect with topics, too, like the animals in this post.  So enter below to win the books featured in this post (along with Capybopy and The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of BALTO, which didn’t quite make their way in) and be sure to head over and see what else Sonlight has happening.  Hint: This one isn’t the only giveaway. 

The contest runs now through 9/30/20 with a new giveaway item each Wednesday and the GRAND PRIZE is an All-Subject Package of your choice from Sonlight. Enter weekly!