A school of fish: Book Unit and Lettering Samples

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I wanted to do a Books and Authors unit for Malachi's sake this year, because he's been so into writing lately (see here! and that isn't even his first novel—it's about his fourth. He is getting really good!) and it seemed like a fun "spine" into which many different areas could be connected! It turned out really interesting and fun.

We started with an overview of the history of writing, then moved into paper making, bookmaking, bookbinding, printing, the printing press, libraries, etc.

Then we moved on to types of writing and story, and ended with an overview of a bunch of different genres, reading representative stories and, at night, watching a typical movie from each genre. So much fun!! I had Malachi teach us a class on story structure and it was amazing. He is a wonderful teacher! He made it so interesting and accessible. It made me resolve to have him teach more often!

Clementine loves to come sit on Malachi's lap while he's writing. He says, "Do you want to be my little helper?" and she happily snuggles in with him and pushes buttons and points at things and asks questions and just generally makes herself "useful." Ha! So cute.

We've been gradually adding built-in shelves to this room since we moved in, and it was fun that during this unit this whole wall got completed. We call this room the Library and now it really feels like one!

I asked my dear friend (and writing partner) Rachael to do a lesson for us over FaceTime as our Guest Author. It was so good! She's the best. She's written three amazing books about her ancestors, as well as our book, of course!

We did an activity where we learned about fonts and fancy lettering styles, and then tried to learn/copy some of them ourselves. The girls loved this! Marigold, especially, loves fancy calligraphy. I loved what she came up with!