11 In Homeschooling

Rooted Childhood Curriculum Review

Rooted Childhood includes 12 monthly collections filled with inspiration and meaningful ways to connect with your young children through meaningful craft projects, stories, and song.

Each collection includes an introduction that outlines the “why” behind the philosophy and explains how to use Rooted Childhood. The introduction also includes several printable planning pages and checklists to make sure your family rhythm and mindset are solid before you begin.

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What is Rooted Childhood?

When many people think of Rooted Childhood, they think of handicrafts. But it is so much more!

Each collection includes:

  • a family celebration or activity
  • a story to tell aloud
  • seasonal poetry and rhymes
  • songs, finger plays, and circle games
  • a curated list of picture books
  • real food recipes
  • meaningful handicraft projects

Currently, the Rooted Childhood monthly collections are available as PDF downloads that you can print at home or at your local copy shop.

Many families opt to put the pages into a three-ring binder, but I love binding them at home with my manual binding machine. I like to bind each season so that I have access to all of the songs and poems for our morning time.

Who is Rooted Childhood for?

Rooted Childhood was created for families with young children about 3 to 8 years old. The monthly collections are designed to make it easy for busy moms like you to bring beauty and wonder back to your days.

If you…

  • are constantly searching Pinterest for craft and activity ideas
  • want to include more of the arts in your homeschool but don’t know where to start
  • feel like you don’t have time to fit one more thing into your school day

…then you might want to give Rooted Childhood a try.

The projects included in the monthly collections are not designed for children to work on independently. They are meant to be a time of family togetherness and connection, and you should expect to have to assist your child in learning the skills at first. Once children learn the skills, they can often get more creative and design their own projects to do independently.

 

Families who are beginning to transition from preschool to formal school lessons will love Rooted Childhood because it provides a bit of structure, while still holding onto the wonder of childhood.

When my oldest daughter started homeschool kindergarten, she absolutely loved the academic part of school. She could sit and read books and do worksheets all day! But I knew I wanted something more for her and something more for our family.

Rooted Childhood is an opportunity to make sure that we are teaching the whole child and showing them the beauty of the world through classic poems, sweet nursery rhymes, seasonal songs, and more.

Many large families love using Rooted Childhood as an anchor that can bring the whole family together for a special time during the school week. Older siblings will enjoy the handicraft projects and can be a big help for little ones as they work on their own projects.

Each child has his own strengths and distinct learning styles. The projects included in the monthly collections would make great “brain breaks” during school lessons so that children’s brains can re-energize and get ready for the next lesson.

Rooted Childhood is for families of all faiths, cultures, and backgrounds. This secular resource includes diversity in its poetry selections, song choices, and book recommendations. Many of the handicraft projects draw inspiration from traditional folk art from cultures around the world.

 

What does each monthly collection include?

A Family Celebration or Activity

Honoring the changing seasons and finding our place in the world grounds are children in such a special way.

Each collection includes inspiration for a family celebration or activity that helps bring families closer to nature. You’ll celebrate the solstices, plant a garden, track the moon, do a Maypole dance, and much more.

These celebrations have become traditions in our family and will be days your little ones will look forward to with anticipation and excitement each year.

Rooted Childhood

Stories to Tell Aloud

Storytelling is an ancient art form that is just as important today as it was thousands of years ago. Each monthly collection includes one or two stories to tell aloud to your children plus tips on how to become a better storyteller.

Some of the stories are classic, but lesser known fairy tales. Many of the stories come from vintage books and educational resources aimed at kindergarten classrooms. And some of the stories are original tales.

The stories usually feature some element of nature or a moral lesson. It is common for fairy tales includes fairies, witches, and a little bit of magic. Since you are telling the story aloud and not reading it and showing pictures, it’s easy to change the stories to fit your family’s values if necessary. There are notes on the stories with suggestions on how to adapt a story to suit your needs like changing a good witch to a godmother or inserting “God” for “Great Spirit.”

Poetry

The monthly collections include a wide range of poetry in the public domain. Poetry is an incredible way to expose young children to rich, rhythmic language.

Rooted Childhood offers a mix of heavier, classic poems by poets like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and more. It also includes more lighthearted children’s fare collected from vintage children’s books and anthologies.

The poetry selections usually coordinate with a central seasonally inspired theme, therefore many of the poems honor nature and create a reverence for its power.

 

Songs, Finger Plays, and Circle Games

Children love singing and dancing and moving their bodies. Rooted Childhood includes folk songs, traditional songs from around the world, nursery rhymes set to music, and seasonal songs that have been passed down for generations.

Each collection also features finger plays or action songs that delight young children. Many of the collections also include circle games that can be played with multiple children.

Picture Book Recommendations

Each month of Rooted Childhood includes at least 10 picture book recommendations. These books are seasonal, high-quality books that are easily found at your library or online bookstore.

Books include beautiful illustrations featuring diverse characters and rich language.

 

Recipes

The recipes included with each month are simple, yet so fun! Many of the recipes would be a perfect addition to poetry teatime. These recipes are meant to be hands-on for the kids to be able to do most if it themselves.

Cooking and baking is a fantastic way to fit in some real life math and learn a skill that will try last a lifetime.

Each collection features three recipes that use simple, real food ingredients. Most of the recipes are gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, and adaptable to a range of food allergies and special diets.

 

Handicraft Projects

Each month includes eight handicraft projects with a range of skills taught each month. Examples of skills include finger-knitting, candle making, embroidery, quilling, macrame, woodworking, block printing, and more!

The projects are designed for children to be able to learn a skill through a project, but use the skill in many other ways once they have mastered it.

Some of the projects won’t work for younger children. For example, finger-knitting is a skill that most children aren’t able to do independently until about 5 years old.

 

 

There are enough projects in each month that it is perfectly fine to save a project for another year. Even ones that you are able to complete can be repeated in future seasons. A child’s abilities will row so much in a year that the end result will surely be different.

 

Curious about what your kids are capable of? Download this printable freebie for a list of handicraft skills and milestones by age for a better idea of what children can do.

How do you use Rooted Childhood?

There are many curriculum resources that lay everything out for you with a weekly or even daily schedule, but Rooted Childhood isn’t like that. It is meant to be done in your leisure time, to help fill quiet gaps with meaningful connection rather than separation.

In our family, we incorporate the poetry, songs, finger plays, games, and books into our morning time. We read a poem each day and my 2nd grader chooses one to work on as part of her recitation.

We try to learn one new song at a time and always sing a song or two that we already know as well.

We love reading a seasonal picture book or telling a story and then doing a movement song or circle game to break up the sitting with some action. Children are made to move, and I find that my little ones under 5 have about 5 or 10 minutes to sit still before they need to get moving again. Rather than fighting it, we embrace it!

 

 

We usually save our handicraft projects for our afternoons when my youngest is napping. I prepare any materials ahead of time and have everything ready so that we can jump right into the project without passing with gathering supplies or doing the more tedious parts of a project.

We don’t feel pressure to do everything; there is always next year! We add in what we can to make our days special and filled with wonder. When we spend time creating and connecting with our children, we are giving them perhaps the best gift of all- the gift of being seen, heard, and loved.

 

Ready to give Rooted Childhood a try? Use code “JUSTASIMPLEHOME” when you purchase for a special discount!

 

 

Meghann is a mom of three little ones, proud lefty, and unexpected country
dweller who lives in the Texas Hill Country on 6.5 acres with too many
animals to count. Her family loves getting out in nature and exploring nearby
rivers and creeks throughout the seasons. Meghann is the creator of Rooted
Childhood, a resource to inspire families with young children to create and
connect through meaningful, seasonally inspired activities. She can be found
online atΒ www.rootedchildhood.com.

 

 

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11 Comments

  • Reply
    Michelle
    June 1, 2019 at 10:53 am

    I have not heard of them until now, so thank you for such a detailed review! I love the idea of it being leisure and a time-filler. We have a routine per se, but not something set in stone so to have something like this to incorporate sounds awesome. Checking it out now!!

  • Reply
    Michelle O.
    June 1, 2019 at 11:30 am

    What a fun curriculum! I had not heard of this before. It looks like a great way to transition from preschool forward. I will share this with my young homeschooling moms. Thanks!

  • Reply
    Lindsay Smith
    June 1, 2019 at 12:03 pm

    This curriculum looks so beautiful! So many great ways to spend wholesome time together as a family while still learning. Great review!

  • Reply
    Holly
    June 1, 2019 at 1:25 pm

    I never heard of this curriculum. Sounds lovely and fun. I def. would consider using this when the grandchildren comes (none yet). Thank you!!

  • Reply
    Susan Landry
    June 3, 2019 at 1:01 am

    I completely LOVE the crafts in Rooted Childhood. They are beautiful and such high quality, not like most crafts you find for kids.

  • Reply
    Sandra
    June 5, 2019 at 9:09 pm

    I’ve run into samples of Rooted Childhood before and I love how beautifully the program is designed! πŸ™‚ I also love the focus on educating the whole child rather than moving through the motions and completing worksheets. Thank you for creating and sharing this amazing curriculum!

    • Reply
      Meghann
      June 6, 2019 at 6:08 pm

      Thank you so much, Sandra! Focusing on the whole child has definitely been a blessing for our family!

  • Reply
    Marla
    June 8, 2019 at 8:59 am

    Reading about this makes me wish I still had little kids! These are the things I did with them, but I had to collect everything myself.

  • Reply
    Lilly
    June 9, 2019 at 12:07 pm

    This looks like a wonderful, gentle curriculum!

  • Reply
    Penny
    June 10, 2019 at 4:10 pm

    This looks so creative!

  • Reply
    Rose
    July 27, 2023 at 9:08 pm

    The Links and the Discount Code is this article are invalid, just wanted to let website owner know.

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