Learn & Live Letter Blog

The importance of silliness and humor in a joyful homeschool

Humor is a natural part of life that we all enjoy. And while we all can use a good laugh every now and then, no one appreciates silliness more than children. The inclination to be silly is not only a developmental necessity, but it can also be an early indicator of positive psychosocial traits and…

Oceania Unit: Week 4

Our final week of Oceania will introduce us to the islands of New Zealand and Tahiti. We will focus on two world famous artists that were inspired by the Polynesian islands―and their beautiful art will inspire some of our own projects. We will also enjoy doing several STEM projects as we learn about earth science,…

Oceania Unit: Week 3

Our study of Oceania continues as we explore Polynesia! This week, we will spend a lot of time learning about the U.S. islands of Hawaii (also written Hawai’i). We will explore the geological formation of the islands, their complicated history, and their rich culture.

Oceania Unit: Week 2

This week, we will continue our Oceania adventure through the islands of the Pacific Ocean, specifically Micronesia. Our activities will be be filled with important science lessons about earth science, conservation, and botany.

Oceania Unit: Week 1

Welcome to the Pacific Ocean and the island nations of Oceania! We will explore the countries and cultures of this vast area better known by their geographic divisions of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. This week will focus on Melanesia―including the islands of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands.

Level 2+: County Fair Unit

Ready for some blue ribbon-worthy activities? Just in time for summer, we’re exploring the world of county fairs―and letting them inspire activities rooted in math, science, art, and more!

Level 2+: Sing + Theater Unit

In this week-long unit, we’ll explore the history of some of the world’s most famous performers, try out some music and film science of our own, and even try our hand at singing, acting, and more!

Level 2+: Tide Pools Unit

We’re so excited to dive into an exciting new biome this week with our Tide Pools Unit! We’ll get up close and personal with a variety of residents, including urchins, anemones, and more, and we’ll start thinking like a marine biologist with several hands-on activities, ending with a sweet treat for some Tea + Poetry.

Level 2+: Hawaii Unit

Aloha! And welcome to the beautiful islands of Hawaii (also written Hawai’i). We are so excited to explore some of the rich history and culture of this beautiful place while also practicing math, science, phonics, and more.

How to start homeschooling (with success!)

Many people we meet and speak with through our community would love to start homeschooling, but often they feel overwhelmed or unsure about where to start. In this post, we have broken down our top 5 tips and steps to help you get started homeschooling with success.

Cuba Unit: Week 4

In our final week of our Cuba unit study, we will learn more about modern-day life on the island. Our lessons will include a tasty book review writing assignment, the foundations for critical thinking conversations, and lots of artist studies!

Cuba Unit: Week 3

his week we will examine the ocean life that sets Cuba apart from many other marine environments, and we will learn about several famous musicians and artists with Cuban heritage.

Cuba Unit: Week 2

This week we will learn more about the history of Cuba, including digging deeper into the Spanish and African influence in Cuban culture.

Cuba Unit: Week 1

Our month-long study of Cuba will begin with a geography lesson. Then, we will learn about the ancient people of the island, as well as the unique animals that inhabit it today―including the smallest bird in the world!

Level 2+: Sports Unit

Throughout this week, we’ll explore science, math, history, geography, and even art and music through an athletic lens, focusing on football, baseball, soccer, hockey, and basketball.

Level 2+: Robots Unit

eady for a week exploring the world of programming and robots? This week, we’ll tackle a variety of subjects (including math, science, literacy, and more!) with a bot-tastic twist, including learning the history of some of the world’s first computer programmers.

Level 2+: Frontier Unit

Get ready to explore the American west! In this week-long unit, we will introduce your child to a period of time that stretched from about 1803-1890, including native and indigenous peoples, the Oregon Trail, the California Gold Rush, and more.

Level 2+: Cuba Unit

Hola, mis amigos! Welcome to our week-long Cuba unit study, packed with play-based, hands-on activities to explore this beautiful country.

Cuban Dinner Recipe: Black beans + ropa vieja

Food is an extremely important part of Cuban culture. In this post, we’re sharing two recipes from the family of our co-founder, Cynthia, who is Cuban! We hope you enjoy making them with your family as much as we do.

Level 2+: Decomposers Unit

Decomposers are like the cleaning crew of our planet, and this week we’ll get to know a few of the crew’s most prominent members (while flexing our math, science, and literacy muscles!).

Level 2+: Parks + Camping

Ready to explore some of the United State’s most amazing national treasures? In this unit, we’ll explore the history and geography of national and state parks through math, science, literacy, and more.

Level 2+: Monkeys + Apes Unit

Ready to monkey around a bit? In this animal-themed unit, we’ll meet a few primates that have captured human hearts for years. We’ll also brush up on math and geography skills, get some purposeful writing practice, and more!

Level 2+: Nigeria Unit

Nigeria has a centuries-old history and a vibrant culture we know you and your child will love to explore, so we’ve packed this week full of activity and book options, experiments, recipes, art, geography, math, literacy, and more!

Nigeria Unit: Week 4

Our final week of Nigeria will end with a ton of science! The beautiful and wonderous ecosystem of Nigeria will introduce us to some amazing (and scary) animals. We will take a closer look at one of earth’s most interesting processes—the nitrogen cycle—and we will practice our research and travel planning skills.

Nigeria Unit: Week 3

If you are an art and science lover, then this is the week for you! Let’s continue our journey through Nigeria as we explore more about the culture and the arts of this beautiful country.

Nigeria Unit: Week 2

This week we will continue learning about The Benin Kingdom and their remarkable advancements in technology and engineering.

Nigeria Unit: Week 1

This week, we will learn about the geography and botany of Nigeria and we will begin to explore the famous Benin Kingdom. Finally, we will end the week with the history of the cassava root as we enjoy some delicious drink and food.

Norway Unit: Week 4

Our final week of Norway is sure to impress you as we learn about the country’s scientific advances and its infrastructure! It will also inspire some great engineering and writing projects.

Norway Unit: Week 3

This week, we will learn about its medieval history, the language spoken today by millions, and famous artists and classical composers from this beautiful country.

Norway Unit: Week 1

This week we will learn about this country’s unique geography, its native people, and some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.

Level 2+: Antarctica Unit

Get ready to take your studies to the farthest reaches of the South Pole with this week-long unit study! We’ll explore the world’s coldest continent, get up close and personal with its residents and history, and dive deep into some of the geological wonders found in this incredibly harsh environment.

Level 2+: Norway Unit

Throughout the week, we’ll work on strengthening math, science, literacy, geography, and arts skills while exploring the country and culture of Norway.

Brazil Unit: Week 3

This week, we will learn about Brazilian Portuguese, meet famous Brazilian inventors who have left their mark, and discover artists who have put Brazil’s landscapes in some of the most prestigious museums of the world.

Brazil Unit: Week 2

Get ready to learn about the layers of the forest, the trees spread across the land, and the animals that live there.

Brazil Unit: Week 1

This week, we will be introduced to the history of this country, the people who call it home and their stories, and virtually visit some famous sites you will want to put in your bucket list of places to see one day.

Level 2+: Toys Unit

Have you ever thought about all you can learn from your child’s favorite play things? From teddy bears to video games, this week’s unit is all about taking your child’s natural interests and expanding them into a variety of subjects.

Level 2+: Brazil Unit

We are so excited to introduce your child to this beautiful country and culture, exploring the food, clothing, geography, animals, and more.

Level 2+: The Body

Get ready to explore everything from your brain to the muscles in your toes (and everything in between) through this hands-on, science-packed unit.

Russia Unit: Week 4

Our final week in the Russia Unit is literally bursting with science—your child will have many opportunities for hands-on STEM experiments as you learn about famous scientific discoveries, historic events, and the brilliant people who made them possible.

Russia Unit: Week 2

This week we will deepen our knowledge of Russian culture by delving into the language spoken by the people, the art they create and the music they enjoy.

Level 2+: Bears Unit

From grizzlies to polar bears to pandas (and a slew of lesser-known bears in between!), we’ll get to know how they live while also tackling math, science, literacy, geography and more.

Level 2+: Espionage Unit

Get ready to get up close and personal with the life of spies and secret agents—and to learn some of the crucial roles they have played throughout history.

Level 2+: Russia Unit

From the unique geography and alphabet to some of its most famous works of art and most delicious recipes, get ready to experience this fascinating culture like never before.

England Unit: Week 4

All week, we will be learning about 20th century England, including the architecture, the monarchy and parliament, the natural beauty, and favorite places tourists love to visit!

England Unit: Week 3

This week we will learn about a special queen who sat on the English throne, brilliant writers who many of us still enjoy reading (or watching) today, and the great impact of the science minds of this time in history.

England Unit: Week 1

Welcome to England! Be sure to mark your passports as we travel this month to a European country with a rich history and connection to all of us English speakers.

Level 2+ Inventions Unit

From paper bags to traffic lights, virtually everything we use on a daily basis had an inventor. This week, we will explore and learn more about some of history’s most famous inventors, as well as a few you may never have neard of before.

England + Ireland: Types of government

In our England + Ireland Units, we learn how England is part of the United Kingdom and operates under a monarchy (technically a constitutional monarcy!). In this activity, we will learn about the basic types of government and how they function.

Level 2+: Finance Unit

In this unit, we’ll break down the basics of money and finance in a play-based, hands-on way that helps bring these abstract concepts down to a concrete level.

Level 2+: Peru Unit

From a rich history or stunning mountains and fascinating rainforests, there’s something for everyone in Peru! Throughout this week-long unit, we’ll get a taste of the cultural wonders of this country while exploring geography, flora, fauna, folk tales, and a few famous native residents.

Peru Unit: Week 4

There are some impressive landmarks in Peru, and this week we will learn about some of the most amazing places you will ever see, like the floating islands of Titicaca, the rainbow mountain and Cotahuasi Canyon.

Peru Unit: Week 3

This week we will learn about the animals, the music, and the art of Peru. We will also meet some famous characters from Peru’s past and present and learn about another famous food ingredient beloved in this country.

Peru Unit: Week 2

This week, we will focus on the rich history of the people of Peru. We will highlight the first people to inhabit Peru, the great Inca Empire, and the colonization by Spain.

Peru Unit: Week 1

This country and culture will introduce us to amazing history, impressive architecture, beautiful landscapes and fascinating animals.

What we learned in our IG LIVE with The Reading School

Teaching our children to read can be a stressful endeavor for many homeschool families―but it doesn’t have to be! To help empower more homeschool parents and caregivers to help their child find success as readers, we sat down with Diane Duff, Founder + Director of The Reading School.

Level 2+ Reptiles Unit

This week, we’ll be getting up close and personal with one of the vertibrate types we learned about in our Australia Unit…reptiles!

Level 2+: Desert Unit

Is it getting hot in here? It must be time for our Desert Unit! Get ready to explore this arid (and sometimes not arid!) biome as we learn more about the geography, plants, animals, and cultures found in the desert.

Level 2+: Australia Unit

G’day! Welcome to our week-long Australia Unit, where we’ll be exploring a variety of landscpes, animals, and art forms across this diverse continent (and country!).

Australia Unit: Week 4

For our final week of Australia, we’ll meet some intrepid people, discover amazing inventions, and explore architecture that still captures the imagination of people all over the world.

Australia Unit: Week 2

This week of Australia exploration is filled with history and science! We will learn about the British influence on the Australian continent, and we will also enjoy creating a diorama of an important point in history.

How to make a homeschool lapbook

Do you have a child that really enjoys collecting keepsakes, cutting and pasting, writing notes, and organizing their work? Do they need extra repetition to retain what they’ve learned? Then lapbooking might be just the hands-on thing for your homeschooler!

Why we love homeschool unit studies

The Learn + Live Letter is a homeschool unit study program…but what exactly is a homeschool unit study? What are their benefits? And what type of homeschool family do unit studies work for best?

Why outsourcing some of our subjects is a must in our homeschool

Nine years ago, when we first started homeschooling, I was nervous to take on the challenge of helping my kids learn the subjects I’d struggled with in school. Was I really qualified to teach math when I’d barely passed high school geometry? I bought an all-in-one curriculum and paid extra close attention to the math…

How to do Level 2 and 2+ phonics guide of the week

In addition to hands-on, play-based activities in each Level 2 unit, we will also be introducing a phonetic rule or a multi-letter phonogram to your child each week. (Note: We covered single-letter phonograms in Level 1. If your child doesn’t know these, we suggest using the Letter of the Week from Level 1 before moving on…

A Q&A with Amber O’Neal Johnston on teaching historical truth

Teaching our children historical truths isn’t just an option—it’s crucial for raising informed and empathetic children. No one knows that better than Amber O’Neal Johnston. Amber is a veteran homeschool mom of four children, the popular blogger and homeschool consultant over at HeritageMom.com, and author of the new book A Place to Belong. Because of…

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