Happy New Year! Tonight, we start posting our book club blog series for WONDERSTRUCK. For those of you who are new to NHBA, we thought it might be worthwhile to revisit what this is and how to take advantage of it.

We post a blog entry every Sunday night for four consecutive weeks with activity ideas for the book; each book gets a month. In case you missed it in previous posts, the order we’ve set for this year’s books is:

• WONDERSTRUCK – January
• SELLING HOPE – February
• THE CANDYMAKERS – March
• MY NAME IS MINA – April

The activities in the blogs are an easy way to connect with and expand on the story. We hope that some people might be inspired to get a book group together and share the stories with other homeschoolers. However, the ideas we post are all activities that can be enjoyed with any size group, so your “book club” could simply consist of you and your kids!

We focus on learning more about and experiencing things from the book, rather than the usual discussion question-style book club. Our hope is that doing the activities will inspire discussion and sharing of the ideas in the book naturaIly. However, there is usually a discussion guide available from the publisher or author. When that’s the case, we will provide a link.

WONDERSTRUCK has tons of ideas to explore, so take your kids’ lead on what to spend time learning about. You can use our ideas, tweak them to work for your situation, and do the things that excite your kids to learn. We try to put out more ideas than any one family could use so that we have a better chance at providing a little something of interest for everyone.

In the coming weeks, look for WONDERSTRUCK blogs about telling a story through pictures, the science of hearing, dioramas, and a great cookie snack idea! Along the way, we’ll also have some printables and resources to help facilitate your kids’ or book club’s connection to this remarkable book!

All the ideas get archived on the website as well, so if you are not quite ready to dive in, don’t panic! You have plenty of time.

Also of note–CurrClick, a popular curriculum-related website, is offering a free online book club for the National Homeschool Book Award books this year! They are starting with last year’s winner, EVERY SOUL A STAR, before moving on to this year’s books. The first meeting is set for January 24th. You can find more information and learn how to register through CurrClick!

Happy Reading!!

~Michelle