Little Oceans · A Free First Look 

This is the first unit of The Childhood Almanac, and these are its first three days. They're yours to keep, and yours to actually use with your children this week.
Not a preview. Not a watered-down sample. Three real mornings, exactly as they appear inside the curriculum, so you can see how it feels at your own table before you decide anything.

Nothing to print. Nothing to watch. Just you, your children, one notebook, and a few things you already own.

Your three days are just below. Click Day One, make a free account, and it opens right away. Keep scrolling past them for everything else the full unit holds.

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Outline drawing of a flower with a few petals on a black background. 
and then there are nine more days.

The three days you have are Chapter One. Here's the rest of Little Oceans.

Chapter One · Meeting the Sea(yours)
Day 1 · Welcome to Little Oceans
Day 2 · God made the sea
Day 3 · A new sound, and our first pattern

Chapter Two · Stories on the Water
Day 4 · Noah and the ark · The rainbow, and the God who keeps his promises.
Day 5 · Our first word · The big blending day, when separate sounds first click into a word.
Day 6 · Jonah and the great fish · A story about running, and about being found.

Chapter Three · Into the Deep
Day 7 · Through the sea on dry ground · The water stands up, and a whole people walks through.
Day 8 · Bringing our sounds together · Everything they've learned so far, meeting on the page.
Day 9 · A found-sounds nature walk · Outside, with ears wide open.

Chapter Four · Wonders and Keepsakes
Day 10 · The wonder of the deep · How deep it really goes, and what lives down there in the dark.
Day 11 · Review day · A gentle look back at everything they know now.
Day 12 · Heirloom day · the clay shell dish · The keepsake you'll still have in ten years.

That's one unit, one month. There are twelve units.

A minimalist line drawing of a rabbit in brown color on a black background. 
what your children will carry with them from these twelve days.

God our Maker

All month we're wondering at one big truth: the God who made the whole ocean made your child, too. He holds the sea in his hands, and he holds them.

spiritual theme

Awe and observation

We're growing a child who stops and notices. Who turns a shell over slowly, wonders at a wave, and lets the bigness of the sea make them small and glad.

character
bible stories

Creation · Noah and the rainbow · the Red Sea · Jonah · Jesus calms the storm · Peter walks on the water. Every story is written out for you inside the daily lessons, so there's nothing to look up and no Bible required.

memory verse

"The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land." (Psalm 95:5) Say it each morning with the motions, spread your hands like rolling waves, then press them flat on "the dry land."

The small, repeating things that make a month feel like a month.

the rhythm of the month
monthly song

"A Sailor Went to Sea"

A simple clapping song, and secretly wonderful for hearing the sounds inside words. No hymn to learn, no video to cue up. Sing it in the car, at the sink, anywhere.

the composer

Claude Debussy

Play him softly during art, meals, and rest. Start with La Mer (the sea itself, in music) and Clair de Lune. Make the playlist once and press play all month.

family read

Paddle-to-the-Sea

By Holling C. Holling.

A little carved canoe travels from a stream all the way to the ocean. A few pages at rest or bedtime. Not a lesson, just a story to share.

heirloom project

a clay shell dish

On Day 12, your Heirloom Day, you'll press the shells and sea glass you gathered into a little clay dish and seal it, a treasure to keep forever. Set aside a small recycled bowl, a block of air-dry clay, and a little sealant.

what your child will learn this month

Here's everything your children learn in these twelve days, written plainly, so you know exactly what's covered and can hand it to anyone who asks.

Bible — hear and retell the great water stories of the Bible, and say in their own words that God made the sea (Creation), kept his people safe on it and through it (Noah, the Red Sea), loved even a runaway (Jonah), and that Jesus himself is Lord over the wind and the waves (Jesus calms the storm, Peter walks on the water).

Literacy, by stage — Stage One hears the sounds inside words and meets s, a, t by ear; Stage Two blends s, a, t into the first word, sat; Stage Three opens the fluency year with the first blends, reading words like swim and stop.

Numeracy — count 1 to 4 with one-to-one matching, show a way to make 4, and read a simple pattern.

Science — name the layers of the ocean and tell why some things float and some sink.

Social studies — find the ocean on a globe and a simple map, see that most of God's world is water, and begin to notice how people everywhere live near it.

Writing — form the first letters and numbers in the Little Almanac, and draw, dictate, and begin to write a little something every day.

Character — slow down and notice, with awe, the wonders God made.

the book basket

    • The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson

    • Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae

    • Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall

    • Somebody Swallowed Stanley by Sarah Roberts

    • Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne

    • a Jonah storybook

    • The Brilliant Deep by Kate Messner

    • Ocean Meets Sky by The Fan Brothers

    • Life in the Ocean: The Story of Sylvia Earle by Claire Nivola

    • Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea by Steve Jenkins

    • Shark Lady by Jess Keating

    • Otis and Will Discover the Deep by Barb Rosenstock

    • From Shore to Ocean Floor by Gill Arbuthnott

    • An Anthology of Shells by Simon P. Aiken

    • Ocean Anatomy by Julia Rothman

    • Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney

    • The Big Book of the Blue by Yuval Zommer

    • The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson — the audiobook of your Day 1 story

    • Ladybird Audio Adventures: Volume 1 — a fact-filled audio trip to the deep sea

    • Big Bible Stories: The Old Testament — Creation, and Jonah and the big fish

A simple line drawing of a plant with roots, stem, and leaves on a black background. 
the gathering list

A basket or tray · crayons or colored pencils and the Little Almanac · a little salt in a tray for tracing letters · dried beans or buttons as counters, plus beanbags or rolled socks · a handful of real shells and sea glass · ocean pictures from your library books, or cut from an old magazine or calendar.

the little almanac

One notebook, and the only paper you'll buy all year. Every drawing, letter, number, and pressed shell goes into it. Look for the kind with blank space on top for drawing and lines underneath for writing. It's theirs to fill, and yours to keep forever.

mama’s track

The most important person in the room is you. This little page is just for you, once this month, whenever you can steal the quiet.

→ This month's reflection

Awe is caught, not taught. Where did you last feel genuinely small before something God made? Plan one moment this month to stand at the water, or under the open sky, and simply look, and let your child catch you wondering.

→ A book for you

Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie.

A short, freeing read about homeschooling from peace instead of fear. A good one to begin the year on.

→ A prayer to pray

God who made and holds the sea, hold me this month. When I feel in over my head, remind me that You are the Maker, and I am only the mama, and that is enough. Amen.

start with day one

The three days are at the top of this page. Click Day One, make a free account, and it opens right away. No card, no trial, nothing to cancel.

Open it whenever it suits you. Tomorrow morning, next Monday, or ten minutes from now while they're still eating breakfast.

The whole morning fits on one page, so once you've read through it, you shouldn't need to look at it again. That's on purpose. Nothing to print, nothing to set up the night before, nothing for them to watch.

Just you and your kids and a notebook.