Blackbird & Company Discovery Literature & Writing Guides are designed to integrate the skills of reading and writing. Over time, the curriculum will enable your children to develop the tools necessary to independently analyze and respond to great stories.…

About a dozen years ago, a friend shared with me that she decided to bypass teaching her children the art of penmanship. Her children would jump straight to keyboarding: “This is the computer age. Cursive handwriting is archaic. Why do…

Stitchery builds cognitive plasticity. Embroidery is a practice that will empower students to be aware of fine motor potential, overcome the short attention span, and to have a growth mindset. The nervous system controls all of the body functions. But…

The big idea was to study our state in detail for one full school year, learning its basic geography and all the state symbols. There was no pattern. We just designed it the way we wanted it as we journeyed…

Squirrels are everywhere. That’s for sure! Most young writers have had a squirrel encounter or two. Tapping into a rich storehouse of knowledge is a great place to learn to craft a HOOK—not a topic sentence, a HOOK! The best…

Me?   What if I told you that the day my grandmother gave me a dinky white portable typewriter I made each of my family members mailboxes for The Friday Night Flash out of a Captain Crunch cereal box? What…

The habit of observing is habit worth developing—a habit of being. Observation of simple objects is the best way to begin your Observation Journal—think shell, spoon, marshmallow,  apple. Begin this activity in kindergarten and continue through 12th grade! Create an…

Staring down the blank page is a courageous endeavor. Where to begin? We say: Begin with a BOOK! BIG ideas are sparked by knowledge + curiosity. “All you need to do is write one TRUE sentence,” so said great American…

Aesthetics is a set of principles that inform the outcome of a work of art. Aesthetics taps into that part of our being that connects with beauty. After reading The Mozart Season,  students knew right away the section of the…

Nothing fosters the higher-order Critical Creative Thinking that allows students to form ideas and opinions about real life, more than hashing through a story in a discussion circle. What begins as an imagining in the mind of the writer is…