Rooted Childhood Review: 5 Months Later
After using Rooted Childhood content bundles for five months, I wanted to update my review for anyone who might be curious! (With more details!) There’s nothing like a monthly subscription to truly make you feel like the months are flying by! Each month on the 15th, I receive my bundle for the upcoming month in my inbox and, truth be told, I wait until the kids are down for the night, grab a cozy blanket and and savor the beauty contained in those pages! I find them to be so invigorating and inspiring! “Ooh, I can’t wait to show Kinder Bookworm this project!” or “Preschool Bookworm will love making this recipe with me!”
Full disclosure: I am affiliate and have received free content, but all opinions are my own, not exaggerated, and reflect my experience in my home. 🙂 My participation in the affiliate program also allows me to extend 10% off to my readers! Use the code librarianinthehouse10 on any of the options- one month, seasonal bundle, or yearly subscription.
Here are a few areas I was wondering about, and you may be too:
Can I set my kids up to complete these projects on their own?
When I initially signed up, I was most hoping to find ideas for handicraft projects that I could plan for my now 6 year old to complete during his “quiet time” (solo… while mommy has some much needed self-care time for her introverted spirit). As I’ve come to realize, that is not the intention of Rooted Childhood, and it has not panned out that way. The tagline “create and connect through the seasons” apparently didn’t register with me. Ha! Instead, and as it should be, Rooted Childhood has equipped me to connect with my kids in a meaningful way, while savoring seasonal richness– right alongside of them! (We’ve just found some simpler projects and more engaging audiobooks for quiet time! lol) My kids are 4 and 6, and my experience has been that there are some components that can be used independently, but not the majority. There are some “sensory” activities and tinker tray type set-ups that you’d leave for them to explore, for example.
Is this primarily for homeschool families?
There’s nothing homeschool specific about cooking, crafting, stories, songs, or fingerplays! Rooted Childhood would add an intentional way of connecting with children schooled in any manner! I had been looking to enrich our handicraft and “classroom kitchen” components to our homeschool because I believe in the power of those “subjects” for lifelong learning– but these areas aren’t just for homeschooled kids! Cooking and crafting are universal 🙂 As we have completed activities and recipes together, we have learned skills that I know will serve my kids well, and have just plain old made us both proud! I think families with kids in any schooling environment would enjoy the basics of learning life skills and connecting! We’ve learned the basics of sewing (including a skill more than a few adults don’t have– attaching a button!) and the blanket stitch, the girth hitch knot, and kitchen basics like shredding, peeling, and measuring.
How supply intensive will this be?! Depending on how you use the curriculum, I would say moderately. The songs, poems, stories, booklists, and fingerplays are free, of course (if your library system as the recommended books you have your eye on). The recipes have simple ingredients that I have in my pantry (we are gluten free and dairy free in our home and haven’t had trouble modifying.) I liked that portion sizes are small, so we were enjoying them as a “treat” at one or two sittings (hello, teatime), which also kept the price point low.
For handicrafts, there were some months when I purchased items that I wouldn’t have sought out– a quilling tool ($6) one month, another month a needle felting tool ($6) and felt to go with it ($11- used multiple months with much left over). There were a few crafts I opted not to try because of cost in a particular month when our “schooling budget” was blown (swim lessons! museum field trip! book the library couldn’t find for us!). In those cases, I selected another activity and felt there was plenty still offered to work around. But typically, in a household that is moderately crafty (defined as: I have a sewing machine but haven’t used it in years– but that means I have thread, fabric scraps)… we have owned the majority of the items we’ve needed. I’ve also been able to find several random items on our local Buy Nothing group (embroidery hoops, old picture frames, felt). Items that I’ve purchased will likely be used over and over, so they’re in the “investment” mindset.
How adaptable and repeatable (able to be used every year?) are the bundles? So much! We have altered the plans for many activities based on interest, skill, or supplies. We have found every single month to be an enriching component to our time together, but we have really only scratched the surface! We probably complete one or two major handicrafts (which are completed over days) and one recipe per month. This leaves plenty of room to revisit the the bundles in coming years. In other words, I see it as a great value because the kids will mature alongside of the bundles, allowing us to try different pieces each year. (This is so similar to our experience with A Year of Playing Skillfully, which we have used three years and counting. You can read more about that here.)
Bottom line: Give Rooted Childhood a try if you’re looking to add a freshness to your repertoire and ideas to connect with your kids– in the form of beautiful, meaningful activities like handicraft projects, seasonal recipes, and literacy. Here’s a code for 10% off: librarianinthehouse10. I would love to hear if you decide to sign up! Go here for Rooted Childhood’s website to read about the monthly, seasonal, and yearly options!
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