THIS UNIT SHIPS 6.1.26
Summer has a way of turning kids into natural adventurers. They want to build things, create things, help people, and ask the kind of questions that start with "what if" and end with something nobody expected. Explore Summer with Oliver & Hope is built for exactly that season of life. This summer homeschool unit study is designed for preschool through early elementary — with a focus on early elementary — and teaches kindness, creativity, early literacy, STEM thinking, and social-emotional skills through hands-on, screen-free learning anchored by four beautifully illustrated storybooks.
This is a complete, open-and-go unit study, so there is no lesson planning, no supply runs, and no scrambling. The unit is anchored by all four books from the award-winning Oliver & Hope series — Good Deeds Day, Adventure Under the Stars, Superhero Saturday, and Amusing Adventure — written by Meg Cadts and hand-illustrated by Samantha Fitch. Each story introduces a theme that carries through the whole week's activities: kindness and community, imagination and friendship, courage and heroism, and the joy of the journey itself. And behind every book is something even more meaningful — every purchase funds medical grants through the UnitedHealthcare Children's Foundation, helping families whose children need access to care that isn't fully covered by insurance. Learning has never felt this good.
Kindness isn't just a theme in this unit — it's something your child will actually practice. Week one is anchored by The Kindness Mission Box, a beautifully curated set of activities that includes building a DIY birdhouse for your backyard, creating handmade postcards for people they love, shaping a friendship jar from air-dry clay, folding origami as a self-care practice, and completing daily kindness missions from a set of 56 mission cards. These are real acts of kindness, not worksheets about kindness. There is a difference — and children feel it.
Literacy is woven through the entire unit in ways that feel like play. The Let's Spell S'mores game anchors Week 2 with a campfire-themed word building experience, complete with ten extension activities organized by skill level — from phonics and sound mapping for beginners to speed builds and silly sentence challenges for more advanced readers. Week 3 brings Superhero Sight Word Smash, where children defeat sight word villains using a fly swatter and a whole lot of dramatic flair. Seven variations keep the challenge fresh and the energy high all week long.
Art in this unit is not extra — it is part of the learning. Children will paint a ceramic s'more dish, create a stunning mixed media campfire night sky using warm and cool colors in the Roasting Under the Stars project, craft a torn paper s'more character with popsicle sticks and googly eyes, build a s'more-shaped paper bag book to fill with their own story, and complete a directed drawing of Oliver and Hope themselves. Every art project connects directly to the week's book and theme, so creativity always reinforces comprehension.
STEM thinking shows up in Week 4 when children build their very own marble run using the Picasso Tiles 45 Piece Travel Size Marble Run set. They'll design, test, rebuild, and problem solve their way to a working track — experiencing firsthand that persistence and creative thinking are the most important tools an engineer can have. The unit closes with a Hands Craft Butterfly Puzzle that celebrates Hope the butterfly and gives children a satisfying, hands-on finale to four weeks of adventuring.
For pacing, a free 4-week plan is included that families can follow for an easy week-by-week rhythm. But it is flexible on purpose — go faster if your child is on a roll, or stretch it out if you want to linger on the projects that spark the most excitement. There is no wrong way to explore with Oliver and Hope!
Additional Information: Items may vary based on availability. This unit study crate contains products not manufactured by the seller. Some items may not be suitable for children under 3 years. Crate contents are not for consumption.
