In all honesty, I never thought I would homeschool my kids. I started because my oldest missed the cut off date for kindergarten and would have to wait a full year before starting school. She was beyond ready, so I knew I needed to do something. After a lot of research and many discussions, our family plunged head first into homeschooling.
We began our journey as unschoolers. The kids were young, and it worked well to have learning revolve around their interests. Then we moved. The new record keeping and evaluation requirements of that state made it difficult for me to continue homeschooling without a focused plan. I realized I was going to need curriculum.
Choosing Homeschool Curriculum
As you know, venturing into the world of homeschool curriculum can be overwhelming. I had no idea where to start. So I did what most of us do. I starting using what my friends recommended which happened to be well-known, faith-based curriculum.
At first, I welcomed the idea of using books that supported our beliefs. Unfortunately, I found that I don’t need (or want) the level of religion found within many Christian textbooks used for core subjects. In my opinion, they dedicate too many pages to watered down religion—pages that could be better used for more subject material.
For example, my kids don’t need multiple paragraphs in each chapter of a science book reiterating the point that God’s creation is perfect and beautiful. I want our science curriculum to focus on science. So now I look for faith-neutral or secular materials.
A Solution for My Curriculum Struggle
Because of the curriculum struggle I faced, I made the decision years ago to forgo standard homeschooling textbooks for most of our core subjects (like science and history) and instead create my own lesson plans. As a substitute for pre-made curriculum, my kids watch relevant videos, read living books, play educational games, and complete a ton of hands-on activities.
Compiling everything on my own is definitely time consuming, but works well for our family. Other homeschool families in my situation use a quality curriculum that isn’t faith-based such as Bookshark’s literature based, secular materials. The convenience of a full boxed curriculum or a curriculum plan for a key subject takes the burden off an already busy mom and allows her to enjoy the homeschool experience without spending hours of planning and researching.
About the Author
Megan Zechman is a veteran homeschool mom of two girls. Over at Education Possible, she shares creative, hands-on learning activities for middle school.
Dyslexia and dysgraphia have some overlapping challenges; both make language-based learning an uphill battle. But while dyslexia’s struggles are mostly reading-related, dysgraphia’s struggles are mostly writing-related:
difficulty with spelling
trouble organizing thoughts into written sentences and paragraphs
challenges with the physical act of writing
We’ve had our share of all of these over the years. Nearly all styles of homeschooling require writing of some kind. But how do you teach what’s necessary when your child has trouble with writing or even completing worksheets? Here are five simple but powerful tweaks that you can make for your child with dysgraphia. They remove the bulk of the challenge of writing so that kids can better focus on the academic topic at hand.
1. Complete the Work Orally
We do a lot of our work out loud. For most of the elementary years, my kids narrate (orally retell) what they have read in every subject. Even in middle school, my daughter and I have book chats rather than completing literature worksheets. We cover the same material, and I’ll often ask the same questions as a literature worksheet has asked. But the questions are answered out loud, on the couch, over a cup of tea.
Writing begins in the mind, organizing our thoughts before they ever become words on a page. And for those who tend to be more extroverted anyway, talking outloud is a natural way to organize what we are thinking.
2. Serve as a Scribe for Your Child
After a long period of time of narrating out loud to me, my kids then go through a stage where I write down what they verbally express. Trying to hold a thought and write it at the same time can be particularly challenging for a child who has a language-based disability.
By writing down what my child is saying, I’m modeling the next step of the process without adding extra mental work.
Scribing is not just something we do in writing class, though.
I’ve scribed sections of a long math page when the process of writing the answers was more overwhelming than the math computation itself.
I’ve scribed spelling, as my child told me what letter to put down next.
We’ve scribed phonics worksheets and grammar lessons.
Whenever I felt the skill we were learning was more important than the physical act of writing, I picked up the pencil instead of handing it to my child.
3. Use a Dry Erase Board
I stumbled upon this quite by accident, and I don’t even remember how it happened. But one day I realized my daughter was willingly writing her own original paragraph on a large dry erase board with a marker, something she would never have been able to attempt on a piece of paper.
For awhile, a smaller dry erase board helped her complete her math problems as well. She could write as large as she needed and color-code the columns of numbers to help her line up the correct place values. Once again, she was focused on the academic skills without the added complication of writing small enough to fit the space in a workbook.
4. Don’t Fill Out Worksheets
Instead of writing on a worksheet which can cause frustration due to the tiny spaces, use it merely as a guide for writing on another medium.
For example, my youngest also has a very hard time writing the size that his worksheets require. His handwriting ability lags behind his phonemic awareness. But there’s no need to let his handwriting hold him back in his reading lessons!
Rather than mark vowels or divide syllables within the narrow spaces of a worksheet, I copy the words from his worksheet onto individual index cards, as large as the card allows. My son easily works through each word card, marking vowels and circling phonograms, and then happily feeds the completed cards to his tissue-box monster we’d made together.
He was focused on the reading skills he was ready to master but no longer discouraged by his weaker writing skills.
5. Use Technology
My kids learn typing skills early on. It’s my sneaky way of enforcing letter recognition, spelling, and reading. But typing has also helped my kids to progress with writing skills without being discouraged with spelling, grammar, and handwriting.
When it’s time to write, I always allow automated spell check and other assistive technology. Dyslexia Aid is another favorite that allows my child to dictate a phrase or sentence into the app and see it translated into text. For my family, it’s a matter of deciding which skill or combination of skills we are prioritizing, rather than insisting on all the skills at once.
It’s kind of ironic that we have chosen a literature-based homeschool with our assortment of language-based disabilities, but it’s not a decision I’ve ever doubted or regretted. Our challenges have not kept us from either enjoying good books or having deep thoughts about those books. We’ve simply changed our tools and strategies for success—and sometimes our expectations.
But in the end, that’s the life lesson I want my children to take with them. No personal difficulty has to signal the end of something we value; we simply have to find a solution that rises to the challenge.
About the Author
Tracy Glockle lives with her husband in Oregon where she homeschools their crew of three kids with ADHD/dyslexia. She’s constantly making adjustments for her out-of-the-box learners, finding creative ways to use their strengths to teach their weaknesses. As the frontal lobe for her family of ADHDers, Tracy loves planners and systems and organization. But housecleaning—that’s something else entirely. She enjoys black coffee, superhero action films, and reading the end of a story first. Tracy writes about homeschooling ADHD and dyslexia for several blogs including her own at Growing In Grace.
Are you ever curious about other BookShark families? We can assure you that, after interacting with so many customers at conventions and online, every family is unique! While there is another family like yours in some ways, there is no other family exactly like yours!
BookShark families span the gamut of family size, makeup, and approach to homeschooling. Of course, the one thing they all have in common is a passion for their kids. They invest deeply in and advocate fiercely for the academic and emotional well-being of their children.
One example is Kelsey, mom to Emmett, living in North Carolina. You may know Kelsey from Instagram where she posts under the handle @_little_mama_purple. We recently interviewed Kelsey to learn more about her homeschool experience. She will inspire you to overcome your own challenges and grasp all the benefits homeschooling offers!
Meet Emmett
BookShark: Let’s start with Emmett, because he’s such an adorable little fellow on Instagram. Tell me a little bit about him.
Kelsey: He loves books, puzzles, and his tablet. I always bribe him with his tablet. If he’s having a bad morning, and doesn’t want to do school, I ask, “Well, don’t you want to earn tablet time?”
BookShark: So that’s his motivator? Smart!
Kelsey: Yes. Emmett is six. He will be seven in September (2019). He has autism, global apraxia, and generalized epilepsy. He started wearing glasses at age four.
BookShark: What is apraxia?
Kelsey: It means that he has trouble talking and visually doing things¹. Sometimes he’ll write a word out, but he’ll leave a letter off. But in his head, he thinks he wrote that letter.
BookShark: Tell me about your choice to homeschool.
Kelsey: When it was time to enroll Emmett in kindergarten, we did an IEP with the school. They told me that he would get less therapies than he does now using our insurance. So, I decided to homeschool from that point.
BookShark: Did you have Emmett enrolled with services at age 3 because of his special needs?
Kelsey: No! I didn’t know there was special education available when he was little. I didn’t know there was early intervention, until he was almost too old to be in it. Nobody told me. They just handed me his diagnosis and said, “Here you go. He needs OT, speech therapy, and ABA². Go find it. Good luck.”
BookShark: Golly. That’s tough.
Kelsey: Yes.
BookShark: When you went to the school to find out about enrolling him, you discovered the lack of support for his special needs. That’s when you decided you wanted to go the private insurance, homeschool route, right?
Kelsey: Correct.
BookShark: Okay, and do you feel good about your decision to homeschool?
Kelsey: Yes, I do because Emmett loves to read. He’s currently learning to read using Reading Eggs, along with BookShark, and he just loves it. I mean, he brings me books every day. He asks, “Read to me.”
BookShark: But do you think that would be different if he weren’t being homeschooled?
Kelsey: I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t be learning to read at all. He has some behavioral problems, like if he doesn’t get his way he can become aggressive towards others. I’m assuming that the school would put him in a classroom setting where might be disciplined to a point that would negatively impact his learning.
But because we homeschool, if he’s having a bad day, we take a break, we go do something else, and then we come back and it gets done. Even the best teachers in the world, they can’t love Emmett like I do. And the teachers have way too many children in the classroom, in my opinion.
BookShark: So are you planning on continuing to homeschool him?
Kelsey: Yes, I am. We already applied for a homeschool grant this year, and if we get it, we’ll be able to continue with BookShark curriculum.
Every Kid Should Be Homeschooled at Least Once
BookShark: Did you have any previous experience with homeschooling before you started homeschooling Emmett?
Kelsey: Yes, I was homeschooled from seventh grade until high school.
BookShark: So, you already had that in the back of your mind—that that could be a good experience?
Kelsey: Yes.
BookShark: Do you think there are parents whose kids would benefit from homeschooling but they don’t know about homeschooling?
Kelsey: Yes. I totally believe that. I totally believe every kid should be homeschooled at least once. Homeschooling makes you closer to your parents; you do more with your parents. You have a different relationship than if your parents send you away to school, you come home, you do homework, and then they put you to bed. You don’t really get to spend a lot of time with them.
BookShark: So I guess what you’re saying there, is as a mom, you would find one of the big benefits of homeschooling is the time you get to spend with Emmett?
Kelsey: Yes, definitely.
BookShark: What are some of the other benefits for you?
Kelsey: We get to go to the park when we feel like it. We get to go shopping when we feel like it; we don’t have to go when the store is totally super crowded. I mean, we can just get up and say, “Okay, let’s homeschool at two o’clock this afternoon, and let’s just go do some running around, and get some stuff done.”
Homeschooling Has Made Him a Reader
BookShark: What kind of strides has Emmett made in these two years of homeschooling?
Kelsey: He loves math. He’s a wiz at it. In language arts, he’s learning to write his name. He can now sign birthday cards himself. I found out that he loves dogs and horses. We just finished reading the book No Children, No Pets [in BookShark Level K]. He absolutely loves that book. I even had to put the book down one day when it was 70 degree weather outside. I told him, “No, we’re not going to read another chapter. Let’s go play outside for a while.”
BookShark: Now, you said Emmett has trouble speaking, but he can speak, right?
Kelsey: Yes. He speaks at like a three year old level, but he has a communication device that he uses.
BookShark: So, when he reads, does he just read silently?
Kelsey: No, he reads out loud, but he reads it phonetically.
BookShark: You also do a lot of reading out loud to him, I assume?
Kelsey: Yes. Yes, I do. All the time.
BookShark: Great. Well, when you decided to homeschool, I’m curious if you had any fears or concerns before you started?
Kelsey: Just teaching him to read has been my fear, but after my friend showed me Reading Eggs, it’s been real easy. And he loves the phonics books—Fun Tales—that are part of BookShark.
BookShark: I’m glad you found something that works well! Everybody uses BookShark in their own way, and it’s not bad or wrong, by any means, to supplement with extras if needed. So what parts of BookShark do you use? Do you use the full package?
Kelsey: We use everything but the science worksheets.
BookShark: Okay, but you read the science books?
Kelsey: Yes, we read all the science books. He loves them. He’s loving the Usborne Encyclopedia with the QR links [in BookShark Science K]. He loves to watch a video after I read what’s on the page.
BookShark: That’s super. So, what would you say BookShark, specifically, has done for your homeschool experience with Emmett?
Kelsey: Exposed us to books I would’ve never bought.
BookShark: Yeah, why not?
Kelsey: I’m one of those people that judges a book by its cover. I think, “I don’t really want to read that. It looks too hard to read.” Or, “The cover doesn’t look inviting.” But with BookShark, I’m like, “Well, it’s scheduled. Let’s read it and see.” And then I end up liking it!
BookShark: That’s excellent. Yeah, you’re right. A lot of people say that, that they go to the library and they’re just not sure what’s a good book and what’s not. These books are already chosen for you!
Homeschooling as a Mom with Autism
BookShark: So, I’m curious. You yourself have autism, and you’re very open about that. Your YouTube channel and your Instagram profile both say that you have autism. So, when did you discover that you have autism?
Kelsey: When I was 3. Emmett was doing something that reminded me of myself as a kid, and my friend said, “Well, go get tested. They can say yes or no. A diagnosis does not change who you are.” So, I got tested, and they told me I was level one³.
BookShark: When you learned that, did a lot of things just suddenly make sense for you?
Kelsey: Yes, definitely. I understood better how my brain works. I understood why I had meltdowns as a kid.
BookShark: So, Emmett has autism, too. Do you think that your having autism makes you a better homeschool parent, or does it provide extra challenges, or maybe it’s both? I’d love to hear your perspective on that.
Kelsey: I think it’s challenging, because sometimes my own autism makes me want to just get things done. But he’s having a meltdown and doesn’t want to do something.
But I’m learning to just go at his own pace, and whatever I’m feeling, just bury it deep, because it’s more about what he needs, not what I need. I’m getting more understanding of Emmett as I get older, but sometimes my own sensory needs take over. In those times, I just walk away for a while.
BookShark: That’s what moms do.
Kelsey: Yes, they do.
Anybody Can Use BookShark
BookShark: Do you think any family could use BookShark regardless of what kind of special need the family experiences?
Kelsey: Yeah, everybody could use BookShark. I think learning through literature is way better than doing a dusty old textbook.
Kelsey: Yes, because it changes. You’re not doing the same thing. When you do the same thing over and over again, they’ll get bored really easily.
BookShark: Oh, really? I thought autistic kids liked that pattern and repetition?
Kelsey: They do when it comes to a schedule. They want to know that math is coming up next and science after that. But they don’t want their science to be boring—the same every day. It it gets boring, they’re going to have a meltdown because they just don’t want to do it.
BookShark: I see. So, what do you do when the meltdowns happen? I know you say you just kind of step away. Is that your main strategy—take a break?
Kelsey: Yeah, take a break. For example, in level K, there are the writing sheets where they practice writing words and then sentences. Emmett has meltdowns about writing, so we just slowly do them throughout the year. If he has a meltdown, we take a couple days off. Then we pick it back up, and I see if he’s ready.
BookShark: That’s really good advice for a lot of homeschool parents. When you go slowly, this means you get “behind,” so to speak, on the sheets, right? Does that bother you? How do you deal with that feeling of “being behind”?
Kelsey: It bothered me at first, but now it doesn’t bother me at all. I know we’ll get to them when we get to them. Even if I pick them up two years later, we’ll still get to them when we get to them.
From “You Can’t Homeschool!” to “You Can’t Put Him in Public School!”
BookShark: When I think about your story, Kelsey, I’m struck by the number of challenges you face. You have autism, and your son has complex special needs. You’re a single mom, too. Some people might look at a situation like that and think, “Well, she can’t homeschool.” What do you say to that?
Kelsey: Yeah, my friends thought that I couldn’t homeschool. My friends wanted me to get a job and put him in public school. But now they’ve changed their tune to “You can’t put him in public school! You need to homeschool him!”
Actually, I am somebody else’s inspiration to homeschool! I have a friend—she has a YouTube channel where she talks about life with her daughter with autism who is about the same age as Emmett. She follows me on Instagram and says, “Every time I go on your Instagram account, I’m always writing down things I need to try with my daughter.”
She is talking about homeschooling her daughter next year because of what she’s seen me do with Emmett.
BookShark: That’s great, Kelsey. I love that you are encouraging other people to homeschool and showing people that while it’s challenging, it can be done! I’m just so happy that you are able to educate Emmett at home where he can be safe and loved, and he can grow at his own pace.orward in their education. Project-based assessments give children the opportunity to get their hands busy and their creative ideas flowing.
² ABA is Applied Behavioral Analysis. This system of autism treatment teaches desired behaviors through a system of rewards and consequences. Read more here.
³ There are three severity levels for autism spectrum disorder, one to three. Read more here.
Although having a family reading time is important to my family, I realize that with the numerous other obligations a homeschool mama has, reading aloud as a family might not seems doable. Our family reading time is one of our favorite times of the day, but it didn’t always look like it does now. Here are five easy tips to help you and your family have an awesome daily reading time together:
1. Be choosy about the time of day.
Your family reading time will be affected by the ages of your children and your daily activities. It may also change over time, depending on how your schedule shifts through the year. Choose a time of day that is more relaxed. If your evenings are always very hectic, that probably isn’t a good time for you.
We used to read in the mornings before school until the baby became a toddler. Our family reading time suffered while our mobile little sweetie was getting into everything under the sun. To say she was distracting is an understatement. We ultimately moved our reading time to evenings after the baby was in bed and after the older kids were showered and ready for bed themselves. Changing our family reading time to evening made it a great transition into bedtime.
2. Choose books that interest your children.
If your children can’t stand fanciful stories, don’t read them. Find an author that they love, and read his or her books. My kids love Roald Dahl! On the flipside, challenge your kids to try new literature styles, too. But make sure that they are having fun. Family reading time should not be torture.
3. Read an array of books together.
Sometimes I chose books that correlate with the season or an upcoming holiday. Sometimes my selections go with what we are studying in science or history. Other times they don’t match our homeschool lessons at all.
The point is that I select a wide variety of books, authors, and subjects. Changing it up keeps family reading time from getting dry and boring. Let your children suggest books they want to read. Other times choose for them.
4. Keep little hands busy.
I have been reading to my kids for a long time, ever since they were very small. I’ve even read chapter books to my three-year-olds, but to expect them to sit still and not wiggle is unrealistic. Have a special activity that your little ones can do while you read. Make sure this activity is mostly mindless like these examples:
squeezing silly putty
stacking and unstacking blocks
matching socks
This kind of physical action will keep them mostly stationary and quiet while you read. They may still be moving while they do their activity, but they are listening!
5. Be consistent.
When I’ve tried to read only one chapter every week or so, I almost never finish the novel. Being consistent in your reading time is key to being successful. With too much space between reading sessions, your kids (and you) will forget what is going on in the story. Shoot for at least reading four times per week. It will start to become part of your daily routine, and your kids will miss it when you don’t read.
Happy reading to your family!
About the Author
Alicia Hutchinson is the homeschooling mom to four. She and her children love reading and history and exploring outside. They are just settling into their new home in the Minneapolis area, where they just relocated from North Carolina.
You can read more about Alicia and their homeschooling adventures, current projects, and thoughts on motherhood at her blog Investing Love.
We have just started our fifth year of homeschooling with BookShark and have changed our schedule through the years to fit various stages of our life. I’ve learned to make my curriculum flex for me and my kids while also trusting it to lay a solid academic foundation. I know that BookShark doesn’t need extra dressing up beyond a healthy layer of real-life exploration. But how I arrange the lessons is up to me!
The BookShark Instructor’s Guides offer an easy-to-understand four-day schedule that shows me precisely what to cover in each subject each day—what to read, what to talk about, what words to learn, what timeline figures to place in the Timeline Book, what locations to mark on the Markable Map, what Science activities to do, etc. It’s a relief to have a base to work from! I don’t have to spend energy planning lessons.
Sticking to My Instructor’s Guide… or Not
Sticking to the schedule benefits my kids since the subjects are so often intertwined. I find we get an an even richer learning experience when we work through the Instructor’s Guide as planned. For example, currently our Science, History, and Readers are all set in a relatively close time period, allowing us to dive deep into the mind-set of early American days. Keeping with the same time period means that the bulk of our lessons all relate back and forth with each other.
While staying with the schedule is my preferred method, we have frequently found ourselves in a groove and excited to continue a History lesson to the point we may get several days ahead. Most days we want to work on all subjects, and other days we may power through an entire week of Science in one sitting. We can do that! I let the curriculum flex for me!
We choose to homeschool because it offered our family the greatest flexibility in our school schedule. Even when our schedule may look different from one week to the next, BookShark has worked well with our changes.
Homeschooling with a Four-day Schedule
BookShark’s four-day schedule gives our family the opportunity to enjoy an extra family day or a learning day without books. We enjoy museums and will frequently use our extra day off as a field trip day to learn more with hands-on activities at a children’s science museum or an early American homestead.
We have also used our extra day off to do more in-depth studying of things that interest us at the time. Robotics, foreign language, and crafts frequently fill our fifth day.
The four-day schedule is a great choice for families who want to enjoy a three-day weekend or who elect one day a week for field trips, extra-curricular activities, or homeschool co-op.
Using the Fifth Day for Rabbit Holes
We generally plan for a four-day week, but homeschooling has allowed us the opportunity to jump down the many rabbit holes that come about with learning. We can take our four-day schedule and spread it over five days. This means we may start out talking about an early American family’s water well and then start learning about the water table and finally study the water cycle. We might begin a lesson on the ocean and end up spending an hour with our map discussing geography. I don’t plan these rabbit hole days, but I always welcome them and love that we can adjust our schedule and not stress about getting back on track.
Stretching a four-day schedule into five days gives us more time to spend on each subject and encourages more in-depth learning on subjects our family is interested in.
Keeping a Traditional School Schedule
Following a local school’s schedule can be important for many families. It is a great way to keep on track with your school year and still get plenty of breaks during the year. When we began our first year homeschooling, we went this route and it worked well for us then. We had plenty of breaks and certainly plenty of days for learning, too.
Choosing Year-round Schooling
We currently choose to homeschool year-round. Although we do take a significant number of days off in the summer, I’ve found it works better for our family if we do not take two whole months off school. During the summer, we take more field trips since our local museums, libraries, and parks have great summer programs, packed full of learning opportunities.
Our family loves to travel, so year-round schooling lets us do school while others are out on break. This means we can take our breaks during the school year in the off-season. Traveling while others are in school means the beaches are less crowded, the airfare is reduced, and the hotels are more affordable. Win-win!
Year round schooling is a great option to avoid summer boredom while providing room for more breaks throughout the year.
I found a homeschool schedule that works for me by being flexible and making changes when needed. Being willing to try new routines has helped me find my homeschool groove. Now I’m confident in my choices and know that I can change my schedule each year if I need to!o turn your non-reader into a reader. Some readers bloom later than others! And your investment may pay off in years to come.
About the Author
Pamela Gann lives in Alabama with her husband and two kids where they love doing science experiments. They began their homeschool journey back in 2013 and have used BookShark Levels K -4. Pam is a former flight attendant and is married to a pilot, so traveling is not just their passion—it is their livelihood. She blogs about their homeschool and family travel journey at PamGann. Homeschooling for their family takes place on planes, in cars, and most often outside under a shade tree.
I admit it, verbal sparring is my knee-jerk reaction when I’m asked about homeschool socialization. Even as a seasoned homeschool mom, this topic still puts my emotions into overdrive. To prevent knee-jerk sarcasm or snarky one-liners, I have prepared 10 quick-witted comebacks. Maybe you can use one or two when you get the dreaded socialization question.
1. “Though my son had good teachers, none of them can provide the love, time, patience, or energy that I can.”
This answer takes the attention away from socialization and puts it on why I really homeschool, which is the superior one-on-one tutoring. I emphasize the flexibility and adaptability of homeschooling.
Homeschooling is all about change. As the child’s needs change, so do the curriculum, teaching methods, and schedules. Most reasonable people will admit that level of flexibility is almost impossible for a public school to achieve.
2. “Schooling at home builds self-esteem which is the foundation of healthy social skills.”
Everyone knows the reality of bullying and how it can impact children even well into adulthood. Homeschooling minimizes those negative interactions so that children have a chance to build their own self-worth.
3. “Public school is a very recent happening. Before public school, everyone, including the founding fathers, was homeschooled or used private teachers.”
Not every reply has to be short. A well-researched reply explaining the history of public education can help a person appreciate that you’re using a time-tested method of instruction.
4. “I want my kids educated not entertained.”
To elaborate, I may explain my exasperation with the notion that every moment of a child’s life has to be planned. Being constantly entertained leaves little room for imagination and intuition.
5. “The only way my homeschooled kids won’t make friends is if we don’t get out.”
6. “I prefer that my children socialize with others of different ages because I want my kids to accept people of varying backgrounds and ages.”
7. “We homeschool because if a schedule or curriculum is not working, I don’t have to get the principal’s approval to change it.”
8. “Homeschooling is the best option for our family.”
This is another one where it’s hard for people to pick an argument with you when you state that your family benefits best from this type of teaching.
9. “This year I will need to cut back on our socialization activities because we need to stay home to school.”
Why do people think we lock away our kids at home? Sometimes the situation is quite the opposite and homeschool families find themselves out and about far too much of the time.
10. “Standardized tests are flawed and don’t really measure how well children learn. However, I have some stats here for you if you would like to know how homeschooled kids perform.”
Stats and facts help naysayers to understand a situation in a way they process information.You can either print out articles from National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) or direct them to that website for their own research.
Being prepared is part of my nature, but finding humor and being good-natured when asked about homeschooling is something I like doing too. Sometimes you can find humor in a statement and other times you have to give an explanation.
Ever since my oldest decided to go back to school, I’ve mourned the days when our schedule was our own and we traveled off-season whenever we wanted. I loved the lack of crowds, the discounted pricing, and how spontaneous we could be. I also loved how we could take our learning with us wherever we went. When we visited family or joined my husband on a work trip, we could maintain a familiar structure to our day.
BookShark is now making homeschooling on the road a lot easier. BookShark Virtual allows students to tap into their lessons and assignments anywhere with internet access! So whether you’ll be vacationing for a week or traveling for a year, BookShark Virtual makes it easy for students and parents to homeschool.
If you are considering an RV adventure this year or are already on the road, BookShark Virtual will help you homeschool wherever your travels take you. Here are some of the awesome features you can use the next time you hit the road.
1. Mobile Friendly Browser-Based View
BookShark’s virtual program is hosted through Buzz which features two main views, allowing parents and students to stay up-to-date with lessons and activities:
Teacher view: Parents (or a teacher supervising through a charter school situation) can assign and record grades, track missing assignments, communicate with students, view assignment descriptions, and update due dates. The adult using this view can also see which assignments were submitted and what still needs attention.
Student view: Students can view their grades, post discussions, watch videos, take quizzes, and communicate with their teacher/parent. They can also use embedded links to access their lessons. In addition, they complete Science and Language Arts Activity Sheets directly through the app.
The calendar feature in the Buzz apps is especially helpful. The assignments show up in list form, showing the day they are due. In addition, everyone can set reminder notifications.
2. A Digital Instructor’s Guide + More
When I travel, I live by the motto “Less is more.” I don’t want our car or camper packed to the gills. I love my big blue Instructor’s Guide binder, but it is not travel-friendly.
Thankfully, everything you and your student needs is now digital and housed in BookShark Virtual. You’ll find the weekly and daily plans, discussion questions, worksheets, and even assessments—all online. Leave the bulky IG at home and just grab the great books you’ll read.
3. Option to Download
When we travel, wifi is not always an option, so downloading the Activity Sheets is a huge perk. Once downloaded, students can complete the activities digitally as PDFs. Or print them and fill them in on the road, using the app to keep track of the assignments. Assignments can also be uploaded so students have all of their finished work in one place.
4. You Still Set the Pace
BookShark Virtual lets you set the pace. Weekly lessons are your guide, but it is up to you how fast you work through the curriculum. Your student has access to the virtual curriculum for a year, so there is plenty of time for them to take breaks or spend extra time on a lesson.
Traveling can also set our pace. If the weather’s bad, our kids might have extra time for schooling. At other times, school work might need to take a backseat to exploring museums, or nature preserves. It’s nice to know your students aren’t going to fall behind. BookShark curriculum is a flexible four-day-a-week program that meshes well with an RV or roadschooling lifestyle.
5. You Still Enjoy Great Books
I love that BookShark Virtual still includes physical books. Since most of the books BookShark uses are novels, you won’t be lugging around heavy textbooks. And students spend the majority of their learning time away from screens and with a good book in their hands.
I love that BookShark Virtual still includes physical books. Since most of the books BookShark uses are novels, you won’t be lugging around heavy textbooks. And students spend the majority of their learning time away from screens and with a good book in their hands.
On the road or not, the new virtual option gives us homeschoolers even more flexibility. Take your lessons to the park, study on a field trip, or head to a local coffee shop. Wherever you go, near or far from home, you can now effortlessly take BookShark with you.
*This post was updated 02/21/2023 to reflect the current Virtual platform.
About the Author
Kelly left teaching middle and high school English to homeschool her children and reclaim how she and her family spent their time. Followers of interest-led learning, her family’s days rarely look the same, but they tend to include a lot of books, art supplies, and time outside.
Kelly facilitates local writing circles for women and children and blogs about nurturing the love of learning on her blog, Curiosity Encouraged. She loves to journal, read memoirs, hike, and travel. She seeks quiet mornings and good coffee daily.
Visual aids work. It’s the reason companies spend thousands of dollars on an icon to represent their brand. The same principle works for us homeschool moms. When we can connect homeschool lessons to an interactive, visual learning aid, children will understand and remember more readily. If your children are crafty and enjoy cutting, coloring, writing, and assembling papercrafts, lap books are a fabulous way to add a visual and hands-on component to whatever curriculum you use.
A lap book is an interactive notebook with smaller mini books affixed onto a file folder. It’s a fun way for craft-loving kids to organize what they learn.
The creation of the lap book is part of the learning.
And then the reviewing of the lap book cements the learning for long-term retention.
Benefits of Lap Books with a Literature-based Approach
Kids get more screen time now than ever before. While digital content has a place, it shouldn’t replace a child’s artwork, handiwork, and creativity. Lap books encourage a child’s natural desire to research, organize, and display the information they learned. What they create becomes a book of information they can reference later and be proud of.
I’m always looking for ways to simplify what we’re learning and to make my teaching time count. Lap books do that for my kids! Although some families think that the time it takes to do lap books can be a turn off, I view them as a long-term investment. Almost ten years later, my sons still take out their lap books and review what they compiled when younger. And I can’t count how many times they reviewed the information through the years while explaining their current topic of interest to family and friends.
Do you have to create lap books to learn? Of course not! Many children (and moms) are content to read and discuss—the cornerstone of the literature-based approach of BookShark curriculum. But if enjoy lap books, then they are one more tool in your toolbelt for narration and composition.
A lap book is also a portfolio of a child’s schoolwork. If you live in an area that requires annual documentation of learning, lap books are tangible and impressive proof of what your child has studied.
After realizing that my sons didn’t have to use glitter or pompoms when making a lap book, we adjusted each lap book to suit each child’s learning style. It has been one of the most flexible tools I’ve ever used with a literature-based approach. If your kids are extra crafty, they can go all out with decorations. But if your children are less interested in embellishments and design, they can keep their work simpler. It’s up to you!
Making foldable projects can help your child master things that require repetition or topics your child is struggling with. For example, if your child can’t remember the helping verbs, then encourage him to create a flip book that lists the words. Creating the book is a learning experience in itself. And then when your child lifts the flaps to recall the word list, the activity becomes active learning. Although you want your child to add tidbits of information which delight him, think of the lap book as a memory aid or reference tool to help your child recall information, too.
Lap Books: Worthless or Worth Keeping?
Mini books, graphs, charts, worksheets, maps, and writing can all be arranged in a lap book. This versatile learning tool can be adapted to each child’s needs, likes, and dislikes, and creative spunk. All you need are basic school supplies, you already have on hand:
file folders
glue stick or rubber cement
paper in various colors
scissors
tape
markers and colored pencils
Then, look at your homeschool science or history lessons with an eye to dividing up chunks of information into small units that can be individual mini books or projects.
Is there a list? It will probably make a good lap book project maybe as cards or a flipbook.
Cause and effect? Another lap book project!
Vocabulary words? Yes, those too make for great lap book components.
Events in a series? Display them in a small timeline format.
Diagrams? Perfect for lap books!
Remember that a lap book doesn’t have to include everything you studied from a chapter or topic. Pick and choose the parts that your child finds captivating and wants to illustrate through papercrafts. Lap booking works perfectly in the narration stage of your homeschool lesson. After your Read-Alouds, ask your children to narrate back what they learned, using the discussion questions in your Instructor’s Guide. Then make a project for your lap book based on what your child narrated.
You may want to create one or two minibooks a day depending on their complexity. A very elaborate project may stretch out over several days. Store each project in a ziploc bag as your child creates them. After your child finishes 10 to 13 minibooks, he can arrange them on a file folder base.
Tips for Using Lap Books with Your Homeschool Curriculum
Here are a few dos and don’ts to avoid lap book pitfalls.
Don’t turn designing the mini books into a crafting session unless the child wants to. The emphasis is on the concepts learned and how they are organized not on the fancy coloring or cutting technique—again, unless your child thrives on that kind of crafty work.
Do remember that it takes time to build a lap book. So be patient.
Don’t try to cram every idea or teaching point into the lap book. Pick and choose.
Do remember that lap books are not only for young children. Lap books give older children a chance to organize the material they’re learning. And extra flaps can easily be added to lap books to accommodate compositions and drawings added by an older learner.
Do integrate cleanup time into your homeschool day so you aren’t left with that chore by yourself.
While anything you study for homeschool can easily be made into a lap book, many families love buying pre-designed lap book kits, like these for American History I, American History II, World History I, and World History II that provide the exact templates and directions for assembling them. If your children are extremely outside-the-box thinkers, you can use a kit as a springboard for their own designs. Just add additional flaps to the lap book base and add as many extras as you like!
Whether you are looking for a way to reinforce the major teaching points in your literature-based curriculum or are looking for a creative outlet for your budding artist-scholar, lap books are a method to try.
About the Author
Tina Robertson celebrated the graduation of Mr. Senior in 2013 and Mr. Awesome in 2015. Because of her love for new homeschoolers, she mentors moms through her unique program called New Bee Homeschoolers. She loves all homeschoolers, though, as she shares her free 7 Step Curriculum Planner, unit studies, lap books and homeschooling how tos. She can’t sing, dance, or craft, but she counts organizing as a hobby. She is still in the homeschool trenches blogging at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus.
When we first started homeschooling, we picked a classical curriculum that required five days of schoolwork. Since I had just pulled my son out of a parochial school, I took the the five-day school model as an assumed standard. My son must do five full days of schoolwork to learn just as he had in school.
However, that plan didn’t work for long. I quickly discovered that my son was behind in math and couldn’t keep up with the schedule for the classical homeschool curriculum. Soon we were both frustrated.
When we switched to BookShark a few years later, I was a little bothered that BookShark had lessons planned for only four days a week because I was still clinging to the five-day-a-week brick-and-mortar school standard.
The Joys of a Four-day Schedule
However, about 10 weeks into our BookShark year, I started savoring this four-day school week. We used the fifth day at first as a catch up day or a day to run errands. Later, we used it as a field trip day. Then, when we joined a co-op, we loved having only four days of scheduled homeschool work so that the fifth day was free for co-op.
I also noticed that on that fifth day (whenever we took it during the week)—those days when formal school wasn’t scheduled—my son spent a lot of his free time reading for enjoyment. He was still learning even on our off days!
Each year I give my son a standardized test to check my progress as a homeschool parent as much as my son’s progress as a student. Each year his score has been well above grade level, but when we switched to BookShark and schooled formally for only four days each week, his score jumped even more.
A Four-day School Week Leads to More Flexibility
BookShark’s four-day curriculum freed my mind to be open to more flexibility. Now, I’m even more flexible than before.
If I haven’t completed all of my younger girls’ scheduled reading during the day, we finish our read aloud as a bedtime story. Sure, we didn’t fit the work in during traditional school hours, but I’ve finally realized that as homeschoolers, we don’t need to fit all of our work in the traditional school hours.
If my kids need to go outside and do a scavenger hunt for science, I now have my husband do it on the weekend. This is especially helpful when we’ve had a busy week and couldn’t get to some of the hands-on activities.
Homeschooling offers families amazing flexibility. We simply have to be open to embracing that flexibility. For me, BookShark’s four-day schedule was a great way to free myself from the confines of a traditional brick-and-mortar school schedule and find what works for our family.
About the Author
Melissa is a homeschool mom to three kids. BookShark is her primary curriculum, and she and her kids love it! When she’s not homeschooling, she’s either shuttling kids from one activity to another or working from home as a freelance writer. You can read more about Melissa’s homeschool journey at her blog Moms Plans.
My son is in fifth grade this year. He’s at that age where he’s growing up fast but he still loves to snuggle on the couch with his mom occasionally. One of the things he loves the most is reading together.
We have a long-standing tradition of reading a book together each night, usually one that has a movie coming out that we’d like to see.
This year with BookShark as our curriculum, that nighttime reading tradition has become part of our homeschool day, too! Since he’s an independent reader, we haven’t included Read-Alouds in our homeschool for several years. I admit that it’s something we let slide while we were using other curriculums. But now that we’re on the BookShark bandwagon, I’m realizing how wonderful it is to use reading aloud with a middle schooler!
I’m Reading What He’s Reading
I make an effort to read almost everything my son reads, but it gets difficult especially during busy times in our lives. With Read-Alouds, we are reading together, and that means I’m sharing the story with him.
We had an awesome experience this year with our first Read-Aloud, Pablo’s Journey(from Level 3), a story about a young boy aboard Columbus’ ship. What we learned in the novel was made even clearer when we toured replicas of the Nina and the Pinta. Our field trip took on so much more meaning because we were able to discuss aspects of the book and relate it to what we were seeing!
If we hadn’t shared the experience of Pablo’s Journey, our field trip would have not been as rich of an experience.
It’s a Soothing Part of Our Homeschool Day
Between math problems and writing activities, it is great to have part of the day when we savor a little quiet and connection.
During Read-Aloud time, my son can enjoy a snack, and the dog joins us on the couch. It is a reminder of why we homeschool in the first place—to nurture and enjoy our family relationships!
Reading aloud is a part of our day that my son looks forward to the most. He asks when we’ll be reading together and will happily sit to hear more than what the lesson plan calls for that day! It is great to have at least one thing each day that I can count on to be enjoyable for everyone.
BookShark Has Chosen Great Books
BookShark has curated such an awesome collection of books for reading aloud that it makes it pleasant as a parent to share in the adventure with your child. These living books bring history to life in a way that is enjoyable and fun. They open up conversations about the time periods and spark interest in aspects of history that may not have interested your child before. The books you read make all the difference in an successful lesson, and so far we have loved all of our books this year.
There comes a point in homeschooling when your child is older and capable of reading silently. That’s when you may ditch the Read-Alouds. But that might not be the best choice! BookShark has reminded me why Read-Alouds are such a great part of learning. I’m thankful for how the books have helped me connect us with my son this year!
About the Author
Krista is the homeschooling mom of 3 boys. After 13 years she has learned the value of chilling out, going with the flow and keeping homeschooling fun! She is the blogger behind Far From Normal where she hopes to encourage parents and homeschoolers, and inspire a life lived happily outside the box!
