BookShark

Category: Homeschool Tips

  • Travel the Globe With These 12 Homeschool Geography Explorations

    Travel the Globe With These 12 Homeschool Geography Explorations

    I often wish we were wealthy enough to travel the world. I’d love to expose my children to all the wonders of the world and have them learn firsthand about what makes each culture unique. Unfortunately, we do not have the means to travel extensively, and so we have taken to travelling the globe from our home using these twelve winning methods.

    1. Cooking Traditional Foods

    With the internet, it is so easy to find authentic recipes from all around the world. A few times we’ve had to make small substitutions to recipes when ingredients aren’t found locally, but cooking up cuisine from each country we have studied has helped us feel like we’re there. Cooking and eating are also a great way to get Dad involved in our homeschool lessons in the evenings.

    Don’t be afraid to move a small table outside and pretend you’re at a Parisian cafe or eat in the living room gathered around the coffee table when studying Japan.

    2. Reading

    There is nothing like a great story to capture my boys’ attention. Of course, choosing a homeschool curriculum that capitalizes on the narrative of history through living books and biographies is an obvious way to travel the globe vicariously. But you can supplement any program with a collection of quality books covering all kinds of cultures, time periods, and continents in your home library.

    3. Watching Movies & Travel Documentaries

    Watching travel videos, historical movies, and documentaries is a wonderful way to learn more about a region or culture. Movies allow us to see the landscape, the people, and their culture in a way that reading can’t always provide. When I combine the visual of film with the background of a book, we get the best of both worlds, and my children have a robust understanding of the world without ever packing a suitcase.

    4. Crafting

    Art is as much a part of any culture as food! A great way to learn about native arts and crafts is to recreate them. We have found so many wonderful tutorials online:

    • making African Kente cloth
    • trying Aboriginal dot painting
    • sketching Japanese manga   

    The act of making reproductions or designing something in the style of art you are studying cements the learning and provides a fresh facet to your geography studies.

    5. Map Making

    Yes, you can trace outlines on paper. But we’ve also made topographical maps and landforms out of cookie dough, cake, salt dough, and even brownie batter. We’ve drawn maps with rivers, capital cities, and other features we’re interested in. Three-dimensional maps are a great way to focus on each region. You can bet your kids will remember geographic features after they molded them in frosting or dough!

    6. Listening to Music

    Music is an important part of each culture, too, and listening to music from around the world is so easy with the help of the internet and YouTube videos. You can always take it one step further and make your own instruments or learn how to play an instrument.  

    7. Learning a Foreign Language

    While we have never committed ourselves to fully learning a new language, we do enjoy listening to snippets of foreign languages or reading books that teach us words in the language of a foreign country. When studying Japan and China, we tried our hand at drawing some characters. Copying names, letters, and sentences written in a foreign language is a great way to get a feel for what street signs and environmental print would be like.

    8. Designing a Travel Brochure

    Assign your children the task of creating a travel brochure for your area of study. They can look up facts, add beautiful pictures, describe tourist attractions, and highlight all the special features of each country. The brochure can be on a sheet of paper, a posterboard, or even a digital presentation.

    9. Taking Virtual Field Trips

    Many museums, galleries, and historical sites have online webcams and virtual field trips that can give you a panoramic view of locations you can only dream of visiting in real life. Do some internet searches of specific locales or subscribe to an online virtual field trip service such as Field Trip Zoom.

    10. Postal Exchanges

    We have participated in a few cultural and postcard exchanges and had gobs of fun learning about other regions. We sent a letter and box of goodies to a family and received one in return filled with wonderful trinkets, snacks, and drinks from another country. If you Google cultural exchange box,  postcard exchange, and flat travelers, you will find groups that link families from across the globe in these kinds of educational, snail-mail activities.

    11.  Attending Festivals

    Many cities have cultural festivals, and they are a great way to feel like you are visiting a foreign country. You can usually get a firsthand look at the food, music, art, and dance from a culture. Encourage your children to ask questions! Most festival hosts and vendors are thrilled to educate inquisitive youngsters.

    12.  Hosting a Geography Fair

    Our local homeschool groups hosts a geography fair where each child reports on a country, complete with food and crafts for the kids to try out. The kids get passports and stamp their way around the room, reading the display boards, looking at the displays, and trying new foods and crafts. If your homeschool group doesn’t offer a fair, it is simple enough to invite a few friends over for a culture night. Pick a country or continent,  try new foods, have your kids report on what they’ve learned, and make some homeschool memories.  

    About Our Author

    Joanne Rawson is the author of the blog Our Unschooling Journey. Known around the web as Mother of 3, Joanne began her blog when she first started homeschooling her three boys in 2012. She lives in Connecticut with her family and enjoys reading, crafting, and travelling… all of which usually ends up on her blog.

  • Why Homeschooling Is the Best

    Why Homeschooling Is the Best

    Less Bullying and More Individuality

    No matter how much we parents would like to deny the existence of bullying in the school system, we can’t. Public schools can be fraught with social issues which children are easily caught up in. If you are concerned for the safety of your child, then homeschooling is a good option to keep them safe. But even more than that, homeschooling is also a way to encourage them to be the best people that they can be. It’s a way to turn differences into superpowers!

    The Ugly Truth about Bullying at School

    Dosomething.org gives some frightening statistics about bullying in the US education system. Here are some of the most shocking:

    • One in five children between the ages of 12 and 18 has been bullied. 
    • A large number of bullied children skip school because they are afraid.
    • Bullied kids often score lower in reading, math, and science.
    • Almost half of the kids interviewed were bullied because of perceived differences in them, such as appearance, race, sexual orientation, or disability. 

    The last point really hit home for me. As the mother of special needs twins, I saw this first hand. During the one year that my children were enrolled in public school, they were bullied. They were only in first grade, so we didn’t want to stick around to see how much worse it could have gotten as they grew up. The bullying was one reason among many why we chose to homeschool our boys.  

    The Benefits of Encouraging Individuality

    Bullying is incredibly destructive and can have long-lasting effects on children. And this is especially true if children are different in a way seen as negative or shameful. These differences can dominate their lives, eventually becoming massive obstacles to overcome, hindering children in reaching their full potential.

    But if kids are encouraged and their differences are celebrated, these traits can become advantages and strengths. Encouraging individuality can:

    • help kids feel proud of themselves and what makes them different
    • free children to be themselves
    • encourage them to show the world a unique perspective 
    • nurture humans who are inclusive by nature

    Preparing Our Children for the Future

    The working world has changed and will continue to change in the future. The jobs we are doing now might not exist in a decade’s time. This rapid transformation means that the education system also needs to change. Public schools are unfortunately not able to keep up, but homeschooling is a viable option. 

    By homeschooling, you are able to allow your children to develop their individual strengths without the fear that they might be bullied for them. In addition, with a strong sense of worth and belief in themselves, children will stand out from the crowd. We need these kinds of people in the future—people who can see things in a different way, who are confident and who believe that they can make a difference, because they are different. 

    We all admire the individuality and boldness of Oprah Winfrey and Elon Musk. So why not encourage our children to think outside the box like those admirable heroes?

    Homeschooling is best for protecting children. They are kept safe and secure. But more than that, homeschooling is a place where children can be proud of what makes them different. And I believe the world sorely needs more of these kinds of people.

    How to Start Homeschooling

    About Our Author

    Charlotte Jones is a multi-tasking mom who works from home. She spends her days blogging at My Little Home School, homeschooling her twins, and teaching English online.

    Her home is a small house in a quaint little town on the coast of South Africa. You can often find her swimming in the lagoon or hiking in the forest with her husband, special needs twins, and furbaby.

    She loves her family, spending time in nature, running, red lipstick, and drinking too much coffee. 

  • We Don’t Homeschool for Religious Reasons

    We Don’t Homeschool for Religious Reasons

    Homeschooling has come a long way in the last fifteen years. It used to be that most homeschoolers were educating at home because of religious reasons and mostly kept their children hidden at home—afraid that too much exposure to the world around them would hurt them in some way. These days, people are homeschooling for an array of reasons. Even some who are religious are choosing to homeschool for non-religious reasons.

    You might be new to homeschooling and you think that everyone in the homeschool world is highly reserved, secluded, or unaccessible because of their religious beliefs.You might be looking for other folks who have chosen to homeschool not because of their beliefs, but because of other benefits of the homeschool lifestyle. If so, you can probably relate to my story.

    I became a mom very young—19 to be exact. I never knew I wanted to be a mother, but when the doctor placed my son in my arms, my heart exploded, and I knew I would never leave home to work again if I could at all help it. Luckily, my new husband felt the same and I’ve been home with him ever since, along with three more little hooligans who have joined the ranks.

    Being such a young, inexperienced mother, I was fearful of making mistakes, so choosing whether or not to send our oldest to school was a huge decision. In my heart I didn’t want to miss those formative days with my son. It wasn’t a control issue or fear; I just wanted to be with him and enjoy life with him. After a trial-run year at a private school for kindergarten, we decided to try homeschooling. We’re now in our eighth year of homeschooling, and it has been a beautiful thing for our family.

    We wanted to be with our kids. We wanted to explore with them, do our days together, learn together, and have all day to achieve the education we dreamed about for them. Those were our reasons, and here are more non-religious reasons you might choose to homeschool:

    The Love of Learning

    The beauty of homeschooling is that you can cater to each and every one of your child’s interests and hobbies. You can choose rich literature and great teaching tactics to give your child an amazing love of learning to last their whole lives. This is another reason we chose to homeschool. After my son came home from Kindergarten with worksheet after worksheet, I knew I could give him something more—something that would light a fire in him to explore more, ask questions, and ignite his brain to think deeper.

    Flexible Schedules

    Some people choose to homeschool simply because they don’t want to answer to a big school calendar telling them where to be when. Having your school days open to explore is an awesome part of homeschooling, and some choose to homeschool because of this huge perk alone!

    School Troubles

    Bullies, teachers who don’t understand your child, and problems with friends or faculty are all reasons parents choose to pull their children out of school and give them a home education. Sometimes all it takes is a negative situation at school to open a parent’s eyes to what homeschooling offers in contrast.

    Indivdualized Learning

    The hard part about a traditional school is that it doesn’t have the adaptability to choose curriculum based on each child’s learning style. They have a budget to choose one curriculum that might have to last several years even if it’s not recepted well. This is where individualized learning comes in, and this is another reason why many people choose to educate at home. We have this amazing ability to change curriculum, try new things, switch halfway through the year, or scrap curriculum altogether!

    There are tons of other reasons parents choose to homeschool; this just scratches the surface. I personally am a Christian, but that’s not why I chose to homeschool my children. My husband and I don’t want to control them or shield them from the world. On the contrary! There are so many beautiful things to experience out there, and homeschooling allows us the freedome to truly explore them. We all homeschool for different reasons, but the wonderful world of homeschooling is our common thread that makes us all non-traditional innovators.

    BookShark offers literature-rich, secular curriculum packages for families who have chosen to homeschool for whatever reasons.

    About Our 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.

  • Three Reasons I Left My Homeschool Co-Op

    Three Reasons I Left My Homeschool Co-Op

    I have been homeschooling for so long that most of my friends and family are homeschoolers or at least homeschool-friendly. Honestly, I haven’t heard the question about socialization in so long that I forgot it was an issue. Today, I saw a Facebook acquaintance post a question to her friends, asking what kind of school they would choose for their kids. Every single one who said they would consider homeschooling mentioned joining a co-op for socialization as some sort of disclaimer.

    When I began homeschooling my sons at the ages of three and five, we joined a homeschool co-op for this exact reason. In a world of homeschool haters, joining a co-op gives you a way to say, “Look! My kids socialize! My kids sit in a classroom at least once a week!”

    We joined a secular co-op that met once a week for laid-back, academic classes. Co-ops are great for making new friends, learning in a group environment, and taking advantage of group rates on field trips. We loved being part of our co-op while it worked.

    But then, two years ago, it no longer worked for us. Rather than try to find a better fit, we decided to leave the world of homeschool co-ops behind for a while. Here are my reasons.

    1. Homeschool Co-Op Took Too Much Time

    While classes only meet once a week for a few hours, co-ops rely on the support of all the members. Teaching classes is rewarding and a lot of fun, but very time-consuming! Our family had so many other opportunities and obligations that I found it difficult to juggle planning classes, buying supplies, and helping with administrative duties. Co-op took over my life, and my sons’ education suffered for it.

    2. Homeschool Co-Op Was Expensive

    Though most co-ops are run completely by parent volunteers, they can still get pricey. There are typically supply fees, field trip costs, and building fees. As my kids got older, the cost increased and we realized there were other classes and opportunities they would like to try that the co-op money could be used for.

    3. Homeschool Co-Op Had Drama

    Any time you get a large group of people together, you will get personality conflicts. My sons had a great time with their friends, but I had a hard time dealing with some of the other parents. It’s okay to have disagreements and prefer some members over others, but when you get to a point where you dread each weekly meeting, it might be time to say goodbye.

    What have I gained by leaving co-op behind? Time! We are no longer rushing around every single day. We have at least two days every school week that are devoted to being at home, reading, learning, and enjoying being together. We also have time for play dates with our friends, days at the museum, and volunteering.

    In addition to time in our homeschool, I’ve gained personal time, too. I no longer need to spend 100% of my time being a homeschooler. I get some downtime to be myself: to invest in my own interests, read books for fun, and focus on my needs.

    I am grateful for the friends we made through co-op and the support we received as new homeschoolers. As my boys get older, we may choose to join a more academic co-op where they can learn different subjects. But right now we need the freedom to learn away from the group. Don’t worry, though, they still get plenty of socialization even without a homeschool co-op.

    About Our Author

    Stephanie Black is a writer and homeschool mama of two boys in Indianapolis, IN. Along with her husband and feisty rescue dog, they enjoy hiking, road tripping, and loudly singing 90s rock music. 

  • How to Manage Your Library Books

    How to Manage Your Library Books

    Although homeschoolers usually have a healthy home library, they are typically very faithful library patrons as well. They visit regularly, participate in programs, and check out stacks of books at a time. Even if they use a literature-based program, homeschoolers can’t seem to get enough books to supplement their science and history lessons or for recreational reading.

    Tips for Keeping Track of Checked Out Library Books

    Libraries can be huge money savers for homeschoolers but only if you don’t lose track of your borrowed books. Fines, no matter how small, can add up quickly when you’re checking out 20+ books at a time (as many homeschoolers do).

    While they’re young, teach your children that being a good library patron is about respect. It’s important to take care of the books as if they belong to a friend. That includes knowing where borrowed books are at all times and returning them when they are due.

    Designate a Central Location

    Find a place in your home that can be used only for library books. Make sure all family members know where it is and what it’s for. Elicit everyone’s help keeping it available for this purpose and not letting it get cluttered with other items or books.

    When you come home from a library visit, have your children place the books into this spot right away. Teach your children that after books are read, they are to be put back into the library spot.

    Sign up for Email Alerts

    Most libraries have the ability to send you a courtesy notice via email (or maybe text or robocall) a couple of days before books are due back. Ask your librarian if they offer this and if they do, give them your email address and make sure they attach it to all library cards your family uses.

    Use One Library Card

    If your library allows you unlimited checkouts per library card, use the same library card each time you borrow books. This way, when you go online to renew books or see when certain books are due back, you have to check only one card.

    Does your library place a limit on the number of books you can take out per card? Then try to limit the number of cards you use. When you’re checking out large numbers of books at a time, it can be challenging enough to remember what titles you have at home. You don’t need the added pressure of remembering what card they’re on.

    Check your List Before Heading Out

    Before you head back to the library, make sure you have all of the books that need to go back. Pull up your account online or use the paper receipt and call out the titles as your children pull the books off the shelves and put them into your library bag. If there are titles that aren’t ready to go back, set them aside so you can renew them online after you pack up the rest of the books.

    Keeping track of your library books isn’t hard if you have a system in place that everyone knows and follows.

  • Why Reading Aloud Is the Key for Kids Who Hate Reading

    Why Reading Aloud Is the Key for Kids Who Hate Reading

    To say my son is not a big fan of reading may be an understatement. How frustrating! Didn’t he know I had big plans for the type of reader he would be? You know, the read-by-age-four-voracious-can’t put-the-book-down type of reader.

    I’m a reading teacher after all! Couldn’t I just mold him into the type of read I wanted him to be? Ha! I couldn’t convince him to enjoy reading anymore than I could convince him that peas were his favorite food.

    I could try. I could coerce. Prod. Reward. Punish. But I could not make him enjoy the act of reading. Enjoyment comes from within, and reading a book just isn’t his thing.

    So, I was faced with a choice—force reading and torture us both, throw my hands up and surrender, or read aloud. The only clear choice—to save my relationship with my son and my sanity—was to read aloud. So that’s what we did. And what I learned along the way was beautiful.

    Reading Aloud Builds Connection

    Settling in on the couch with a mug of tea in one hand, a book in the other, my kids plop down around the living room. Some encircle the bin of LEGO bricks. Another sprawls, all arms and legs, into the armchair beside the window. Still another climbs into my lap and pulls her blanket up to her chin. They can’t wait to hear the next chapter in Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.

    Here we are, all six kids and me, gathered round a book. They giggle at my attempts to pronounce some of the ship terms, and beg me to read another chapter when I close the book. These mornings are building connection—connection between us, building our family tapestry of memories, and connection between each of my kids and the love of story.

    Together we are connecting with people of different times and places, learning to walk in their shoes, even just for the span of an hour. Roald Dahl, one of our favorite authors, knew the value of story when, in Matilda, he wrote,

    “The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.”

    Notice that he is not saying reading transported her, but books. The stories in the books transported her, not the act of decoding words. This distinction may seem like splitting hairs, but for kids who don’t like to read, it is a vast canyon.

    The act of reading can be cumbersome and get in the way of the enjoyment of the story. Listening to a story read aloud can bring the story to life and create connections that silent reading cannot.

    Just as a writer is still a writer if they have no use of their hands, a reader is still a reader when engaging with the story by listening. Writers connect with the world by sharing their ideas. Readers connect with the story by allowing themselves to connect with the characters and the plot.

    Reading Aloud Builds Language Skills

    We all want our children to build their language skills—vocabulary, comprehension, critical thinking, and discussion. Reading aloud with a book-based curriculum does all of this!

    When reading at their own level, children are exposed to a limited scope of words, as dictated by that reading level. When listening to a read aloud, children (teens and adults, too) have the opportunity to expand their vocabularies in new ways. They hear new words in context, making their meanings purposeful within the story rather than just words to be memorized on a vocabulary worksheet.

    With read alouds, children feel more comfortable to stop and ask, “What does that mean?” When reading silently, the child is more likely just to skip over the word and hope for the best.

    The same principle holds true for comprehension. When the act of decoding words is taken out of the reading equation, children are able to comprehend more sophisticated stories and sentence structures. Both of these lay the path for critical thinking and discussion.

    When we read aloud with our kids, we experience history with them! We are there as they wrestle with big ideas. They see our facial expressions as we read a poignant paragraph, and hear our inflection as we move between lines of dialogue. From these shared experiences come discussion. When reading aloud, we have the opportunity to pause and chat about the characters’ actions, the author’s word choice, and the surprising plot twist. We are there—building language skills with our kids in a most natural and enjoyable way!

    Reading Aloud—What If I’m Too Tired or Don’t Like to Read Aloud?

    I get it! Sometimes sitting down to read aloud makes me yawn. I’m tired from a busy week or just plain tired of reading aloud. My voice needs a break.

    The solution is audiobooks! We love, love, love audiobooks! They have kept our read alouds flowing through illness and busy seasons when we’re on the run. We listen along on our drive to swim practice or on a quiet Monday morning when we all need extra time to wake up.

    I especially like to select read alouds that capture the essence of a historical time period through the added effects of the audiobook. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe wouldn’t sound the same if not read with a British accent. The lilting harmonica notes in Echo draw us deeper into the story, and Bud, Not Buddy deserves the deep, smooth voice of James Avery. Without the subtle nuances added to these audiobooks, our experience of them would have been very different.

    Reading Aloud—What About the Teen Years?

    Just because there are thirteen candles lit on the birthday cake doesn’t mean that your read aloud days are done. The opposite is true! Reading aloud with a teen is an adventure worth taking! The stories that they choose are meatier and almost always beg for discussion—especially when the subject matter tackles sensitive issues. Read alouds in the teen years keep learning alive when textbooks often become the norm, and the connections we made through books in the earlier years can continue to thrive.

    A book-based curriculum is perfect for kids who don’t like to read and for those who do. Human beings thrive on story, and a book-based curriculum is built on just that—story! A book-based curriculum is like a well-crafted booklist, laid out like a feast, and reading aloud brings that feast to everyone. Enjoy!

    About the Author

    Angela Awald is a homeschooling mama to 6, certified teacher, writer, and doula. Her days brim full of learning, loving, and laundry (lots and lots of laundry)!! She believes that nurturing children (and ourselves) means helping them to see that all of life is about learning – from our mistakes, from each other, and from great books! Angela blogs at nurturedroots.net where she shares the ways she is nurturing her family and inspiration for nurturing your own.

  • Is It Too Late to Start Homeschooling? Is My Child Too Old?

    Is It Too Late to Start Homeschooling? Is My Child Too Old?

    Search homeschooling on just about any platform you can think of, and you’ll instantly be flooded with resources. Gorgeous wooden Waldorf toys, nature studies for preschoolers, vintage handwriting tablets, tricks that incorporate LEGO into reading. There are printables, book lists, and math manipulatives galore—so many options. You’ll find books and blogs all devoted to explaining the various homeschool philosophies, from Charlotte Mason to unschooling, classical to literature-based. There are all the checklists and planners and getting-started guides a parent could ever need, just at your fingertips, for when you decide it’s time to start homeschooling your little one.

    But what about when you don’t start homeschooling until your child is a little older? What if you’re looking into homeschooling for the first time with a middle schooler? What if you are wading through preschool crafts and all the books that go to great lengths discussing the importance of a solid educational foundation while searching for upper grade resources?

    If you have an older child and have only just begun to dip your toe into the primary-heavy world of homeschooling resources, is it too late? 

    (Spoiler alert: you’re not too late.)

    Starting to Homeschool Mid-School Year

    I became peripherally aware of homeschooling when my middle child was in second grade. I knew it was potentially on the horizon for us, but for the time being I was keeping it at arm’s length and trying to power through. I’d casually search Pinterest here and there, maybe look on Instagram to see how other families were doing it, but I wasn’t diving into homeschool research or devoting my nights to wording an educational mission statement. Until I was. 

    When the time came to pull my third grader out of public school, I found myself grasping at every resource I could find. I was a woman possessed, spending every waking hour (and far too many bedtime hours) Googling reviews, poring over forums for suggestions, gobbling up book lists and filling up my online carts. I was looking for anything I could find that would make this task seem less daunting. And there was a lot to be found in the lane of encouraging homeschool moms… of preschoolers. 

    It seemed that most websites and blogs and Instagram accounts were operating under the assumption that all homeschoolers started out as homeschoolers, and most of the encouragements and recommendations I was finding were geared towards the parent of the very young child.

    • Pep talks for parents teaching their kids to read.
    • Magical speeches about creating a lifestyle of learning from very young ages.
    • Passionate calls to allow children to learn through play.

    References to foundations and habits were everywhere, but I had a child who had already passed all of these milestones. My child could already read, already do math, already had an idea of what learning was and very much needed to “do school,” not just play. 

    Was I too late? Had a foundation already been laid by someone else’s hands, with someone else’s philosophies? Could I jump in and take over the reins, or was I going to have to break something down in order to build something else entirely up?

    A little of all of it, honestly.  

    Picking Up Where They Left Off

    Yes, my son could read. We didn’t need to spend hours working on phonics together for him to develop a love of language. We just needed to find books we enjoyed reading together. 

    Yes, my son could already do math. We didn’t need to point out patterns in nature or count the legs of a caterpillar for him to appreciate what numbers were. We just needed to find a math curriculum we liked. 

    Yes, my son could write. We didn’t need to create sensory-friendly bins for him to practice letters and penmanship in order for him to communicate well. We just needed to find writing prompts that excited him. 

    Part of transitioning into homeschool from a previous educational setting did involve a bit of a relay, figuring out where the school had left off and running ahead from there. 

    Part of choosing to homeschool after a few years in a traditional institution did require the breaking down of some habits or expectations that had been instilled.

    You’re Not Playing Education Catch-Up

    The transition period allowed me to develop a homeschool philosophy that included both of us. Instead of declaring ourselves to be devout followers of this method or that, I was able to work with my son to discover how and what he wanted to learn.

    Did I miss a window in his development by having someone else teach him for the first few years? Absolutely not! I was still his mother during those years, after all, and my influence was strong back then, too. He wasn’t some totally different child that had been built by strangers that I now needed to re-program, he was my kid all along, and homeschooling was just giving us more time together. 

    Had I been homeschooling him all along, I may have directed us down a path that wasn’t one he would have responded to as well. Had I labored over an educational mission statement when he was four, he may never have had the opportunity to tell me when he was 8 that he loved history and wanted to learn more than he could have in public school. If he didn’t know what he’d been missing, he couldn’t have known what he wanted from home education.

    You’re Getting a Homeschool Head Start

    When you start homeschooling an older child, you’re not scrambling to build a new foundation, you’re given the unique opportunity to work where you know the cracks are. Rather than fretting over choosing a methodology to apply to an unknown future, you have the advantage of molding a method to fit your child as you know them to be. 

    So is it too late to begin homeschooling an older child—a child who can already read, already write, already has habits formed and ideas sprouted?

    Well, mama, you’re still learning. It’s never too late to start, and it’s almost an advantage to have waited.

    So go ahead and take the leap. You may not have use for those beautiful play silks or the vintage school desks, but you’ve got a great kid who you already know, and that is the best tool of all. 

    About the Author

    Jennifer Vail proudly lives in the great state of Texas with her very handsome husband and three very funny children. All three kids are educated in three very different ways according to their very different needs, which is exhausting but fulfilling. Jen’s hobbies include naps, 90’s pop culture, Netflix binges, buying books with the best of intentions to read them all, photography, and extroverting. She holds a degree in counseling but has found her calling by writing for and spending time with families of differently-wired, outlier kids—the square pegs of the round world.

    She stays up way too late and drinks way too much caffeine, but has no intention of changing either. She is the community manager and contributing author at Raising Lifelong Learners where she writes about homeschooling gifted, anxious, and otherwise different kiddos, but also rambles at This Undeserved Life from time to time. She feels compelled to mention that she still very much loves the Backstreet Boys and rarely folds her laundry.

  • Why Homeschooling Is the Best: Kids Go at Their Own Pace

    Why Homeschooling Is the Best: Kids Go at Their Own Pace

    It seems that parenting and education have become all about reaching milestones and getting grades. This focus on achievement is fine for some families. But if your child does not fit into the typical pattern of success, it’s easy to feel as if there is something wrong with them and that you’re a bad parent.

    But you can opt out of this cycle thanks to homeschooling. It’s is the perfect way to educate kids who need a bit of extra time or even those who need less time to do something.

    Homeschooling is the best because it allows kids to move at their own pace.

    Working at Their Own Pace Encourages Delight

    If you allow kids to go at their own speed, they can take time with what delights them. We’ve all experienced the joy of learning something we’re really interested in. By foregoing a strict outside-imposed structure on your homeschool, you will be amazed by what your children are capable of doing. And you will be pleasantly surprised by how much genuine learning comes from a child fully engaged in what they’re doing.

    Don’t worry about state standards or what kids are supposed to know at certain stages. When you let your kids choose the pace, they can savor learning.

    Going at Their Own Speed Allows for Mastery

    Sometimes kids need extra time to master a new skill or concept. For example, without a strong foundation, math can become increasingly difficult and ultimately traumatic.

    I know that my kids need extra time to understand math. And they weren’t given this opportunity when they attended public school. As homeschoolers, we moved them back a year to make sure they had space to catch up and feel confident. I have noticed how quickly they’re ploughing through the work now. So by going back, we have actually sped up. And most importantly, math is a subject that they’re actually enjoying! 

    When my kids were in public school, they were pushed through a system that had definite outcomes and didn’t leave much space for deviation. But by allowing them to spend some extra time on reading, for example, they have mastered this important skill without any stress. They are now avid readers.

    Kids Can Speed Ahead and Avoid Busy Work

    As much as homeschool is fantastic for kids who need extra time, it’s just as beneficial for kids who are gifted. Schools typically cannot provide the additional support for kids who don’t naturally fit into their age-assigned grade. But homeschooling is the perfect environment for children to speed ahead.

    And another fantastic benefit is that children can work across grades. They might excel at one subject but need extra help in others. (This is called asynchrony when a child’s levels don’t match across subjects.)

    If using traditional grades as a measure, my twins are ahead in English but behind in math. Luckily, we have the flexibility to allow them to work at their ability as homeschoolers.

    The Family Has Time for Breaks

    Sometimes we all need to take a break. The public school system’s breaks don’t account for your family rhythm or your child’s needs. When you homeschool, you can take breaks when motivation and engagement are lacking regardless of the dates on the calendar. I have found that by taking a few days or even a few weeks off throughout the year, we are still actually doing more learning. I have found that by taking a few days or even a few weeks off throughout the year, we are still actually doing more learning. It’s because the pace is dictated by my kids.

    So if you feel that your child doesn’t fit into the system, but you know that they’re capable and have a love of learning, then homeschooling could be just the solution you’re looking for! Allow them to continue a love for learning by going at their own pace, whether slowing down or speeding ahead.  

    About the Author

    Charlotte Jones is a multi-tasking mom who works from home. She spends her days blogging at My Little Home School, homeschooling her twins, and teaching English online.

    Her home is a small house in a quaint little town on the coast of South Africa. You can often find her swimming in the lagoon or hiking in the forest with her husband, special needs twins, and furbaby.

    She loves her family, spending time in nature, running, red lipstick, and drinking too much coffee.  

  • Why the Homeschool Day Is So Much Shorter Than a Typical School Day

    Why the Homeschool Day Is So Much Shorter Than a Typical School Day

    How long is a typical homeschool day and how does it compare with the hours of a day in public school? Many parents, new to homeschooling, wrongly assume that they should homeschool for the same length of time as their public school counterparts. 

    In general, a homeschool day is much shorter than that of a traditional school. But this shorter school day doesn’t mean that less is getting done. In fact, homeschoolers can often achieve more in less time than public school students. 

    This truth is how BookShark can offer a robust and challenging homeschool curriculum that takes only four days a week. In the homeschool setting, you simply don’t require as much time.

    Is There an Average Homeschool Day?

    Some homeschoolers tout the expression “done by noon” as one of the benefits of homeschooling. This may or may not be the case for your own homeschool depending on the number of children in your family, outside activities, your natural pace, and how old your children are. 

    The beauty of homeschooling is that you can cater it—your routine, your curriculum, and your methods—to the unique needs of your kids and your family! Homeschool moms have the advantage of being in nearly full control of their homeschool schedule.

    • Not morning people? Then you might not start your homeschool day until afternoon. 
    • Diligent early birds with young children, on the other hand, might have their work complete before brunch.
    • Other families may like to take long breaks in between each subject, taking all day to complete their work but in an enjoyable and leisurely fashion.

    Typically, students in elementary grades get their work completed in a fairly quick amount of time, often hitting that “done by noon” standard if they started the day early. Of course, the workload increases as children mature. So a middle schooler or high schooler will need to spend more hours on school work. Outside activities such as co-ops, field trips, doctor appointments, therapy and library visits can interrupt and lengthen your homeschool day, too. 

    In short, the average homeschool day varies greatly from family to family. But it is typically much shorter than the school day of a traditional classroom. 

    The Homeschool Day vs. a Typical School Day

    Take a moment to consider all the classroom management teachers deal with! While all these tasks are necessary based on the setting, they aren’t directly related to learning. Teachers have to juggle:

    • 20-30 kids per classroom
    • individual and unique needs for each chile
    • keeping the classroom organized
    • roll call
    • class disruptions
    • redirecting students and keeping them on task
    • bathroom breaks
    • lunch break
    • hand raising
    • discipline issues
    • standardized testing and preparations
    • emergency drills

    All these requirements cause teachers to lose important teaching time. Homeschoolers may have many these issues to contend with as well, but they are equipped to handle them much more quickly and efficiently because of the drastically lower student to teacher ratio.

    As you become a more experienced homeschooler, you will gain a sense of the right amount of time for your school day. Remember your day will still be shorter than a typical public school day. And that’s one of the big perks of homeschooling! Enjoy it!

    The flexibility of homeschooling allows you to cater the learning experience to your child’s unique needs and interests without the loss of teaching time. That means more time for the extras you love!

    About the Author

    I’m Erin, an introverted homeschooling mom to two intense extroverted kids. We are child led with a heavy emphasis on read alouds, games, art, nature hikes, and hands-on everything! My kids just learn better when they can use their hands. You can find me at Nourishing My Scholar.

    We traded the hustle and bustle of city life for the quiet that only farm life can provide. This creates a wonderful environment for our children, complete with chickens, goats, ducks, and cows. I’m a huge fan of Harry Potter and Gilmore Girls. When we’re not homeschooling, you’ll find me curled up with a cup of coffee and a good book or possibly enjoying a random dance party in the front yard to the newest Disney soundtrack.

  • Why a Spiral Approach Works for Teaching Science

    Why a Spiral Approach Works for Teaching Science

    As a child, you probably found yourself twisting the spiral that bound your notebook together, watching it circle through the holes down the side of the paper. It looped through a hole then through the next, over and over again all the way up the page. The spiral is a bit mesmerizing to both the eye and the touch. In education, we use the analogy of a spiral to describe a type of teaching. 

    A spiral approach to teaching means students circle back to learn about topics multiple times throughout their education, allowing them to remember more at a greater depth as they advance through their studies. BookShark Science uses this spiral technique. 

    The Spiral Approach to Teaching

    Think about how students learn addition in their first years of school. They begin by adding one digit to one digit. Then they add multiple digits together. As they grow older, they continue to add larger numbers and progress to multiplication—which is a way to add numbers more quickly. 

    Each time they learn a new skill, the original skill is still used, but at a higher and more complex level. This is spiral learning.

    Cognitive theorist Jerome Bruner wrote, “We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.” 

    With a spiral approach, students encounter various topics and concepts multiple times with increasing complexity as they mature. As a result, they will review what they’ve already learned as well as adding new information and understanding as they progress through their studies. 

    Why a Spiral Approach Works

    Spiral teaching capitalizes on the natural way we learn. We begin with basic knowledge and add to that knowledge over time. We’re able to handle more difficult and complex knowledge because we already have experience with the subject and know the basics. We still need to access what we learned in the beginning, though we may not even be aware we are doing it since it’s now second nature. 

    Think through the process of learning to cook. You probably didn’t begin with Juia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon! 

    Instead you learned how to measure ingredients, maybe even as a child. You started out with simple recipes like scrambled eggs and grilled cheese and learned more techniques and tricks over time. Then one day, years later, you were ready to tackle much more time consuming and difficult recipes—homemade yeast bread and marinated, grilled meats.   

    And yet, you still need to measure most of the time. At this point, though, the measuring is like second nature and doesn’t take much thought on your part. You may even know instinctively how much a teaspoon or tablespoon is without even getting out the measuring spoons.

    That’s because you learned to cook using a spiral approach. 

    The Spiral Approach in BookShark Science

    Science study should build upon the natural curiosity of children, helping them to discover and explore the world around them. With a spiral approach, students won’t simply study one science subject in a year. They’ll encounter a variety of science topics, keeping their interest high while taking advantage of the benefits of coming back again to a subject. 

    With BookShark Science, students from Kindergarten through middle school will encounter Earth, space, life, health, physical, and technological sciences multiple times through their years of study using great literature and hands-on activities.

    Introduces Topics in a Simple Form

    With a literature-based approach, even a kindergartner will begin to grasp basic concepts of science. Children’s authors are incredible at taking complex scientific concepts and explaining them in an understandable way. 

    Teaching tip: If you want to introduce a difficult topic even to older students, start with a children’s book on the topic!

    Builds on What Students Already Know

    Because students see the same topics multiple times over the years, they won’t have to start at the beginning each time. That’s why young children often start by learning math facts: as they move on to more difficult problems, they aren’t struggling to add two digits together. A solid foundation provides a place to build future learning.

    Reinforces Previous Learning

    Each time a student encounters the various science subjects, they will need to draw upon the concepts they’ve already learned. Their understanding increases over time as they see it applied in a variety of contexts. 

    Helps Students Store Information in Long Term Memory 

    When you were in school, did you ever cram for a test the next day, only to find you didn’t remember much of the information a few weeks later? Or maybe you took several years of a  foreign language class, yet only recall a few words today? When we don’t use what we know by doing it repeatedly, we won’t remember it over time. With a spiral approach, children revisit and use what they are learning multiple times over the years, so they really learn it.

    Keeps Learning Interesting and Engaging

    • When children stay at a basic level and are never challenged, they eventually lose interest.
    • When children only study one thing, they eventually lose interest.
    • When children encounter the information in only one way, they eventually lose interest.

    You get the idea. To keep learning fascinating, children need increased depth and complexity, variety, and multiple experiences. The spiral approach of BookShark Science addresses all of these needs.

    Try BookShark Science Today

    BookShark provides you with everything you need to teach science with a spiral approach including:

    • Instructor’s Guides that lay out exactly what you need to do each day with a flexible, four-day schedule.
    • Activity sheets for students with hundreds of activities, illustrations, charts, and pictures to solidify your student’s understanding of scientific topics.
    • Hands-on activities and experiments that are easy to do with our Science Supplies Kit. You aren’t caught not having what you need.

    If you want your students to understand science and enjoy it, have a solid foundation for their high school science studies, and truly learn science—not just memorize facts only to forget them quickly—use a spiral approach. BookShark gives parents and students everything they need to build a strong foundation.