BookShark

Tag: Homeschool Tips

  • Dictation: A Natural Way to Teach to Language Arts

    Dictation: A Natural Way to Teach to Language Arts

    What if your kids could learn to write from real-life, published authors? Sounds pretty amazing…and maybe even a little expensive, right?

    The good news is they can do just that when they learn language arts naturally using copywork and dictation to develop their writing skills. BookShark Language Arts uses this approach.

    Tools for Teaching Language Arts Skills

    When we incorporate copywork and dictation into language arts, our kids learn to write from those who do it best. 

    Copywork and dictation are similar in many ways. In copywork, students write from the written word while in dictation, students write from the spoken word. 

    Don’t let the simplicity fool you though. Both are incredibly effective. And as students progress from copywork to dictation, they start applying what they have learned through copywork. Dictation requires higher-level thinking and writing skills and helps you to evaluate what they really understand.

    How to Use Dictation to Teach Language Arts

    How do you do dictation?  Read a sentence or passage aloud, and have your students write what you are saying. It’s harder than it sounds though, especially when you consider the thinking skills that go into it. 

    Language Arts Skills in Dictation

    Students are translating what they hear into the written word. That means they have to:

    • Remember how to spell the words
    • Distinguish between words that sound the same but are spelled differently, and then choose the correct one
    • Choose the correct punctuation (and there are a lot of different types of punctuation!)
    • Know when to capitalize a word

    In other words, as they write from dictation, students are making decisions that will reveal if they are understanding and applying what they have learned in the context of real writing.And while they are doing all of those things, they are also absorbing the rules of grammar and usage,  discovering different types of sentence structure, learning new vocabulary, and more, like they do in copywork. They are learning to write from real writers and see the rules of language in action. (And an added bonus: Kids who grow up doing dictation are great note takers in upper level classes!)

    BookShark Language Arts integrates dictation exercises into the curriculum. So you don’t have to choose passages. You simply follow the Instructor’s Guide.

    Extending the Dictation Lesson

    Once kids have written a passage from dictation, you can then use it as a basis for personalizing their language arts lessons. You can teach them what dictation reveals they don’t know or understand yet. But be careful, you don’t want to overwhelm them. You don’t have to do all of these things every time! These are simply possibilities for how you can get the most out of dictation. 

    1. Create a personalized spelling list or notebook. Have them write down the words they misspelled during dictation. Talk about why it is wrong. Is there a spelling rule they didn’t follow? Students can even categorize frequently missed words that have the same rule.
    2. Look up a mechanics rule in a reference book. Did they use a semicolon when they should have used a colon? Read the rule together and then simply correct the mistake.
    3. Allow them to correct their mistakes. A lot of learning happens by going back to correct mistakes on their own. Have them look at the passage you are reading from and correct their own mistakes.
    4. Let them make their arguments for why their way is also correct. Sometimes in language there is more than one way to write something. Let them share with you why they made the decision to use a certain word or punctuation mark and see if it is a valid alternative. 

    Why Dictation Teaches Students More Than Exercises in a Textbook

    When students do exercises in grammar books, they are seeing a rule used in contrived sentences over and over. Often they do great on the exercises, but then struggle with the concept in their own writing. 

    Or they will get 100% correct on a spelling test after studying lists of words, but then turn around and spell the word incorrectly when they write it later. Why does this happen? 

    Because they are learning rules and words apart from the context of writing. 

    Dictation, however, is the application of all the rules and skills students learn in their language arts studies. When students can successfully do dictation, you know they truly understand what they are learning. 

    Tips for Beginning Dictation

    Like any new skill, it will take time and practice for students to get comfortable with it. You can ease them into dictation so they don’t feel overwhelmed, though. 

    • Begin dictating just one or two sentences. They can then do the rest as copywork. Slowly increase the amount of dictation as their skills increase. A little done well is better than overloading your student. 
    • Start with copywork. Assign the sentences or passage as copywork one day, and then use the same passage as dictation the next.
    • Let students study the passage they will be writing from dictation before you start. As students become more comfortable with it, simply talk about the passage before you begin.
    • When you are starting out, don’t hesitate to repeat the sentences as many times as you need to. Begin by reading the entire passage and have them listen. Then break it down sentence by sentence or phrase by phrase if that works better for your children.
    • Exaggerate the pauses. Ask questions to help them along like “What punctuation do we use when there is a pause in the middle of a sentence?”
    • Answer their questions. If they ask how to spell a word or what punctuation to use, in the beginning go ahead and answer. It’s a big step in learning to recognize what you don’t know. Then transition them more and more by asking them to write down their best guess. 
    • Reassure the perfectionist. If you have a perfectionist, remind them that dictation isn’t graded. It’s for pinpointing what they know and don’t know which provides direction for their language arts lessons. 
    • Be their biggest cheerleader. Let them know that dictation takes time and practice. They will get better and better at it, and you are there to help.

    BookShark Language Arts programs help you to teach language arts naturally by choosing dictation passages from the books your kids are already reading, ones that are appropriate for their level. But remember: You are the teacher. You can always modify the lessons in order for your students to experience success and grow as writers at their own pace. 

  • 4 Ways a Boxed Homeschool Curriculum Is Great for Boys

    4 Ways a Boxed Homeschool Curriculum Is Great for Boys

    Don’t give up the ease of laid out lesson plans which a boxed homeschool curriculum provides because you have active boys. Here are four ways that a boxed curriculum turns out to be a very boy-friendly option.

    1. Hands-On Activities

    There is no one size fits all solution for boys. However, one thing most young boys have in common is the need to wiggle. Because a boxed curriculum eased my teacher prep time, I had leisure to look plan and add activities for wiggly learners.

    For example, when reading Where the Wild Things Are, I made paper bag puppets with three of my sons.The puppets brought the story to life and helped my boys remember the plot.

    The instructions for a scheduled reading worksheet was to write in the words with the long /e/ sound. Knowing my boys’ aversion to writing, I had them write the words on balloons instead of filling out the worksheet. That one little twist made the activity more fun fo them. We blew up the balloons and the boys spent the rest of the afternoon batting them about while memorizing words with the long /e/ sound.

    2. Masculine Writing Topics

    When teaching my boys writing, it took more teacher effort to unleash their writing creativity. Video games, sports, technology and plain old silly things are not topics that always fall into the realm of what most teachers feel are writing-worthy.

    Struggling to teach beginning writing, I didn’t have to give up the teacher support in the boxed curriculum when the writing topic didn’t engage my boys.

    I could easily substitute a boy-friendly writing topic and still teach the different writing genres presented in the lesson plan each day.

    3. A Dose of Competition 

    Grammar is not only about rules but about listening and using good speech every day. Knowing that my boxed curriculum had well laid out, sequential lesson plans, I could focus on creating engaging activities for my boys.

    Instead of studying grammar on their own, the most effective tool was to do grammar together and orally. For my older boys, who are close in age, we made learning grammar a game. Following the teacher’s manual, I explained to the boys what they were learning for the day. As they repeated back to me what they learned, they scored points. At the end of the week, I let them dip into a treasure chest I kept full of surprises from the dollar store.

    Taking boys’ natural desire for healthy competition made learning come alive.

    If it looked like the competition was moving from helpful to harmful, I would change the game to a simple hide and seek indoor game. I would write words or grammar rules on index cards and hide them around the house. Each of my boys, including my younger son had an equal chance to find the cards. Boys are all about racing with each other, and this method worked too.

    I never felt that I wasted the worksheets because I could use them later for a quick review or used half of them to reinforce what they were learning.

    The peace of mind that I was covering grammar well was more important to me than a few pages that my boys didn’t do.

    4. Independent Learning for High School

    When my boys were young was not the only time I used stress-reducing boxed curriculum. My husband fell very ill one year, and I could not sit down with my high school son to plan his next year. By that time, my son liked predictable schedules and thrived on routine.

    Pulling out the boxed curriculum, my teen could follow the clear cut guidelines to know what was expected of him each day as I spent time in the ICU with my husband.

    Knowing what my high school son had to do each day and that he was progressing to graduation lightened my load at a time when I was stretched thin. More importantly, my son graduated with excellent grades and a love of learning was stimulated and not stifled by a boxed curriculum.

    Besides providing a framework to follow, there is no shortage of lesson plans and review to choose from when using a boxed curriculum. Individualize boxed curriculum to fit all the pent-up energy you deal with day to day by using one of these four ways and free up your time to build a strong mom-son bond. To me, that is worth anything!

    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, lapbooks 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.

  • Avoid These 4 Relationship Killers for Homeschool Parent and Child

    Avoid These 4 Relationship Killers for Homeschool Parent and Child

    When I first started explored the possibility of homeschooling, I resisted.

    Hard.

    I thought of dozens of reasons why I couldn’t, why I shouldn’t. I insisted. I protested.

    And, as you can probably guess, I eventually accepted that homeschooling was the best option for my son. 

    One of my chief concerns was that I valued my relationship with my son too much to homeschool him. I was convinced that spending so very much time with him would result in us growing tired of one another.

    We already had battles and emotionally charged moments, and I feared that being the person to constantly force school assignments he didn’t want to do would mean butting heads even more. I worried

    • that he’d resent me for the change from public school to homeschooling
    • that he would see me as a strict teacher and not his loving mom
    • that lines would blur as our roles shifted
    • that what was already unsteady would become unsustainable 

    I’m very happy that I was so very wrong. 

    The relationship between my son and I has grown stronger than I ever could have imagined as I’ve watched him heal, grow, learn, and thrive. I’ve gotten to know wonderful parts of his personality that I would have missed otherwise. And I have been privileged to help polish the rougher parts that always seemed to rub the wrong way before. 

    While we’ve grown closer and found our groove in homeschooling, I’ve stumbled a few times. Through my experiences, I’ve discovered a few temptations that absolutely have the potential to damage our relationship. Here’s what I avoid to keep from ruining my relationship with my homeschooled child.

    1. Too Much Review

    Most curriculum works in a spiral format. It reviews previous material while introducing new information in an attempt to keep facts and formulas fresh. This isn’t necessarily a bad format, but there comes a point when reviewing can become excessive.

    While learning about the state capitals, I decided to take every opportunity to quiz and review my son

    • while driving in the car
    • sitting at dinner
    • during commercial breaks

    This was just too much. Instead of keeping facts fresh, I was negating opportunities for casual conversation and was trading connection for repetition. The freedom and peace that we enjoy in our homeschool, the chance to learn at a pace we’re comfortable with, was replaced with drills and expectations.

    He wasn’t learning the capitals anymore; he was being beaten over the head with them! 

    The temptation to review, review, review is strong. How else can you be sure that what you’re teaching is really sinking in?

    What if you devote all of this time and energy into a lesson for it to go in one ear and out the other?  At the end of the day, your goal as a homeschool parent isn’t to create a recording of everything taught. It’s to inspire a love of learning in your child and to forge a relationship with them in the most intimate of settings.

    What your child learns is important, of course, but conversation with your kiddo is usually sufficient to get a feel for what they’ve soaked up. Be their parent, not their drill sergeant. Sit next to them and learn together; don’t ask them to recite for you. 

    2. Trying to Replicate What Everyone Else is Doing

    It’s tempting. So tempting.

    You see detailed lessons and colorful nature journals or organized homeschool rooms and a curriculum that just works so perfectly for this family or that one. Your friend cannot get her homeschool day started without morning time and your sister’s schedule is so precise that you could set your watch by it.

    Seeing how well other families are doing, it’s easy to begin to wonder if maybe you should try it, too. Maybe if you tried that curriculum your child wouldn’t struggle with spelling. If you had a dedicated homeschool room, you might be a better homeschool parent. And what about what they’re doing at the public school down the street? You heard that they’re doing this experiment and reading that book, so does it say something about you that you’re not? 

    Attempting to replicate what works for one family can cause you to forget (or even ignore) what works for your own. By shadowing someone else’s footsteps you rob your child of the chance to forge their own path. You create a box that you were never meant to fit inside of, and the relationship between yourself and your child suffers as you both struggle against its confines.

    You, the homeschool parent, have the opportunity to meet your child where they are in every area of their life, to fine-tune and customize their education in a loving and thoughtful way. Your lesson plans can be seen as love letters to your child, the result of your dedication and devotion to what’s best for them. Be the homeschool parent that your family needs, not the one you see succeeding elsewhere.

    3. Comparing. To Anyone.

    In the same vein as attempting to replicate someone else’s homeschool comes the temptation to compare:

    • Your slow mornings with someone else’s early rising.
    • Your child to someone else’s.
    • Or yourself to another parent.
    • Or yourself to a homeschool philosophy.
    • Your tattered books to someone else’s laminated worksheets.

    Any time you begin to compare yourself or your situation to another, you invite the idea that you are not good enough. Any time you compare your child’s academic performance to that of another, you invite the idea that one is better than the other. Any time you begin to notice a deficit or weakness in your home because it’s a strength in someone else’s, you are walking a dangerous line that can too easily leave you disillusioned, dissatisfied, and dismissive of the unique needs in your own homeschool.

    It’s not hard to see how comparison can ruin your relationship with your child, but it’s worth reminding yourself, as often as you need to, that it is a path towards bitterness, not betterment. 

    4. Resenting Your Commitment to Homeschool

    I know, it seems obvious. Resenting homeschooling is obviously a no-brainer when it comes to how you could possibly ruin your relationship with your child. What’s not so obvious, however, is how we come to resent it. 

    Maybe you’re always having to turn down invitations to lunch with friends. Maybe you’re struggling financially and could really benefit from a second income you’re forfeiting to homeschool. Maybe you’re just having a hard day.

    Little thoughts creep in and say, “If only I weren’t homeschooling, I could really…” The seed is planted, and the resentment grows.

    Now instead of recognizing homeschooling as a privilege, you see it as a prison, a necessity, an obligation. Your child has become a pair of shackles instead of a partner in learning.

    A decision made to bring freedom to your family can quickly convert to feelings of resentment, bitterness, offense, and displeasure. Where your relationship with your child was once a cornerstone of your homeschool, it is now a duty, a task, a chore, suffering under the illusion of obligation.

    You get to homeschool! You get to share this time with your children! You get to hand-pick their education and provide them with all the love, enchantment, and opportunities they can handle. Homeschooling is a privilege, but the moment you start to see it as an obligation you begin to damage the relationship you have with your child. Suddenly they are to blame, and your reason for homeschooling becomes an excuse for your unhappiness. 

    There are many, many ways to ruin your relationship with your homeschooled child, but none of them are caused by actually homeschooling.

    Our expectations, our ideas, our own boxes that we build and expect our children to fit into—these are the breeding grounds for relational damage. When it comes down to it, these situations and feelings can be just as damaging in any setting. As a homeschooling parent, though, you find yourself spending more time with your children than most parents do, which creates more opportunities for these little seeds to sprout.

    Really the greatest way to ruin your relationship with your homeschooled child, with any child, is to become lax in examining your own heart and motivations. By guarding yourself against feelings of bitterness or insecurity, you protect your child and your relationship. 

    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 We Use a Secular Curriculum

    Why We Use a Secular Curriculum

    There’s no doubt that there are very defined preferences among homeschoolers about whether or not to use secular and faith-neutral curriculum. I’ve heard these very pointed questions when it comes to evaluating curriculum:

    • Does that science book espouse creationism or evolution?
    • Does your history curriculum align with the Bible?
    • What is the worldview of that program?

    We have chosen to homeschool for non-religious reasons, so the debate of whether or not to use secular curriculum is not difficult for us.

    I choose our curriculum carefully. All year, I pour over catalogs and curriculum sites. I read reviews and constantly keep in check what we are using and whether or not it’s the best for each particular child. Whether or not a curricula contains Bible verses or spiritual references is not something I concern myself with on this job of choosing learning tools, and this is not to say that I am not a Christian (because I am). But I have several reasons for choosing secular curriculum.

    There is a ton of great curriculum out there—both secular and religious-based.

    Every year that I homeschool, it seems there’s more and more to choose from. I love choices though, and I consider being able to choose from a wide array of curricula and not being held to it by a school board as one of the very biggest perks to homeschooling. That said, I feel that I would be excluding a huge range of wonderful programs out there if I were to only look at religious-based curricula.

    I’ve made a choice to homeschool my children which opens up a huge amount of freedom for me to choose what best fits my children and their very individual learning styles. Why would I close myself in by choosing only religious-based books?

    Religious-based curriculum tends to leave out facts I want my kids to know about.

    When it comes to certain subjects, there’s very little I shield my kids from. We watch the news together. We talk about current events. We carefully discuss politics and the issues at hand. One of our biggest jobs as parents is to prepare our kids for the big world out there, and I want to discuss this tough stuff while they are still at home with me.

    I have found that some religion-based curriculum leaves out information about other religions or certain historical events, and this is not something I want for my kids. Discussing a wide array of religions is something that is very important in our family. We’ve had some amazing discussions around these topics, and I feel that if anything, the knowledge of other spiritual choices, makes my own faith stronger and it also gives myself and my children a better understanding of others and what they believe.

    Subjects like grammar and spelling are not for instilling faith.

    Can I just say that sometimes I think we just go overboard? We can be so afraid of the outside world infiltrating our homes and our children that we even try to incorporate our beliefs in our spelling books. I have a hard enough time getting my kids to enjoy grammar without trying to tie a Bible lesson into it. For subjects like this, I choose what’s best for my children, because I know that good grammar isn’t going to teach my child how to be a decent human being; it’s just going to teach her where to capitalize.

    The bottom line for us is that we have choices. Secular curriculum has its place among those choices, so don’t automatically rule it out even if you are passing your faith to your children.

    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.! 

  • 10 Ways to Raise Little Bookworms

    10 Ways to Raise Little Bookworms

    This might sound crazy, but one of my biggest fears as a new mom was that my children wouldn’t like to read.

    You see, I’m a bookworm of the highest order. I’m always reading something, actually several somethings. I have my upstairs book, my downstairs book, and my car book. I am a bibliophile.

    I’m also an educator. Before homeschooling, I was a school psychologist. In that role I saw so many children who loathed reading. Some of those children had underlying disabilities that made reading challenging, others were pushed to read too soon and balked while others lacked exposure.

    I wished that I could go back and change reading for every reluctant reader I met to help them fall in love with reading.

    And that was one of my biggest wishes for my own children. Thankfully, they did fall in love with reading with the help of these ten methods I used to help them fall in love with reading.

    Learning to read is a skill, and like all skills, it requires hard work and heaps of practice in order to become proficient.

    In order for kids to want to put all that time and effort in, we need to provide them with oodles of positive early reading experiences. If reading is pleasurable, they are going to want to learn how to do it themselves.

    1. Surround yourself with words

    If you want your children to read, surround yourself with things to read! Here are some ideas:

    • Access to a variety of reading materials, from books to newspapers to magazines
    • Book baskets in every room
    • When watching television, enable closed captioning
    • Label items in your home, such as toy bins and dresser drawers

    2. Read aloud every single day

    Reading aloud is the best thing you can do for your child’s future reading success. By reading aloud to your child, you are building

    • Vocabulary
    • Background knowledge
    • Reading fluency
    • Pronunciation
    • Listening skills

    Make a promise to read at least one book aloud to your children every single day. If you find you are too tired by the end of the day, start your morning off with a read aloud. By reading a book at breakfast, you’ll be starting off the day on the right foot.

    3. Visit the library or a local bookstore

    Nothing gets kids more excited to read than a special trip to the library or local bookstore! When you are surrounded by so many fresh books, it is hard to be inspired.

    4. Let your child select books

    Sure, they may not choose the books that you would choose, but if you want your children to be passionate about reading, you have to let them discover what they love. In our family, each child has a library tote back. Each week, they check out as many books as they can carry from the children’s section.

    5. Sprinkle in fantastic reads based on your child’s current passions

    Children are always passionate about something. What is your child obsessed with at the moment? Guess what? There’s a book about that! Every week, while my children are busy filling their library totes, I select a few additional books based on their current passions. Then, when we get home, I leave them out in plain view. Without fail, they read the book.

    6. Reread, even when you don’t want to

    Sometimes one of my children will approach me with a book that I have read a gazillion times. Children learn through repetition, so do not get discouraged if you feel that you are reading and rereading the same books every day.

    7. Make read aloud time something everyone looks forward to

    By creating memorable read aloud moments, you are not only connecting to your children but you are also making reading a pleasurable experience for your child. When reading is fun, kids are going to want to do it! Here are some ideas to jumpstart your read alouds:

    • Grab some blankets and snuggle up together with a good book
    • Have a picnic and bring your favorite story
    • Plan a related craft for after your read aloud
    • Grab a flashlight and read in the dark

    8. Don’t pressure your child to learn to read

    Nowadays there is so much pressure to read early, but this pressure makes reading anything but fun. If reading is seen as a job, rather than a joy, children aren’t going to want to spend their time reading! Instead, focus on enjoying good books together.

    9. Set aside quiet reading time each day

    The importance of reading aloud cannot be overstated. Still, silent reading is important too. In our family, we have an hour of quiet time every afternoon. This time is usually spent reading. Even my littlest guy, who is not yet reading, will spend that time paging through his favorite books.

    If you are homeschooling, choosing a literature-rich curriculum will ensure there’s time spent each day with great books. 

    10. Set an example

    Do you know what I do during that afternoon quiet time? I read my book. Make sure your children see you reading. Children learn by watching you, so give them something to imitate!

    By providing your child with positive reading memories, you will not only connect with each other, but you will be helping your child’s future reading and learning success!ns with our children. Draw out the topics they are interested in and can relate to, ask questions that spark opinions and more questions, and get excited about what will happen next. Your kids will follow suit and you’ll be digging in and having valuable discussions with them before you know it. 

    About the Author

    Cait is a school psychologist, mom to three amazing children, and an unexpected homeschooler. She loves nature, good books, board games, strong coffee, and dancing in her kitchen. You can read about all of these things and more at My Little Poppies.

  • How BookShark Language Arts Works: A Natural Approach to Skillful Communication

    How BookShark Language Arts Works: A Natural Approach to Skillful Communication

    Communicator: a person who is able to convey or exchange information, news, or ideas, especially one who is eloquent or skilled.

    Thanks to the Internet, we live in a time where everyone can express their thoughts and feelings in an instant. Yet it seems people struggle to actually communicate. 

    Communication requires skills that go beyond simply sharing opinions. Unfortunately, many in our world tend to talk at other people instead of to or with them.

    A good communicator is one who:  

    • takes in information and reflects on it in order to understand
    • is able to organize thoughts and express them clearly
    • listens to opposing arguments with the intent of understanding differing viewpoints

    These skills don’t come naturally for all of us. Thus children need to be taught how to be skillful and thoughtful communicators. 

    Teaching your students to communicate well is a lofty goal—one that goes beyond simply making sure they can read and write. How can you do it? One answer is to teach language arts the BookShark way.

    Teach Language Arts Skills Naturally

    Natural learning methods take advantage of the way children have been learning since the day they were born.

    Many language arts curriculums teach language skills in a disjointed way, as a collection of separate subjects. Because of this approach, students often struggle to apply what they’ve learned about grammar or literary elements or even spelling in their actual writing and speaking. 

    When students learn language arts naturally, they see how these skills fit together. They see the application of the rules through reading, copywork, dictation, and narration.

    Read Great Books

    Reading aloud to students gives them the opportunity to hear books beyond their reading levels. This habit has several benefits:

    • Develops vocabulary. In order to master new words and incorporate them into both their spoken and written idiolect, students need to encounter them multiple times. It also helps to hear, see, and write them.
    • Exposes students to good writing. Students hear well constructed sentences, great descriptions, and literary language. No, they may not  be consciously thinking about language as they listen to a story. But  they nevertheless absorb the traits of good writing  in much the same way they learned to speak —by being immersed in language. 
    • Cultivates listening skills. Consistently reading to students develops their ability to listen. Don’t worry if your little one is rolling around on the floor while you’re reading! You’ll be amazed at how much they are retaining.
    • Encourages great conversations. Discussion questions, like the ones provided in BookShark’s Instructor’s Guides, are a great starting point. Reading books together gives parents and students a way to interact with ideas, character issues, and both fun and difficult topics. 

    The BookShark language arts program includes a variety of read alouds from historical fiction to biographies to nonfiction. 

    Learn to Write with Copywork, Dictation, and Narration

    Let your children learn to write from those who do it best: authors. Copywork, dictation, and narration are the foundation for learning language arts the natural way. 

    Copywork

    With copywork, students copy from the books they read. This allows them to learn writing skills within the context of real writing—instead of doing drills in a grammar textbook or studying a separate, unrelated list of spelling words. 

    Dictation

    After students are comfortable with copywork, they are ready for the next step. Instead of copying text from books, they write it as someone dictates the sentences and passages to them. This requires higher level thinking skills as they choose what punctuations to use, remember how to spell words, and apply the rules of grammar like capitalization. 

    Through copywork and dictation, children learn grammar, sentence structure, correct usage, mechanics, and spelling.

    Narration

    When students narrate, they retell something you’ve read to them in their own words. In order to do this they have to use several skills:

    • Listening carefully. This is pretty obvious, but students can’t retell something if they aren’t listening. If a child struggles with narration, consider building their listening muscles and ask them to narrate a smaller portion you read. Or tell them specifically what to listen for before you read. 
    • Organizing their thoughts. Have you ever heard someone speaking who seemed to wander all over the place? Or maybe they were constantly inserting ums? Often people do these things because the information in their brain is a bit jumbled. When students practice narrating, they need to organize their ideas so they can convey the information in their own words. 
    • Understanding what is being said. It’s impossible to put into your own words something you don’t understand. How do we understand what is being read? We listen carefully and ask questions when needed. When students know they will narrate what they are hearing, they know they’ll need to do the same: listen carefully and ask questions. 

    The ability to narrate means students know how to summarize and paraphrase. These skills are essential, especially when they begin writing essays. 

    Have Students Write About What They Know

    When kids struggle to write, it’s often because they don’t have anything to draw from. It’s like going to a well without a bucket. If you want your children to be able to write, then you have to fill their buckets.

    BookShark’s writing activities relate to the topics students are encountering in their Readers and Read-Alouds. Their buckets are filled with facts, ideas, imagery, and stories. 

    Then, with the skills they are learning through copywork, dictation, and narration, they’ll be able to organize and express this knowledge in writing form—sharing what they’ve learned with others.

    Teach Language Arts Naturally to Help Your Kids Become Better Communicators

    Students who learn language arts naturally know how to communicate well. Why? They’ve learned from some of the best communicators there are—actual writers. These students:

    • Apply the language arts skills they’ve learned to their writing and speaking.
    • Listen carefully
    • Seek to understand
    • Organize their thoughts before speaking
    • Write about the things they know

    BookShark language arts teaches in a way that will help you reach the real goal of teaching children how to read, write, and speak well. It will help your kids learn to be better communicators. And we could all use more of those in this world. e memories regardless of our personal beliefs. We all believe in this—our kids are best served by being educated at home by their parents.

  • My Journey Away from Faith-based Curriculum

    My Journey Away from Faith-based Curriculum

    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.

    Just take a quick look at any homeschool convention and you’ll see that a large percentage of materials have a religious (mostly Christian) point of view. However, not everyone schools at home for religious reasons, and not all families who follow a religion want their homeschooling materials to be faith based. In fact, I’m one of those homeschooling moms.

    Unchoosing Homeschool 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.

  • Why You Don’t Have to Be Good at Language Arts to Teach It Well

    Why You Don’t Have to Be Good at Language Arts to Teach It Well

    Many of us were taught language arts as a disjointed set of unrelated skills—a very ineffective way to learn it. Can you relate to any of these experiences?

    • Learning about a grammar concept and completing ten to twenty exercises after the lesson to practice the new skill.
    • Receiving a list of spelling words on Monday and memorizing them for a test on Friday. Then spelling them incorrectly in your own writing.
    • Defining literary terms and never noticing them in the books you read.
    • Memorizing vocabulary words, but never actually using them while speaking or writing—and then forgetting them.
    • Following a formula to write a paper and hating every minute of it because you were as bored writing it as your teachers were probably reading it.

    You did the work in school, but without context and without connection. As a result, you may believe you aren’t good at language arts. The truth is, you struggled with language arts because of how it was taught, not because of a lack of intelligence. Unfortunately we have a tendency to homeschool in the same way we learned, even if we believe our own education was lacking.

    There’s a better way. You can teach language arts effectively, no matter your own school experience with the subject. After all, Albert Einstein said, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” 

    Life-Long Learning Starts with You

    As a homeschooler, know it’s perfectly fine to learn alongside your children. You don’t have to be an expert in every subject. It’s not even possible! What you do need is an attitude that says, “We can figure this out together.” 

    As Anthony J. D’Angelo said, “Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.”

    This we-can-learn-it attitude is incredibly beneficial to your students as they realize

    • You are never too old to learn and grow.
    • It’s okay if you don’t master something the first time around.
    • Learning is a process that takes diligence and practice.
    • They don’t have to do it alone.

    Modeling learning means you’re showing them how to learn, not just what to learn. You also get the benefit of a better grasp of language arts skills you can use in your own life. And you’ll also be more sympathetic when they struggle, because you know what it feels like. 

    Teaching Language Arts Comes Naturally

    “Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners.”—John Holt

    Your children began learning long before they ever started school. From the moment they were born, you watched in amazement with each skill they added from rolling over to lifting their heads, from sitting to standing, from crawling to walking. 

    You wondered as they picked up word after word and began speaking in phrases and sentences. You laughed at their grammar mistakes because they were adorable, and you knew one day they would say it correctly. 

    You were their first teachers. You encouraged them, you helped them, and you gently corrected their mistakes. 

    You’ve been teaching them since the day they were born, and you can continue to teach them everything they need to be effective communicators. 

    BookShark gives you the tools to help you teach language arts skills naturally, in the way kids were designed to learn. 

    Real Authors are Ready to Help

    Workbooks and textbooks may offer lessons and exercises to teach kids language arts skills, but they are ineffective to inspire a love of literature and writing. Often students don’t know how to apply those exercises to their actual writing. They miss those things that make writing compelling to read and their speeches compelling to listen to.

    With a natural approach to teaching language arts, students learn to write from real authors. They learn to communicate from those who do it best.

    • Spelling and vocabulary comes from the books they are reading. 
    • Writing assignments are tied to the subject matter they are learning about in the books they read.
    • Grammar skills are learned through copying and writing from dictation using sentences and passage from the books they are reading.

    You see the pattern. Students learn from published authors—experts in their field. Good writing inspires good writing as students absorb language arts skills naturally.

    You Have a Guide

    Anatole France correctly said, “Nine-tenths of education is encouragement.” As a homeschool parent, tou have the opportunity to be your students’ biggest cheerleader—the one who encourages them and helps them stay on track. 

    But you also have a coach to help you along the way.

    With BookShark Instructor’s Guides, you have everything you need to teach language arts, even if you don’t feel confident in your own skills. You get:

    • A 36-week, 4-day schedule designed to save one day a week for co-ops, music lessons, sports, field trips or other extra-curricular activities.
    • Weekly overviews
    • Student Activity Sheets
    • Separate parent instructions, answers, and definitions
    • Rubrics to help you evaluate more subjective activities

    You Can Teach Your Children Language Arts

    You may not consider yourself equipped to teach language arts because you didn’t understand the way it was taught to you. But there’s good news. You aren’t alone. BookShark can help. 

    You’ll have everything you need to teach your kids naturally, and along the way learn a few things yourself. It’s one of the reasons homeschooling is so successful. As a homeschooler, you are the facilitator of your children’s education. You don’t have to know everything, because like any life-long learner, you can find the resources to help.

    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.

  • How I Found a Homeschool Schedule That Works

    How I Found a Homeschool Schedule That Works

    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.

  • 7 Ways to Afford a Boxed Homeschool Curriculum

    7 Ways to Afford a Boxed Homeschool Curriculum

    Do you want to use a boxed curriculum but worry that you can’t afford it? If you feel that a boxed curriculum like BookShark is best for your children, don’t give up on purchasing it because you’re intimidated by the price tag. You may find that with strategic planning, you can afford a boxed curriculum.

    Before looking for additional money in your budget, first put the price into perspective. For example, consider the price per child if multiple children will be using it.

    Let’s say you have a fifth grader, a first grader, and a preschooler. If you purchase the fifth grade BookShark complete package for approximately $998, you receive materials for all the subjects your child needs—readers, read alouds, history, language arts, math, science, and spelling.

    If you keep the curriculum, you’ll be able to use it when your second child reaches fifth grade and again when your third child reaches that age. Of course, you’ll need to replace the consumables which cost approximately $350 per child. So, in this scenario, you’re able to teach three children the 5th grade complete curriculum for a grand total of $1,348, or approximately $450 per child. Suddenly, the curriculum has become much more affordable.

    Calculate how much you currently spend in one year to homeschool your children and compare that to the price on a complete curriculum. You may think that you’re not spending as much as a complete package, but that’s may be because you buy curriculum little by little throughout the year instead of all at once as you would with a boxed curriculum.

    Use Your Tax Refund

    Some families who live on a very tight budget earmark their tax refund or a portion of it to buy curriculum each year. A refunt typically comes in the late winter or early spring, just the time you are starting to consider your curriculum choices for the upcoming fall.

    Save Each Month

    Another option is to set aside a certain amount every month to pay for the curriculum you anticipate buying. If you’re buying the full package for third grade and Kindergarten, for example, you’ll be paying approximately $2,418 for the year, so you’ll need to set aside $202 a month to pay for the curriculum.

    When your children get older, your monthly saving plan will be less expensive because you can save a program for the next child. When the children in the above example are in sixth and third grades, you will need to spend only $1570 ($1200 for the full sixth grade curriculum and $370 for the consumables for the 3rd grade curriculum). In this example, you’ll need to set aside only $130 a month.

    Teach Your Children Together

    If your children are within two to three grades of one another, you can combine them for their studies in history, literature, and science. So, if you have a fourth grader and a second grader, you could choose to teach them at a level in the middle, perhaps 3rd grade, which is suitable for children ages 8 to 11. Keep in mind that you will still need to teach your children at grade level for math, language arts, handwriting, and spelling. By combining some parts of your curriculum, you can see substantial savings.

    Sell Your Used Curriculum

    Once you’re done with your curriculum and no longer have a younger child to use it, sell it. BookShark curriculum maintains its value. You can sell it via eBay or a BookShark used curriculum Facebook group. You can likely regain at least 50% of your purchase price especially if it’s relatively new and in good condition. You can also try to sell the curriculum at your local homeschool group, but you’ll likely make more money online.

    Buy a Used Set of Boxed Curriculum

    Since there is a booming market for used boxed curriculum, consider buying it used. You’ll likely pay only half the price of retail. When you’re done using the curriculum, you can sell it again and recoup a good portion of your investment.

    While you may initially think that a boxed curriculum is too expensive for your family, when you use these strategies, you may find that it’s comparable to other alternatives.

    One Extra Way to Afford Boxed Curriculum

    BookShark Payment Plans

    BookShark now offers 3, 6, 9 and 12-month interest-free payment plan! Click below to find out more.