Tag: literature-based

How to Find Audiobooks for BookShark Curriculum
Many BookShark parents love to outsource some of the scheduled reading aloud to audiobooks. This hack gives them a bit more time, saves their voice, and even allows the entire family to enjoy the listening experience together while traveling or doing chores.

Another big use of audiobooks in homeschooling is by children who struggle with reading independently. Whether it’s due to dyslexia or just learning at a slower pace, these students benefit from hearing their Readers delivered in audiobook form.

Due to licensing challenges, BookShark itself does not provide audiobooks alongside its literature-based curriculum. But with a touch of resourcefulness, you can piece together what you need. Here are our recommendations to get you started with your search of audiobooks for BookShark.

1. Free Audiobooks

The apps below are available for free through most libraries. These three apps are always our first stop when hunting for a particular title in audiobook form. Much like a library book, you have a limited time to listen but can always renew. Check with your local library to see what’s provided with your membership or library card.
1. Hoopla
2. Libby
3. Overdrive
2. New Releases and Subscriptions

Sometimes there’s a new book out and we just can’t wait for it to be offered at our library. Or maybe we want the option of listening to a book over and over without having to return it. In that case, we need a paid subscription.
I also like the feature in these apps that allows students to choose if they want to read or be read to.

3. Ebook Readers

There are also a few apps that read ebooks to you. These options are wonderful if you’re looking to help your child become a fluent independent reader since your child can follow along visually with the audio.
1. Speechify
2. ReadAloud
3. Voice Aloud Reader
4. Bookshare® According to its website “is available only for individuals who have a qualifying reading or perceptual disability, a visual impairment, or a physical disability that affects their ability to read printed works.”
My children both love audiobooks. Many a night they have fallen asleep listening to a favorite story. We also love to listen to books on car rides.

Some readers also do a better job understanding what they are reading when they can hear it. As a teacher who has taught many students with dyslexia and other learning differences, I found this to be true again and again. While younger students might enjoy being read aloud to, I’ve also found older students often like the autonomy an audiobook gives them.

Audiobooks do not have to replace the books in our homeschool curriculum, but they can be a wonderful addition, and for some students work even better than a physical book. Try using audiobooks in conjunction with your BookShark Readers or Read-Alouds or use audiobooks when you’re in the car. They make for a wonderful start and end to the day as well. Audiobooks encourage even more reading in our homeschool days! There are no drawbacks when it comes to more great books!

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.
03/19/2025
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.
03/19/2025
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.
03/18/2025
Why We Love BookShark’s Read-Alouds

My son is in fifth grade this year. He’s at that age where he’s growing up fast but he still loves to snuggle on the couch with his mom occasionally. One of the things he loves the most is reading together.

We have a long-standing tradition of reading a book together each night, usually one that has a movie coming out that we’d like to see.

This year with BookShark as our curriculum, that nighttime reading tradition has become part of our homeschool day, too! Since he’s an independent reader, we haven’t included Read-Alouds in our homeschool for several years. I admit that it’s something we let slide while we were using other curriculums. But now that we’re on the BookShark bandwagon, I’m realizing how wonderful it is to use reading aloud with a middle schooler!

I’m Reading What He’s Reading

I make an effort to read almost everything my son reads, but it gets difficult especially during busy times in our lives. With Read-Alouds, we are reading together, and that means I’m sharing the story with him.

We had an awesome experience this year with our first Read-Aloud, Pablo’s Journey (from Level 3), a story about a young boy aboard Columbus’ ship. What we learned in the novel was made even clearer when we toured replicas of the Nina and the Pinta. Our field trip took on so much more meaning because we were able to discuss aspects of the book and relate it to what we were seeing!

If we hadn’t shared the experience of Pablo’s Journey, our field trip would have not been as rich of an experience.

It’s a Soothing Part of Our Homeschool Day

Between math problems and writing activities, it is great to have part of the day when we savor a little quiet and connection.

During Read-Aloud time, my son can enjoy a snack, and the dog joins us on the couch. It is a reminder of why we homeschool in the first place—to nurture and enjoy our family relationships!

Reading aloud is a part of our day that my son looks forward to the most. He asks when we’ll be reading together and will happily sit to hear more than what the lesson plan calls for that day! It is great to have at least one thing each day that I can count on to be enjoyable for everyone.

BookShark Has Chosen Great Books

BookShark has curated such an awesome collection of books for reading aloud that it makes it pleasant as a parent to share in the adventure with your child. These living books bring history to life in a way that is enjoyable and fun. They open up conversations about the time periods and spark interest in aspects of history that may not have interested your child before. The books you read make all the difference in an successful lesson, and so far we have loved all of our books this year.

There comes a point in homeschooling when your child is older and capable of reading silently. That’s when you may ditch the Read-Alouds. But that might not be the best choice! BookShark has reminded me why Read-Alouds are such a great part of learning. I’m thankful for how the books have helped me connect us with my son this year!

About the Author

Krista is the homeschooling mom of 3 boys. After 13 years she has learned the value of chilling out, going with the flow and keeping homeschooling fun! She is the blogger behind Far From Normal where she hopes to encourage parents and homeschoolers, and inspire a life lived happily outside the box!

03/18/2025
Why I Returned to BookShark Homeschool Curriculum

If you homeschool for any length of time, you’ll inevitably struggle with the idea that a fresh curriculum might be better for you and your child even if you are having no problems with your current curriculum! That maxim about the grass appearing greener on the other side of the fence can apply to homeschool too.

Why We Chose BookShark Homeschool Curriculum

My oldest loves history and reading, and we chose BookShark for that exact reason. While using BookShark, my son received a strong historical overview of the time period that we were studying, but he also got plenty of excellent historical fiction related to the events he was studying in history.

Each day, he spent time in his room reading on his own. Later in the afternoon, after my youngest two were done schooling, my son and I read our current read aloud together. Sometimes even the younger kids listened in, asking questions and commenting on the book. BookShark fit our family perfectly, and we all enjoyed it.

The Temptation to Switch Curriculum

However, our family doesn’t live in a homeschooling bubble. Catalogs from various publishers come in the mail, and I often read other homeschool moms raving online about different science or history programs. Unlike years ago, today there are a myriad of curriculum options for a homeschooler.

Last summer, when I was reading a book about homeschooling high schoolers, I saw mention of a curriculum I’d never heard of before. Like any good homeschooling parent, I hopped on the computer to research this company.

It sounded like such a great program! There was a lot of history, perhaps even more than BookShark programs because this alternative included more non-fiction along with their list of historical fiction. I contemplated buying this curriculum for a while before I finally took the plunge.

Within two weeks of using this alternative homeschool program, my son and I both knew I had made a huge mistake!

Why We’re Back to BookShark

True, the other curriculum did win high points with us for the interesting non-fiction selections that gave my son an even deeper knowledge of history. But honestly, that was the only advantage this curriculum had over BookShark.

We missed so many features of BookShark!

As a teacher, I missed BookShark’s easy all-in-one, open-and-go format. With the other curriculum, I had to spend ninety minutes to three hours every weekend, choosing my son’s assignments and laying out a schedule for him for the week. I didn’t have time for that! With BookShark’s Instructor’s Guides, I could simply glance at what was coming up for the next week. Prep took almost no time.

Both my son and I also missed the questions BookShark includes at the end of each reading. The other curriculum didn’t have that and instead relied on students doing projects or lapbooks to show their comprehension — neither of which my son enjoyed. While BookShark has projects and lap books, they are optional add-ons and not essential to the program.

We missed the historical fiction in BookShark. Because the other curriculum was so heavy on non-fiction, there were fewer novels to read. While my son loves history, he also loves reading fiction, and he really missed the quality fiction books he was reading with BookShark.

After only two weeks, we set aside the other curriculum and are happily back to BookShark. Now, though I may still get catalogs and read others’ comments online, I can rest assured that BookShark is the best curriculum for us.

About the Author

Melissa is a homeschool mom to three kids. BookShark is her primary curriculum, and she and her kids love it! When she’s not homeschooling, she’s either shuttling kids from one activity to another or working from home as a freelance writer. You can read more about Melissa’s homeschool journey at her blog Moms Plans.

03/14/2025