BookShark Homeschool Curriculum

Box Day is one of the most exciting days of the year for homeschool families. It’s the day that the Fed Ex truck stops in front of a house to deliver that huge box of homeschool curriculum: thick BookShark binders filled with Instructor’s Guides, stacks and stacks of historical fiction, non-fiction, and biographies, science kits with a whole year’s worth of materials for hands-on experiments, math curriculum and manipulatives, readers and a language arts program.

When we first began homeschooling, I never thought about adding PE to our schedule. I knew my boys were active on their own without any coaxing. I figured that as long as we kept moving, we’d be developing motor skills. I didn't see a need to add a formal Physical Education course to our routine.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the academics of homeschooling. From planning history lessons to grading math tests, educational pursuits can quickly fill up every square inch of brain space. However, in order for our children’s education to be balanced, they need time outside of the home. If they can consider the needs of others in those activities, all the better!

BookShark’s Reading with History Level 5 offers kids ages 10-13 a chance to study a part of the world that is often overlooked—the Eastern Hemisphere. While BookShark’s curriculum is meaty enough on its own, you can easily supplement the curriculum with plenty of great shows and documentaries to dig even deeper or to stretch the curriculum over a longer period of time. Pick and choose from among these resources. They’ll help you and your child learn even more about this fascinating part of the world.

I often joke that the library is our second home. It is not unusual to find us there three days or more in any given week. Here are ten benefits our library offers our homeschool and enriches our experience. Make sure you aren't missing out on any of these resources your library offers you as a home educating family.

If I had to buy all the books, audio books, movies and magazines that we read, listened to, or watched in a single year I’d go broke.

We all have days where we need a break or something extra to cope with a bad day. Netflix is the perfect resource for finding those little extras. And since there are so many educational shows on Netflix, you don’t even have to feel guilty about regularly relying on these videos.

My kids thinking watching Netflix is a treat and they hardly even realize they are learning.

Reading books to our children isn’t merely an ideal way to cement family relationships or enjoy a pleasant afternoon. It’s an excellent method to introduce new vocabulary words to our children and help them master those words.

Here are 7 easy tips for teaching and reviewing new vocabulary learned during read-alouds with your children. Pick and choose from these different options. You don't want to use every tip for every single new word.

Are you studying ancient civilizations for homeschool history, for example BookShark Level 1 or BookShark Level 6? If so, you will probably find that ancient Egypt is one of the most fascinating topics you’ll cover. In addition to your scheduled reading, your child will probably enjoy supplementing with interactive, hands-on activities.

Are these extra activities necessary? Not at all! But some families truly enjoy making crafts and engaging in creative projects, and when those activities can connect to homeschool history lessons, it's all the better. Here are five relatively simple hands-on activities for ancient Egypt that you can do in your kitchen with supplies you already have in your home.

Math can be the bane of a homeschooling parent’s life. Kids who hate math might put off their schoolwork, lose their focus during math lessons, or become frustrated when trying to learn a new concept. A simple way to make math easier for children is to use math games. Rather than running to the store or placing an online order, try these low-prep math games you can make at home in just minutes! They’re super easy to put together and they’re a nice way to switch up math class for the kids while reducing math anxiety.

If you do a quick search for early literacy, you’ll find study after study confirming the link between early literacy and future academic success.

Educational organizations and schools have taken this to heart, encouraging direct literacy education at home and providing it in schools. But as homeschool families, we know that play, not targeted instruction, matters most in a young child’s social, emotional, and academic development. The skills so integral to early literacy—observation, critical thinking, questioning, and evaluation—don’t need to be taught through flash cards or lessons.