BookShark Homeschool Curriculum

You assign a volume of classic literature or engaging historical fiction to your child, and he has no desire to read it. You push, assign pages, and encourage your child to stick with it. He fails to read as much as a single chapter. It’s driving you insane. What do you do?

First determine how important the book is to your child’s education. Is it a book easily skipped? If so, my recommendation is to drop it especially if your child usually reads his assigned books. Life is too short to argue over one book.

As parents we are always striving to give and do for our kids. We research and worry about what is best and second guess every step we make. But here’s the thing, even if we follow all the rules — whatever they may be — our kids still might not turn out the way we expected.

Take learning to read for example. You spend your child's baby and toddler years surrounding them with board books, reading to them for countless hours, exposing them to as much reading as you can.

Each time I think about the reasons we decided to embark on this homeschool journey, I can’t help but reflect on the positive aspects of homeschooling and the benefits it brings to our family. Homeschooling hasn’t always been perfect, but the benefits for us have far outweighed the negatives.

Homeschooling has given us a generous amount of flexibility. I’ve found that no matter our educational philosophy or outlook, we’ve always been able to be a lot more flexible in our scheduling than our public and private school counterparts.

Homeschoolers are typically very faithful library patrons. They visit regularly, participate in programs, and check out stacks of books at a time.

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).

Homeschooling poses its own special challenges for parents. And if you’re a parent to a child with special needs, you’ll face even more.

Raising one or more children who live with special conditions such as autism, sensory processing disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, or dietary issues requires that parents customize almost everything from bedtime to daily meals. You’ll have to make similar adjustments if you begin to homeschool your children.

When you take a nature walk, you’re purposely slowing down, getting quiet, and taking time to look closely at whatever you see around you in nature. Besides looking, you are using your other senses to feel, smell, and hear what nature offers you. 

You can keep it simple by taking a walk around your neighborhood or heading to a local park to explore. If you’re feeling adventurous, go on a trip to a state park, nature preserve, or botanical garden. The more land you cover, the wider variety of things you’ll observe.  

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” ? Linda Grayson

As a mom, have you ever felt alone and not a part of a community, like the odd woman out, or that you were the only one without true friends?

You’re not alone.

If you have children with ADHD, reading may not be their strong suit. Or if you’re fortunate enough to have an ADHD child who is a bookworm, that child might struggle to recall information or answer questions about the work afterward. For active kids, sitting down and reading can pose a challenge. With a few tweaks, though, a book-based curriculum can be perfect for ADHD kids.

Some of the suggestions for teaching kids with ADHD include using video games, computer software, and active play as outlets for their mental and physical energy. As a result, parents might wonder about the value of using a book-based curriculum for children who have ADHD.

Head over to Pinterest and type in the word homeschooling to see what other related words come up. Would it surprise you to know that the word organization comes up alongside other more obvious heavy hitters such as curriculum and schedule? It probably doesn't surprise you if you are a homeschool mom. When we decide to educate our kids at home, there's a list of concerns we all have to work through. We may start with our perspective—secular homeschooling for example—and then move on to curriculum and scheduling our day. But eventually, we all have to grapple with how to get and stay organized.

After you decide to homeschool, the next consideration is what kind of homeschooler you will be so you can choose your curriculum and plan your style of teaching.

Are you a religious homeschooler who desires to infuse all of your teaching with the principles of your faith? Or are you a secular homeschooler who prefers not to teach matters of religion or at least keep them separate from your academic pursuits?

Your answer to those questions will influence what kind of curriculum you consider and ultimately buy.