BookShark

Homeschool science? Can't I just delegate that to someone who loves teaching homeschool science? Sometimes, that is the best option, yes. But, for those of us moms that don't have that option, it helps to have help connecting the dots between homeschool science and the subjects we're naturally more drawn to. Maybe you're like me. You love a good story. Give me a grammar sheet to grade or a book report to read. But, teach homeschool science? It doesn't come as naturally. Here are five tips to homeschool science from a non-science mom.Read More

Visual aids work. It’s the reason companies spend thousands of dollars on an icon to represent their brand. The same principle works for us homeschool moms. When we can connect homeschool lessons to an interactive, visual learning aid, children will understand and remember more readily. If your children are crafty and enjoy cutting, coloring, writing, and assembling papercrafts, lap books are a fabulous way to add a visual and hands-on component to whatever curriculum you use. A lap book is an interactive notebook with smaller mini books affixed onto a file folder. It's a fun way for craft-loving kids to organize what they learn. The creation of the lap book is part of the learning. And then the reviewing of the lap book cements the learning for long-term retention.Read More

My youngest started showing signs of anxiety when she was around three. Her worries brought hard questions, behaviors, and many late night chats, all of which sent me into my own panic. Seeing the very thing I hoped to never pass on to my children manifest, was, well, worrisome. It soon became clear that in order to help my daughter with her worries, I needed to make sure we both had the help we needed. Online programs, books, and apps have not only helped us manage our anxiety, but they’ve also shaped the way we homeschool. As homeschool moms, we set the tone and the schedule. We can take breaks when we need to, relax, and try new things. While these gifts and benefits of homeschooling help all children, they can be especially helpful for the anxious child.Read More

Homeschooling a big family can be a lot of fun, and it definitely has advantages. When parents with one or two kids ask how I make a big family work, I wonder how they make their small family work! My older kids naturally help out with the younger ones, reading books to them and teaching them. Also, play is not my forte. Once you hit four kids, they can play pretty much anything with just each other. I can't tell you how wonderfully freeing it is to no longer need to be the queen, driver, or teacher in their latest imaginary world. Instead, I can stick to the things I love: sharing books and board games with them. As much as I love having a big family, homeschooling has unique challenges because of our family size. Overcoming those challenges requires creative thinking. It also requires a willingness to try many different solutions until you find one that works for your family.Read More

I firmly believe homeschooling is made easier by being an introvert. But let's be honest. It can also make it hard in other ways. As with every aspect of homeschooling and life, we bring our personality with us. It is an essential part of who we are and how we interact with our family and other people. So how has my introversion made homeschooling more difficult at times? I Can't Do All the Things As much as I would love for my kids to do every activity they desire, it’s just not going to happen. Between homeschooling, housekeeping, life maintenance tasks, and my need for downtime, fitting in various extra activities for six children often takes a lower priority.Read More

Does your child love rocks? Perhaps you find a beautiful mess of rocks all over their bedroom and your home. And let's not forget when you suddenly realize that the horrible banging in your dryer is not the motor or drum malfunctioning, but a collection of rocks from the days earlier excursions. Have you ever been on a nature walk and your little cherub excitedly shows you the most beautiful rock they have ever seen? Maybe you gaze upon this gray lump of hardness and wonder what's so exciting about this dirty inanimate object? Foster a Love of Rocks and Minerals I must admit, rocks are kind of an obsession around here. My fella has been collecting rocks since he was a toddler and he found a sparkly piece of quartz at the playground. Now, his little sister is following suit.Read More

As parents, we face many challenges. Just when we think we have figured it all out, everything gets flipped upside down. Almost overnight our babies turn into toddlers, our toddlers into preschoolers, and preschoolers into high schoolers. That last one may seem like a huge jump, but that is seriously how fast that change seemed to happen in my house. This year my oldest son reached a big milestone—high school. This newest milestone was an eye-opener for me. In just a few short years my son will be an adult and begin a life on his own. If I expect him to be a capable adult when that time comes, he needs the opportunity to grow into one. By allowing my homeschooled teen to have a voice now, he is learning important skills to take with him into adulthood.Read More

So you've decided to do this crazy, awesome, exhausting, challenging thing called homeschooling. And maybe you worry that you're not doing enough, or that there are going to be gaps in your child's education. It will all be OK if you just focus on the three Rs of homeschooling. But I’m not talking about reading, writing, and arithmetic (which, um, don’t all start with R anyway). 1. Relationships One of the main reasons we've chosen to homeschool our children is to foster healthy and close family relationships. Studies consistently show that the environment in which your child learns has a huge impact on her ability to understand and retain what she learns. Brain research also teaches us about brain plasticity. This is how our brains continually grow and develop. But an essential ingredient for brain growth is having a safe space in which to explore, fail, and learn from failures.Read More

As homeschoolers, we are often worried if our child is where he or she should be in terms of what their public school peers are learning. But do homeschooled kids need to keep up with their public school peers? I think no...and a little bit yes. Here is food for thought. Homeschooling is an Individualized Education When you choose to homeschool, you get to make the choices that are best for your child. You can also choose the education that is best for them. You individualize your child's lessons so that they are right for them. The public school model is a one-size-fits-all education. It can often leave kids behind, or not challenge those that are advanced. Your child may be far ahead of his peers in math, but a little behind in language arts skills. Being at the same level as public school kids may hold your child back or push them beyond their ability. In order to individualize your child's education, you can't really move at the same pace as public school students.

It is not an exaggeration to say that my sons have been homeschooled since birth. I mean, we've always been learning, right from our rural Mississippi town. And just like one lit candle enlightens the other candle, a homeschool mother inspired me to embark on the homeschooling journey with my own sons. She made it seem like so much fun that we didn't want to stop learning as a family. Homeschooling was a perfect fit. We started using a religious-based, literature-rich curriculum for Pre-K, but when we found out about BookShark, a secular curriculum, we switched over.Read More