BookShark

When my children were born, I knew I wanted to homeschool them. To me, homeschooling meant me, at home, teaching them with books and hands-on projects. Of course, time changes things, and our perspectives grow. Six years later, a lot of the education my children receive does not come directly from me, and it doesn’t happen in our home. My definition of homeschooling has transitioned into something broader than I originally envisioned.

I spend a lot of time chatting with fellow homeschoolers, and one thing that often comes up, especially as children get older and subjects become more intense, is feeling overwhelmed. We want the best education possible for our children, and often we simply cannot do that on our own.

Time management is an area we all want to our kids to master. For that matter, most of us moms need improvement in this area as well! I have a high schooler this year. More than ever, I’m seeing how important time management is for him. I’ve been gradually stepping back so he can develop his own tactics and learn to take responsibility for his use of time. But because he’s under my roof, I feel I have a responsibility to guide him where I can —making suggestions, dropping hints, and subtly reminding.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are two elementary kids in the mix as well. They are obviously not as responsible as my teenager and definitely need more prompting. The bottom line is, with four kids, a blogging business, homeschooling, and everything else that mom-life entails, I don’t have time to micromanage. I need all of my children to carry their own weight not only so they learn time management but also so that I don’t lose my mind.

Many homeschoolers prefer a four-day school week to the traditional Monday through Friday routine. In years past, I have followed this shorter school schedule that BookShark uses, having four full days of school from about 9 a.m.to 1 p.m. and taking Fridays off from normal lesson plans. I found that the fifth day offered a treasure trove of time and space for fun with my kids. It’s still a weekday, so everyone else is at work or school — everyone except you! Not sure if this schedule is for you? Here are thirteen different ways you could be spending your fifth day without BookShark lessons.Read More

Once you have decided to work at home, you are faced with a huge challenge —managing your time. Homeschool moms are busy, and you may be wondering how in the world you are going to find time to work while you educate your children at home. Don’t worry! You can find time to work at home while homeschooling. It simply takes a little creativity and learning how to manage well the time that you do have. Finding Time to Work The first step in managing your time is ferreting out the time to work. This part can be tricky because it requires you to look at your day with a critical and ruthless eye. I recommend you begin by writing down how your days normally look.

We all know that it’s important to lead an active lifestyle, regardless of your age. There are dozens of known benefits to regular exercise: better sleep, muscle strength, lower anxiety levels, positive self-esteem, clearer complexion, enhanced mood, improved focus, and a stronger immune system, just to name a few. Not only do adults benefit from exercise; our children and teens do too.

There’s actually another essential reason to get your kids started on a habit of regular exercise now, while they’re young. Regular physical activity is crucial to your child’s brain.

Reading is an important part of any child’s education. It opens doors into the past, the future, and even the other side of the world. Children who love reading have a huge advantage. They’ve absorbed advanced vocabulary and grammar without even realizing it. As a homeschool parent, you have great leverage to turn your children into bookworms. Here are three simple tricks to impart the book loving gene.

Make Reading Pleasurable

Reading shouldn’t be a miserable affair; it should be pleasant. Kids should have comfortable chairs with soft pillows and cozy blankets to curl up on. The chairs should beckon kids to them, draw them in like the Pied Piper, and call them to spend an afternoon reading a good book.

No one can question the position of the zoo in the canon of homeschool field trip destinations. Who can resist the enchantment of watching monkeys swinging from ropes, observing penguins eating fresh fish, and walking through a butterfly pavilion? The zoo is a go-to choice for getting out of the house on a day with pleasant weather when public school is in session. However, instead of visiting the zoo, you may want to bring the zoo to your homeschool group! Many homeschoolers in my particular group couldn’t visit the zoo because of lengthy illnesses, a long driving distance to the zoo, limited funds, or transportation problems. Our solution was to contact our local zoo about their community outreach program.Read More

"The best way to teach people is by telling a story." ~ Kenneth Blanchard Throughout time people have loved telling and listening to stories. I know that as a child I loved to listen to my grandparents and parents tell stories of what life was like when they were young. Stories have long been used to connect and teach people about their past. Studies also tell us that people remember things more easily if it is told in a story format. Teaching through story is a powerful, engaging tool to use in your homeschool to increase retention and interest.

Story-telling is the perfect vehicle to transmit information in a way that is easy to remember. There is a reason that moral teachers from Jesus to Confucius to Aesop taught through stories. I can still remember a story that my elementary music teacher told us to remember the difference between a whole and half rest even though it’s been thirty years since I heard it! Stories make a lasting impact if used correctly.

Having one preschooler rolling around on the floor, a toddler beside me trying to take the book from me, and a newborn son in my arms, my day started out more like a juggling act than read aloud time. 

I no longer have to guess whether or not what seemed like half-hearted attempts at planting tender reading seeds would flourish and bloom because today all of my sons are voracious readers.

Our reading journey has had many ups and downs, but nurturing a love of reading can be traced back to how I approached books while my sons were babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. 

Gloomy skies and bickering kids make homeschool moms everywhere long for warm, sunny beaches. Are you in this spot, trying to recover from a bad homeschool day when the kids bickered, argued, and complained about school from breakfast to lunch?

The biggest problem with bad homeschool days is they cause a disconnection between mother and child. Kids spend the day whining; moms spend the day wistfully watching the yellow school bus drive by. Both child and mother are irritated with each other.