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3 Steps on How to Organize Your Homeschool Room

3 Steps on How To Organize Your Homeschool Room- This post is sponsored by BookShark. I am a BookShark partner and a portion of our curriculum was provided by them. As always, I only work with companies that I have previously used as a product. We used and loved BookShark when we homeschooled for Pre-K and are very happy with their 1st-grade curriculum.

One of the questions I get asked the most is ‘where do you homeschool?’ I think people see the Instagram version of homeschooling where people have entire rooms dedicated to their learning space. But, in actuallity, you only need one shelf, one binder, and some basic supplies to have a really great homeschool experience.

Notice I didn’t talk about special desks or tables or where you’ll actually teach. That’s because it’s ever-changing. For science, we might be at the table or kitchen island. For reading, we’re often outside on the hammock or swingset. For writing, I like to have my daughter at her desk so her arm is in the correct position to learn letter work, but we pretty much do school on the floor of our reading room because it has the most sunlight.

You can homeschool anywhere and need only a few basic essentials to be successful in your journey. The three steps on how to organize your homeschool room are to have a shelf to hold your curriculum, a base stock of supplies, and a binder to keep your schedule organized. If you’re strapped for money, try finding these items on your local Buy Nothing Facebook group or NextDoor.

3 steps on how to organize your homeschool room

1. A Shelf to hold your curriculum

You could easily use whatever bookshelf you currently have to hold your curriculum for the year. With BookShark, all of the curricula could easily fit on one small bookshelf. We already had this 2×4 shelf in our basement that wasn’t being used well. Thankfully it fit here in our reading room and easily holds our Level B curriculum.

One thing that has helped keep things organized was to label each area with a subject. By doing this, my 7-year-old can easily grab the schedule, see what books we’re using, pull them out and mark the pages, and have everything set up for the day when we’re ready to start our lessons. This also helps in making sure all the books are put away in the right spot. Another benefit is that my husband, who typically doesn’t do lessons, is able to if I am sick. With the simple BookShark schedule he can pick up right where I left off and do school for that day.

This was a video I did of what a typical day might look like in our family. If you start at 6:50 you will see more detail of what our setup is and what materials we use.

how to prepare homeschool lessons

2. A base stock of supplies

We specifically chose a boxed curriculum so that I wouldn’t need to buy a bunch of extra supplies. For us, all we needed was a smaller binder, a huge box of No2 pencils, large lined paper (for learning to write) and we use white copy paper a lot as well. We already had this but I suggest getting a small whiteboard, dry erase markers, and some kind of alphabet manipulative like Bananagrams for different ways to learn sight/spelling words.

We also supplement in art, PE and music so if you don’t already have supplies for those subjects you would need to add those. I’ve learned if you wait until a month after school starts, you can get all art supplies for at least half off.

3. A Binder to keep your schedule organized

The final step in having an organized homeschool room is making a schedule. Our BookShark curriculum came with a giant binder that was divided into 36 weeks of the school year. Because it is so cumbersome they suggest putting 3 weeks at a time into a smaller binder. Doing this makes finding our week so easy to flip to for our lesson each day. As I said before, my 7-year-old gets out the school books so she’s easily able to access the schedule with this method.

In this post, I outlined how to easily set up a homeschool lesson. I also keep our attendance sheet in the front pocket so I see it and remember to do attendance each week. This may be a requirement for your state or county.

So before you think you don’t have the means or the space to homeschool, take these three steps and see that it can be.

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5 Things You Must Know Before You Start Homeschooling

5 Things You Must Know Before You Start Homeschooling This post is sponsored by BookShark. I am a BookShark partner and a portion of our curriculum was provided by them. As always, I only work with companies that I have previously used as a product. We used and loved BookShark when we homeschooled for Pre-K and are very happy with their 1st-grade curriculum.

We’re at the halfway point of our homeschooling year for first grade. This time last year, I had no idea I would be homeschooling again. We really enjoyed homeschooling for Pre-K because of the situation we were in (new baby) but my daughter really thrived in her public school last year and she wanted to go back. We weren’t comfortable having her go in-person to school this year because of COVID. When I asked her this past week what she thought about going back to school next year or homeschooling she said she wanted to homeschool again! I am assuming I’m doing something right if she’s even considering it!

There are so many people struggling with having their children go back to the confusing schedules of remote learning or the complexities of in-person learning, and are leaning towards having their children homeschool for the second semester of the 2020 school year. I wanted to share what 5 things you need to know before you start homeschooling that really helped us when we were making this decision.

5 Things You Need to Know Before Homeschooling

Find out how to withdraw from your child’s current school

When we withdrew our daughter from her public school I sent an email to the principal and office administrator letting them know our situation and asked them how we needed to proceed. They had said the email was fine and the office administrator had later called to get a verbal agreement that we were withdrawing. That is all that was necessary at our school but your state or county may have different rules.

While you’re talking to the county, you should ask what requirements they have (including the state) for homeschooling. They may have a certain number of days you are required to teach or they may have certain tests your child needs to take. It’s different for each county and state so make sure you know both the state and county’s rules on homeschooling.

Determine what you want to teach your child

This may seem like common knowledge to a teacher but you are likely not a teacher. You need to determine what you want to teach your child. Where did they leave off and what do they have an interest in? I knew that my daughter loves science experiments and animals so I wanted to be sure there was a solid science lesson in whatever curriculum we used.

You might also want to teach them things that their school wasn’t teaching yet and you thought they should know. Over the summer we started working on learning coins and how to tell time. This year we’re learning American Sign Language. You don’t need to strictly use a curriculum to teach your child. Go off of what their interests are!

Research what cirriculum you want to use

This tends to be the step that many parents give up. It is overwhelming the amount of information there is on the different curriculums. Between blogs, videos, and friends’ suggestions there is so much to consume. BUT if you narrow down your needs, you can find what curriculum works best for you fairly quickly.

Do you want a faith-based program or a secular one? Do you want some subjects to be secular but not others? Knowing this will narrow down your search by a lot. We knew that we wanted a completely secular literature-based program. Having a literature-based program gave us the chance to really strengthen our reading skills from my daughter needing to sit and listen and read on her own each day. We also wanted to make sure there were hands-on elements of our curriculum (as that is how I learn best).

With BookShark, both science and history have hands-on elements. When we get to do science experiments and build crafts for history we truly understand the lessons we’re learning.

Find out what the return policy is for the curriculum

Despite all of the research you’ve done to determine the right curriculum, you won’t truly know it’s the right fit until you look through it with your child. You might realize it’s way too much prep work. Your child might decide they’re completely uninterested in the lessons. The number one goal is to have your child interested and intrigued by what you’re teaching.

Thankfully, BookShark is zero prep (meaning I can open the binder that day and be ready to teach the lesson) and they have a 30-day return policy.

Talk to your kid(s) about homeschooling

This is the most important thing you need to know before you start homeschooling. You must be on the same page as your child on why/how/when/where you will be homeschooling. You’ll need to navigate what it is like to be both your child’s teacher and parent. They will need to learn how to be both your student and your child. There will definitely be a transition period as you figure out your rhythm.

Just know that mistakes will be made, on both parts. Patience, grace, and empathy are the three biggest lessons I’ve had to work on as a homeschooling parent. Working together as a team will always be more successful. And you must always remember that homeschooling can be done anywhere, at any time, so feel free to work outside of the ‘normal’ school times.

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5 things you need to know before homeschooling

The Best Curriculum for History at Home| Hands-on History with BookShark

The Best Curriculum for History at Home This post is sponsored by BookShark. I am a BookShark partner and a portion of our curriculum was provided by them. As always, I only work with companies that I have previously used as a product. We used and loved BookShark when we homeschooled for Pre-K and are very happy with their 1st-grade curriculum.

We’re on week 14 of our homeschool year for first grade (level B). We’ve found a really good routine and feeling happy about what we’ve learned so far. The Holiday break is right around the corner and I think we’ll miss doing school!

Because it took me a few lessons to figure out how to use Hands-On History well, I wanted to share what’s inside the box, why we like it, and when to use the box with your lessons.

What’s Inside

The Hands-On History is an optional hands-on activity to help reinforce and document your students’ World History I studies.

  • Project supplies–except for a few household items such as scissors, stapler, markers, etc.
  • Instruction booklet–full-color, 92-page guide includes directions– with illustrations–for each step in the process. 

We love that everything is in a neat box organized in bags by their lesson. It’s easy to find what materials we need for each craft. The beginning of each lesson gives a little intro as to how the craft relates to the lesson you’re learning in history (which I read to my daughter). My daughter is able to read the simple instructions within the booklet that are written and have photos to show each step.

The projects included:

  1. Archaeology Set
  2. Chinese Dragon Puppet
  3. Clay Cylinder Seal
  4. Grecian Vase
  5. Laurel Leaf Wreath
  6. Miniature Yurt
  7. Roman Chariot
  8. Senet Board Game
  9. Trojan Horse
The Best Curriculum for History at Home

Why we like it

We really enjoy that there is a hands-on approach to supplement what we’re reading in our history books. Growing up, I excelled in classes that had a hands-on approach like Conceptual Physics, Chemistry, and Geometry. If I could physically see what I was learning, I was a much more interested and engaged student. Those are the classes that I remember today.

I knew that Sophia did not have a big interest in History. We did BookShark for PreK and she wasn’t very interested in that portion of our schooling. Knowing that I was thrilled to see that BookShark added Hands-On History as a consumable that we could add into our curriculum. We’ve both really enjoyed each time there has been a lesson that uses the crafts. It’s what we look forward to with each new lesson! It’s the best curriculum for history at home.

The Best Curriculum for History at Home

when to use it

Within the BookShark instructor’s guide, it shows which week to use the optional Hands-On History craft. However, doesn’t give a specific date, giving you flexibility to build it in where it fits for your week. What I learned was to read ahead a bit that week to see which day the book mentions what we’re building in our craft.

For example, when I saw we were going to be building a Senet game during our Ancient Egypt lesson, I looked through the books assigned for that week to see which day the book talked about the game before introducing the craft. That way, we have a base for what we’ll be creating.

I hope these three tips give you an idea of what’s inside Hands-On History and why you should add it to your curriculum. Especially if your child, or you, aren’t as engaged in History, it’s an awesome resource to become interested in this subject. Learn more about Hands-On History on the BookShark website.

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Preparing for homeschool lessons

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The Perfect Homeschool Routine That Works with My Schedule

The Perfect Homeschool Routine that Works with My Schedule. I want to preface this post by saying that whatever decision you are making for your family in regard to school during a pandemic is your choice. No one knows your kids like you and you’re the best one to make this decision. This post is my opinion on why we’re homeschooling with the BookShark curriculum for the 2020 school year.

The topic of school is always difficult, but especially this year. We chose to be as safe as possible and keep the girls home. That meant I would be teaching my daughter 1st grade while my 2-year-old is transitioning out of naps. Needless to say, our days are busy and there’s a lot of patience required to make it until dinner when my spouse gets home.

We’re on week 11 of our school year and I’ve found that a homeschool routine allows for more flexibility in our days (which is funny!) When we follow the basic schedule I made up, we’re able to stay focused better on those days when a structure is needed. On days when we need some space to recharge or rest we can easily choose which things are most important for the day.

Finding a Homeschool Routine That Works with My Schedule

Finding a Homeschool Routine that Works with My Schedule

Having a visual schedule my daughter can follow helps me in not having to repeat myself as often. She’s able to look at the schedule when she’s bored. Some days she likes to be ‘the mom’ and guide her sister and me through the day.

A Day in our homeschool life

*We do not follow this schedule down to the minute and we’re flexible to switch around activities. If it’s raining in the morning we may choose to do our movement outside in the afternoon.

8-9 Breafast

My kids wake up anytime between 6:30-8. Some weeks I have set meal plans so I don’t have to think about what to make. Other weeks I have my oldest make her own breakfast. The schedule has examples of breakfasts she can choose from if she wants to make her own meal.

9-9:30 Move

Our ‘movement’ time is the easiest section to overlook but also one of the most important times during our day. When we are able to go outside for a walk or bike ride, it sets the mood for a great day ahead. On the days we don’t make movement a priority, we tend to have a tough day. For us, to move could look like yoga, Dance Central (a dancing video game), a YouTube workout, a nature scavenger hunt, a bike ride, giving the dog a walk, chalk, and hopscotch, or a hike at a park.

fall hiking girls

9:30-10:15 History

Next, we sneak in a bit of schooling. Because we have to do school all at once during my youngest’s nap time, it gets overwhelming to focus that long. If we do our history reading (a chapter book) during this timeslot after being active it gives both girls a chance to rest, get a drink, and be calm with a story.

10:15-11:30 Play

During playtime, the girls can choose whatever they want as a solo activity or I will play along. This could look like a board game, playing pretend, Barbies, dress up, dancing, or a puzzle. They’re welcome to do anything inside or outside as long as there is no screen involved.

11:30-12:30 Lunch

This is typically the most exciting part of the day because my husband is able to come upstairs from work. We’re excited to tell him all about our day and have some time to play with him. It’s a chance for me to have a breather and let them play together while I throw in a load of laundry or read my book.

Finding a Homeschool Routine That Works with My Schedule

12:45-3 School

After lunch, my youngest lays down for a nap (or quiet time). My oldest and I do our BookShark curriculum which typically takes 1.5-2 hours of focused time. We have found the most enjoyment out of doing the rest of History, followed by Science, then Math, and finally Language Arts and Writing. We do it this way for a couple of reasons.

  1. My daughter is fully engaged at the beginning and can focus well to absorb information from History and Science. Since Math, Language Arts, and Writing are hands-on, she’s able to do those last.
  2. I can assign the solo writing and copy work at the end of the lesson. When she is done with her solo work she can bring it to me to check. By this time I am working but can take time to check her work.

Keeping this homeschool routine also helps us know what to expect each day.

3pm is typically when my youngest wakes up from her nap so before that time period is up my daughter does her chores followed by screen time. Screen time is anything she wants to watch on her tablet or a ABC Mouse.

3-3:30 Specials

Specials are the hardest activity for our family. I am usually the cause of us not being able to do our specials but sometimes the girls are having fun playing together and don’t want to do specials. If I am not trying to finish up work or cleaning, we will do art, music, or PE. Each week I make sure we do at least one craft or learn about a new art medium. I’ll also typically share a new song or hand clap with my oldest that I’m counting as music class! PE is pretty non-existent for us. We do family hikes or bike rides each weekend but since we’re not going anywhere (pandemic), we’re not doing our usual swim lessons, ninja classes, or ballet classes that would normally be our PE.

3:30-5 Play

It’s the end of the day and the craziest time of the day for my girls. They’re excited about my husband getting off work and they tend to be starving and a bit chaotic. I’ve learned that if we have a snack after specials and play outside during this time, things go much smoother. If I try to clean, read a book, or make dinner without them having something to do, it is challenging. Some days I might let them watch a movie during this time or I might tell them that I need more quiet time and they can do Art Hub for Kids or read books. This time is really just a time to do whatever until dinner and it changes daily.

tea time play

5-8 Dinner, Play, Bed

The end of the day is spent as a family, having dinner together, playing together (or doing a chore together like raking leaves), and then bedtime. Bedtime is another good time to get in chapter book reading. When the day gets chaotic, we’ll do our History chapter book reading before bed to give us some extra time during the day.

This is the routine that works for us and allows flexibility in our schedule. I am happy to completely throw it out the window if someone is sick or we need a mental health day. I am happy to move around the pieces of the puzzle to make them fit with our day when things pop up like tantrums or thunderstorms.

I would love to know how you’re scheduling your day, or if you think having an outline will help your family unit stay a little saner during the homeschooling day.

For more information on our BookShark curriculum and how it easily fits into our homeschool routine with very little prep (as I discussed in this post), check this link on the BookShark site.

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Finding a homeschool routine that fits my schedule took some time. Having this outlined schedule helps us be more flexible in our day.

4 Efficient Steps to Prepare for Homeschool Lessons

How to prepare for Homeschool Lessons This post is sponsored by BookShark. I am a BookShark partner and a portion of our curriculum was provided by them. As always, I only work with companies that I have previously used as a product. We used and loved BookShark when we homeschooled for Pre-K and are very happy with their 1st-grade curriculum.

The main reason we chose to homeschool this year was because of the pandemic. Our daughter did very well in her public school this past year for kindergarten and we had intended to send her there for first grade. We decided early on, whether or not our school would be doing virtual or in-person that we would homeschool. We loved homeschooling for pre-K with BookShark and we knew it would be the best option for this school year.

With a 2-year-old at home, I knew I needed to do BookShark again because there is virtually no prep work! I’m so happy we went with BookShark because I’m now working a few hours per day from home and would have been stressed out trying to plan her curriculum, blog, and do my job.

How to Prepare for Homeschool Lessons

There are 5 easy steps that I do to prepare for our homeschool lessons. You could probably get away with 3 steps but I like planning ahead.

1. Keep your school zone organized.

We do not have a full room with a table for our schoolroom. We do have an awesome 2 x 4 cube shelf that organizes all of our school materials. Each cubby is labeled to make it easy for my daughter to get her materials out and put them away after each school lesson. We don’t put any extra books or art supplies in this area to keep it simple to find exactly what we need when we go to do our lesson.

One tip I’ve learned is to have an abundance of pencils, an electric pencil sharpener, and lots of paper (lined and blank). Those seem to be the pain points with most homeschool moms!

Nature unit study homeschool

2. Make your binder more manageable

BookShark comes with a massive binder to hold the year’s worth of curriculum. There are tabs that separate each week making it easy to keep them straight. I got a smaller binder that held 3 weeks perfectly. At the end of the three weeks, I put the past three weeks into the massive binder and pull out the next three.

This makes flipping through the lessons each day much easier. Our small binder also has pockets at the front that hold our attendance sheet and small cutouts for the week (like sight word cards or animal cards). This is my favorite tip for how I prepare for homeschool lessons.

BookShark cirriculum

3. Look over the lessons for the week on Sunday

Who else has a much better week when they do some basic prep/planning on the weekend? It is noticeable in our family when we’re out of town for the weekend and I don’t get to plan. We order out more. We eat unhealthy meals. I feel like I’m taking the whole week just to get caught up on cleaning.

If I’m able to have a few hours to clean, plan our week, meal plan, and look over the curriculum, it makes everything go more smoothly the next 5 days.

With BookShark, they make it really easy to see the overview of what will be taught for the week. They also have a special section in the notes that tells you if there are any materials you need to get for the following week (science projects often require household materials that I’ll pull that Sunday for the week.)

There isn’t any prep other than the 5-10 minutes it takes to look over what you’ll be teaching and grabbing a few items. I do use this time to review math if we’re learning a new lesson. That’s only because I do not have confidence in the subject of math and I want to be well prepared to teach our daughter.

sunflower homeschool unit study

4. Plan a Unit Study (But only if you want)

We love having a 4 day school cirriculum. BookShark has it planned that way so you can save one day for a co-op, field trips, or extra cirriculars. Since we are not participating in any of these right now, (pandemic) we save that day for unit studies. These are rather loose and are meant to be a time when we can explore a subject my daughter is interested in.

Keep in mind, this unit study could be one day or stretch over a few months, depending on the interest of your child. Mine wanted to continue learning about oceans for multiple months. Thankfully there are tons of free resources on Pinterest and at the library. If you’re unsure of how to set one up, search ‘unit study ____’ and fill in the blank with whatever your child is interested in.

How to Prepare for Homeschool Lessons

Homeschooling can be done anywhere

One thing homeschooling parents tend to get caught up on is the actual physical portion of homeschooling. The materials, curriculum, schoolroom area, etc. I’m here to tell you that YOU are what matters most in your child’s learning experience. You, showing up every day, with a smile, ready to learn along with your child. Wherever that may be. For us, it’s usually on the floor, in calm quiet voices as to not wake our youngest. It can be outside on a blanket, in a hammock, at Grandma’s while you visit, on a camping trip, or anywhere else. THAT’s the beauty of homeschooling. It can be anywhere, anytime.

Let me know what ways you prepare for homeschool lessons or where you like to do your lessons! We’re always interested in new ways of doing school.

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