BookShark curriculum

Learning to Read in Kindergarten

Kindergarten has been my favorite grade to homeschool, which makes me sad that it is also going to be our last year with kindergarten. I love how kindergartners want to learn and how fast they can learn once they are interested. Finding the right curriculum and materials to interest them is all it takes to stroke a love of learning. Learning to read is the best example. All three of my kids have learned to read in kindergarten, using different methods and materials, just by focusing on what interest them.

Learning to Read in Kindergarten

*Part of being an ambassador for BookShark is sharing our experiences in using it. I’m 100% honest in what I share, and how we feel about using it. This post also contains affiliate links, see my disclosure for more information.*

This is the first year we have used BookShark Kindergarten Language Arts. Gauge just turned five in November but he is so eager to learn that we are on Week 18 in the schedule, as I’ve been letting him move at his own faster pace.

My older girls learned to read a little differently than he did. They learned their letter sounds from watching a Leap Frog video on vacation one year. As we traveled, they used their DVD player in the backseat to watch LeapFrog DVDs. Gauge has no interest in watching them; instead he wants copywork and books to read.

BookShark Kindergarten Language Arts Curriculum

The curriculum includes phonics, spelling, copywork, and a complete creative expression/pre-writing program. While the copywork is working on writing and spelling skills, our favorite part as been the creative expression where your child explains to you what they think is happening in a picture provided in the curriculum.

As with the other levels word for word instruction scripts are included in the 36-week, 4-day Instructor’s Guide, making it easy to teach your child at the right speed and with ease.

Learning to Read with Fun Books

With our Language Arts curriculum we also have the Fun Tales books which are perfect for learning to read and practicing literacy skills in small bites. The books are short, with just a few words per page with fun, helpful pictures. Watching your child read one of these books on their own is just one of the greatest joys in homeschooling. From the moment we unboxed our BookShark curriculum this year Gauge was drawn to the Fun Tales box of books.

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Not everyone is having fun doing @BookShark Language Arts this morning. Critical thinking can be hard. ? . . . #mullenhomeschool2018 #languagearts #alphabet
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Fun Learning to Read Games

The Kindergarten curriculum also includes BookShark’s Go A to Z! which is their alphabet version of Go Fish card game. This game is a great way first learn the letters and sounds they make.

Also included is BINGO! All kids love to play BINGO. Just as with Go A to Z!, you can use the game to practice letter recognition and then to learning the letter sounds.

The best part of playing games to practice skills is that older children/siblings can also play along with kindergartners for some family fun. Older siblings already know their letter sounds, but the review can help make for great spellers.

Learning To Spell with BookShark Language Arts

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

I am not a strong speller, but with the help of spell check I make do. I don’t want my kids to be relying on spell check for their spelling needs, but instead to have a great foundation in spelling. A strong foundation in learning to spell is just what we are getting this year with BookShark Language Arts.

Learning To Spell with BookShark Language Arts – Level 2

*This post is part of my brand ambassador contract with BookShark, they provided us with this great curriculum, in exchange I’m sharing what I think of it with you. I am 100% honest with you about how I feel using this curriculum. This post does also contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

The prep work for using BookShark is very minimal for parents, which has always been a plus for me. The Language Arts does require a little advanced preparation for you to do, for example writing flashcards with each week’s spelling words on them. It takes me minutes to write out a few weeks worth of cards at a time, so it’s not a burden whatsoever. I bought my index cards and card file box to store them in. This keeps them together and easy to store away for my other children as we continue homeschooling.

Language Arts Day one of our schedule is writing their words. While the schedule suggests their doing it on a large surface such as a chalkboard or marker board, that didn’t work for my kids. What has been working for us is to write them twice a piece of paper. Simple, but effective. And effective is what we are going for.

Language Arts Day two is a pre-test. We do it just as the BookShark suggested schedule says. I have them look over their spelling words, and once they are ready I will say the word as well as use it in a sentence Then they spell out their word on paper. If they get one wrong they rewrite it.

Language Arts Bonus day: Days 1 and 2 for us are Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday is our day without scheduled lessons, but we use our driving time on this day to practice and master their spelling words. I have written their words on an index card to grab as we head out the door. They sit in the back seat together and ask each other their words.

Learning To Spell with BookShark Language Arts cards we take in the car

Language Arts Day 3 is a review day in the schedule, a chance to work on words they have haven’t quite gotten yet. If they aren’t having problems, we have fun making silly sentences as suggested in the schedule. Learning to spell can be a lot fun if you let it.

Language Arts Day 4 is spelling test day! Fun! Since we have started taking our words into the car with us, they have been loving spelling test day because they almost always get them 100% right. They love being able to tell Dad just how well they did when he gets home from work.

Language Arts Level 2 and Level 2 Advanced Spelling

BookShark has three Language Arts options for level :
1. regular
2. intermediate
3. advanced

The reason we are using Level 2 Advanced for my fourth grader is explained in this blog post. But it comes down to wanting to teach my two girls together as much as possible while knowing they are but still in the “proper” grade/age range. We all hear our kids gets asked what grade they are in. For the most part the only true difference we have seen has been their spelling words. In week 7, my girls got a real kick out of the fact that they each had a few of the same words on their spelling lists. They are working on the same type of words each week — compound words, two syllable words that end in -y, etc which makes teaching them.

Our Language Arts Take Away

The biggest help in learning to spell this year has been the ability to take our words with us. That extra time spent on them when they would normally be watching a DVD has made the biggest difference. For example, it took one 45-minute drive to the city to grocery shop for Austin to get the hang of spelling oatmeal. She hates the food itself and for awhile hated even trying to spell it. With a lot of laughing on the drive, she finally mastered it, and remembered it past that day.

Heart Pumping Human Body Science Experiment

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

One of my favorite subjects to teach my kids is science, and one of those reasons is that it can be so hands-on. How my do kids learn the best? By involving them, and getting hands on with science! This real-life method- is a great way for them to learn more about the subjects that we are covering through the year. This heart pumping science experiment is easy to set up and have fun with.

HEART PUMPING JAR SCIENCE EXPERIMENT - heart pump science project

Heart Pumping Human Body Science Experiment

*This post may contain affiliate links, and is part my ambassadorship with BookShark. I share a post monthly about our using BookShark curriculum in exchange for receiving it to use with my children this year. You can see just what we received this year here.*

Over the past couple of weeks we have been doing human body-related lessons in science. Human body-related science experiments to go along with those lessons just came naturally.

We’ll be continuing this for the next few weeks, we are learning about the human body in our BookShark Science Level 2 curriculum. Some of the things we have been doing along with our curriculum are running in place and then checking our pulse, seeing just how germs stick to our hands with glitter, and more.

Most everything we have been doing has been included in the science kit that came with our BookShark curriculum.

The book we’re using right now is The Usborne Book of Knowledge. The book goes through the systems of anatomy by showing different machines that can do what our body can do. BUT the kicker for them was that there is no one machine that can do everything our body does.

To illustrate one of these machines, thought it would be fun to make a model that pumps blood.

This simple experiment shows how the heart beats to pump blood out of the heart. You probably have everything you already need at home.

Science Experiment E-Book

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What you need:

a clear jar
a balloon
2 plastic bendy straws
water
food coloring (optional)
tape
scissors

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How to do this Heart Pumping Experiment

Cut the balloon where the neck starts to widen into the balloon. Add a few drops of food coloring to a cup or so of water. The color helps you see the water movement better.

After filling the jar with colored water, stretch the balloon over the mouth of the jar, you want it to be as flat as possible. Cut two tiny holes in the balloon, slightly smaller than your straw holes, about an inch apart.

Take the neck of the balloon and wrap it around the end of one straw. Tape it in place. It doesn’t have to be fancy just enough to prevent water and air from going into or out of that straw.

My straws would not stay uncrossed in the jar, but it does not affect how it works. I would recommend having a pan under your jar or doing this over a sink to contain the water mess.

Now press down lightly onto the balloon you have stretched over the jar mouth. Watch what happens.

Heart Pumping Human Body Science Experiment - heart pump science fair project

My kids were very into what was happening, they were not only asking questions but answering each others question based on what they remembered from our lessons and what we read in The Usborne Book of Knowledge. They were working to together, teaching one another what they had learned.

What just happened with these pumping heart experiment:

We made a simple pump that moved water from the jar through the straws and into the pan. The cut end of the balloon worked as a valve or a gate, to stop the water from going back down the straw.

Your heart pumps blood out into your body through your arteries in a similar way. Human hearts have four separate chambers inside. This pump shows how one chamber and its valve works.

Heart Pumping Science Experiment

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Active Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Estimated Cost: $1

Learn about how a heart pumps blood through the heart and the body.

Materials

water
food coloring (optional)tape
scissors

Tools

jar
balloon
scissors
tape
2 plastic bendy straws

Instructions

Cut the balloon where the neck starts to widen into the balloon. Add a few drops of food coloring to a cup or so of water. The color helps you see the water movement better. After filling the jar with colored water, stretch the balloon over the mouth of the jar, you want it to be as flat as possible.
Cut two tiny holes in the balloon, slightly smaller than your straw holes, about an inch apart.Take the neck of the balloon and wrap it around the end of one straw. Tape it in place. It doesn't have to be fancy just enough to prevent water and air from going into or out of that straw. My straws would not stay uncrossed in the jar, but it doesn't affect how it works. I would recommend having a pan under your jar or doing this over a sink to contain the water mess.
Now press down lightly onto the balloon you have stretched over the jar mouth. Watch what happens.

You can check out my Instagram homeschool story highlights to see just how this worked.

How I Homeschool Multiple Ages With Ease

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

One question I always hear from fellow homeschooling moms is how do you homeschool multiple children of different ages? There is more than one way to homeschool multiple ages, but I’ll share how I do it. This is what is working for our family and might work for yours or at least give you some ideas for finding what works for you.

How I Homeschool Multiple Ages With Ease

*This post contains affiliate links, see my privacy policy for more information. I am an ambassador for BookShark – they provided curriculum for us to use in order to facilitate our reviews. BUT I truly love using it, and we continue to do so for as long as possible.*

Last year was the first year I had all three of my kids homeschooling together more or less, four days a week. My youngest was doing pre-kindergarten work, I let him go at his own pace with it but he wanted to be at the dining room table or on the couch with his big sisters when they were doing schoolwork.

Having him wanting to learn along with his big sisters was a nice way to ease into having the three of them learning together. He was learning some patience waiting for Momma to make it back area the table to help him just like she did with his sisters.

Learning Some Subjects Together

Choosing BookShark homeschool curriculum was the one factor that made teaching multiple ages easiest. It’s literature-based curriculum which means we sit down together and read our history, science, and this year’s language arts. We all get to cuddle and relax with a great book.

Last year our History and Science was Level 1, which is for ages 5-7. This year History and Science is Level 2, for ages 7-9. My girls are in the perfect age range for these making it seamless to teach them together. Gauge, who will be five in November, is learning along with them and enjoying every minute of it.

I’ve never been a parent to limit what books my kids can read, and I don’t limit Gauge either. Although the ages our curriculum might be a bit older for him – a bit over his head, he always learns a little something from the books. Next year when he is in grade one, I’ll loop back to Level 1 with him.

Shark Buoyancy - Animal Science Experiment

Learning Some Subjects Individually

For individual workbook subjects such as math and language arts we still sit down together at the dining room table. Each child gets their binder out, or in Austin’s case a laptop for Teaching Textbooks.

I let my kids know what lessons to start, and off they go. I am right there to help each as they may need it. I can easily walk around the table to help each and make sure that they are the right path as far as understanding and getting their work finished.

Reading Aloud or Individually

For reading aloud time they love to sit in the kitchen and read at our island while I’m making bread or doing the dishes, both of which I can do without thinking about and completely listen to them while they read.

As a bonus their siblings will be in the dining room or living room working on their own thing, not interrupting, or at least that’s always the hope.

Using curriculum such as BookShark has made teaching multiple children flow nicely for us.

I think that you can easily homeschool multiple ages together if that is what you want to do, and if you are choosing a curriculum that is going to help you with that goal. Curriculum that is based on a range of ages rather than a strict grade can help you do this.

Recommended Resources for Homeschooling Multiple Children

Unboxing BookShark and Not Getting Overwhelmed

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

You have decided on the curriculum that you’re going to use this year, you ordered it, and it has arrived. That is a big ol’ box waiting for you to open and enjoy. Waiting for you to unbox it, put it away and get started using it. But that box is full to the point of overwhelming. Unboxing your new curriculum can be overwhelming, but I don’t want you to feel that way. Instead, I want you to enjoy it and love every second of unboxing BookShark curriculum.

Unboxing BookShark and Not Getting Overwhelmed

*This post may contain affiliate links. I wrote this post in exchange for the curriculum we received to facilitate the review. All opinions are 100% my own.*

Opening your box of curriculum

Although my children are excited for the new books when that box first arrives, I don’t open it right away. I let my kids wander off and forget about it. I wait to open the box until they are doing something else that has all of their attention. That way I can see what is coming out of our BookShark curriculum box without losing something as one of my children runs off with a new book that they want to look at, I get to check it off as arrived and I know that it’s somewhere in our house after our kids have been looking through them all summer.

The first thing I do is grab a few things:

a cup of coffee
a pen
a pair of scissors

And then I open the box. I take in all that new book smell because I’m weird like that and love the smell of books.

Once I have the box unpacked and spread out over my kitchen island, I grab my pen, and the list of what is supposed to be in the box and check it off. I want to make sure that everything is there. Then it’s time to find a place to put the books. Not everyone is willing to just put them on a shelf and let their kids read them ahead of schedule, but that’s how I do it because books are meant to be read and can be read more than once.

Where do you put it all?

I have two cubes on our cube storage shelf for that is full of books for this coming school year, so they are all together. They can take one to read as long as it gets returned to that shelf. I have the remaining four cubes for other books of similar interest, those that we used last year and will be using again this year, and for our hands on manipulates for science and math.

What do you do with the binder and all the instruction manuals?

For me, I use the 3 inch D-ring BookShark binder and dividers for our science and history curriculum. I get smaller, individual binders for their language arts because each of my children is working a different level. I recommend at least 1 1/2 inch binders. I have gotten my curriculum early enough that I’m not rushing to get everything done all at once.

Set it aside and forget it

Besides the great books that BookShark uses in its curriculum, my favorite thing is that once you get your box, you can basically set it aside and forget about it until you are ready to start your school year. BookShark has covered the planning for you so don’t have to worry about how you’ll get through all the books. As you can see below and more here, they take care of figuring out the heavy part of planning, when to read each chapter, when to practice spelling and more.

If you choose to not let your kids look at the books ahead of time, setting them somewhere that you can just grab the ones you need as scheduled might be easier, you won’t have to hunt down books when you need them.

BookShark curriculum

Learning to Read in Kindergarten

Learning to Read in Kindergarten