Using BookShark Reading with History in Your Homeschool
Using BookShark Reading with History in Your Homeschool
We are about to begin our new homeschool year, and I am so excited to share what we will use to learn History this year. I had used BookShark in our homeschool before for Science and loved every minute because of the fantastic books and activities it included. Finding a curriculum for History has always been a struggle because I want a quality history that is backed by facts from more than one perspective. So let’s explore how using BookShark Reading With History is so exciting. Before we begin, please take a moment to pin this post to your homeschool board.
Literature-Based History Curriculum
As I mentioned, teaching history was always troublesome for me. I started with a specific curriculum but realized that it had only one particular perspective after a bit. It left even my children and me with lots of questions. The option that seemed best for me was to teach History through living history books, but putting together those books for what we needed to cover was overwhelming, to say the least.
My options were: I could purchase a History book from one author and learn all the required History from their perspective, or I could read many books about all different perspectives of a time in History and dive into it. Again it can be overwhelming, but with BookShark, they gather a bunch of excellent books perfect for your child’s reading levels and creates lessons based on them. It brings History to life.
Homeschooling HIstory Using BookShark
BookShark’s Reading with History program provides homeschooling families with complete literature-based history programs for a variety of time periods, including American History, World History, the Eastern Hemisphere, and much more.
Each Reading with History pack from BookShark includes an entire year’s worth of History Readers, Read-Alouds, an instructor’s guide, maps, markers, a sizeable BookShark binder, and a timeline book with timeline stickers. It is everything you need to excel at History in your homeschool.
When the boxes arrived at our doorstep, it was like Christmas. They were massive and filled with fantastic books. You can check out all the items we received in the slide show below.
BookShark now offers a BookShark Virtual Seat to help you keep track of assignments, progress, and even grades. It is perfect for when you are homeschooling on the go or when you don’t want to lug the Bookshark Binder around. Kids can even take assessments on the platform, which you can access on your computer, tablet, or phone. Make sure that you add it at checkout to get the seat.
Let’s Did into the BookShark Reading With History B
While we haven’t begun our homeschool year yet, we couldn’t help but dive into this curriculum. My kids get excited when a new curriculum comes, especially the items from BookShark. They have already started reading many of the books. We are exploring the world from early civilizations through the fall of Rome. BookShark provides a 36-Week, 4-Day schedule with lesson plans, teaching tips, and much more. We will learn how people lived in ancient Egypt, Greece, Europe, Africa, India, and China.
Remember, BookShark is literature-based. Some fantastic read-aloud books are included in this curriculum, including Charlotte’s Web and Mr. Popper’s Penguins. We love reading aloud, and adding this has only enriched the curriculum. There are also History based reading materials and readers specifically for the children to read.
Let’s look at the Read-Alouds:
- Cool Beans
- Charlotte’s Web
- Henry Huggins
- Gooney Bird Greene
- Homer Price
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins
- Mountain Born
- Understood Betsy
- Favorite Poems of Childhood
- Detectives in Togas
- Little Pear
- It Could Always be Worse
- The Year of the Baby
- Silver Street Farm
Let’s Look at the History-Based Books
- History B Instructor’s Guide
- Game On in Ancient Greece
- On the Run in Ancient China
- You Wouldn’t Want to be a Sumerian Slave!
- Riding On a Caravan: A Silk Road Adventure
- The Usborne Time Traveler
- Tut’s Mummy Lost & Found
- Archaeologists Dig for Clues
- The Great Wall of China
- Children Just Like Me:
- Timeline Figures – B
- The Usborne Book of World History
Let’s look at the level 3 readers:
- The Chalk Box Kid
- The Paint Brush Kid
- Third Grade Detectives #4
- Cora Frear
- Tippy Lemmey
- Third Grade Detectives #10
- Tornado
- Jake Drake: Bully Buster
- Secret Valley
- The House on Walenska Street
- The Littles
- The Last Little Cat
- Viking Adventure
- Marco Polo
- Encyclopedia Brown
- Lumber Camp Library
We also got the additional Hands on History Kit- World History 1, which brings history to life with hands-on projects. These are simply wonderful as they will be memorable moments from our homeschool years that my children can work on. The kits also include most of the supplies. The only thing you need to provide is household supplies like markers, scissors, glue, etc.
This set includes nine projects, featuring:
- Archaeology Set
- Chinese Dragon Puppet
- Clay Cylinder Seal
- Grecian Vase
- Laurel Leaf Wreath
- Miniature Yurt
- Roman Chariot
- Senet Board Game
- Trojan Horse
Bookshark has the lesson plans covered
With a stack of books and accessories like this, it can feel incredibly overwhelming to plan out how it will all come together, which is another reason I love BookShark. They take out all the guesswork and break down everything in a well-organized, easy-to-use plan. I also love that it is available on the BookShark Virtual seat because it helps me to be able to check everything off as we go while fitting into the palm of my hand.
The guide includes 36 weeks of instruction which are organized into 4-day academic weeks. Everything you need for the week is displayed on a grid on the first page of each week in the instructor’s guide. Behind the grid page, which has the week’s overview, you will find all the detailed information you need to facilitate rich conversations with your kids. There are questions and potential answers so you can check for comprehension.
The instructor’s guide also gives you a heads up when you have a map or timeline activity during the week. The timeline book, figures, and laminated map with markers are included in the BookShark package.
The instructor’s guide helps make the homeschooling parent’s job much more manageable. You can breathe knowing that it is covered. Just follow the steps.
BookShark Virtual
I mentioned BookShark Virtual earlier in this post, but if you want to make this curriculum even more seamless, you will want to grab a seat.
Let’s talk more about the benefits of BookShark Virtual:
- Instructor’s Guide Access- access the instructor’s guide from anywhere. No need to lug the actual guide around. This is groundbreaking if you take trips during your homeschool year like we sometimes do!
- Foster Your Independent Learners- students can log into their BookShark Virtual seat and view their assignments, take assessments and even watch required videos while you can follow their progress.
- Online Grading- BookShark Virtual offers automatic grading on most assessments throughout the year, providing students with immediate feedback to learn from their mistakes.
While the whole class is not online, you still need to do the reading and activities off-screen BookShark Virtual does take some of those mundane activities and streamline them, leaving you with the more joyful parts.
I am so glad I found BookShark Reading with History and look forward to diving into everything this year and beyond!
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