Homeschooling Multiple Kids with BookShark

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Many homeschool families have more than one student at home. Schedules and routines can quickly become complicated with each additional child. This task becomes more difficult if you use a literature-rich curriculum. That fantastic pile of books gets larger with each kid. Here’s how I maximize my time homeschooling multiple kids with BookShark curriculum.

 

 

When we decided to homeschool, we knew we didn’t want to do school at home. Those programs work for some families, but we wanted something different. Using a literature-rich curriculum brings lessons to life through many engaging books. This is what makes history, literature, science, and many other subjects meaningful and memorable for kids. Setting our kids in front of a computer all day is definitely an easier way to homeschool multiple kids, but that is not what we want for our homeschool experience. Now that my youngest is going full speed ahead with her own BookShark level, it takes some planning and organization to keep things moving smoothly and efficiently.

 

Combining Kids when Possible

BookShark’s programs each cover a three year age range. It’s often recommended to combine kids who are within three years into a single level for history and science. Skill based subjects, such as math and language arts, are taught at their individual levels. This is a fantastic way to ease the workload when homeschooling multiple kids. Large families may end up using 2 levels even after combining, but 2 levels is definitely manageable.

My kids fit within that 3 year span as they’re just shy of 3 years apart in age. However, my youngest has always been very adamant that she has her own school work in every single subject. Now that she’s older (and possibly easier to reason with), she still won’t budge. That’s how I ended up doing two different BookShark levels with two kids fairly close in age.

 

Finding Time for All Those Read-Aloud Books

The biggest challenge to doing more than one level of a literature-rich curriculum is finding time to do all of the read-aloud books. We have 2 novels going almost every week. This is the meat of BookShark. You’ll lose the heart of the program if you skimp on these books. This is what brings history and science to life. This is where connection happens.

Tips for fitting in all that reading…

• Use audio books for some of the novels. This works well if you spend a lot of time in the car for sports and activities, or if you just need a break from reading.
• Read aloud during your kids’ meals and snacks. Then, enjoy your meal in peace while the kids run off to play or do other school work.
• Include the poetry and read aloud books in your Morning Basket.
• Read before bed time.
• Have the non-homeschool parent read when they’re home from work. This is a great way to get them involved. Hint, it works best if they can read a whole book over a week or two and not just a chapter here and there.
• Don’t be confined to the 4 day a week schedule. My kids always ask me to read these books no matter what day it is. Keep reading through the whole week and weekend.
• Delay a book. Some people will skip a book or two during a level, but I really don’t like that option. I prefer to delay a book until a holiday or summer break.

 

Team Work

Often times homeschool families will have one parent who is the homeschool teacher. However, there are many opportunities to get the other parent involved when using a literature-rich homeschool curriculum. Even if the parent can’t consistently take over a specific task, they can often fill in here and there to give you a hand.

They can..

• pick a book to read aloud during a week or two when they’ll have time to read consistently and complete the whole book. Changing readers throughout the book can be difficult, but it’s also doable.
• listen to the kids as they read from their readers. Have the kids narrate what has happened in the story so far if the parent hasn’t listened to it from the beginning of the book.
• host a poetry tea time and read poetry from different program levels.
• do science experiments the kids. Many of the science experiments in BookShark can be done independently of the reading during the week. It’s okay to get behind a bit in the experiments. Catch up by having a big science day. My husband often does Science Saturdays with the kids while I run errands.

 

If you’re a single parent homeschooling multiple kids (hats off to you!), or the other parent is not available to help out that often, look to one of your older kids to help out. Plus, teaching someone else is a fantastic way to cement what they’ve learned!

Older kids can…

• listen as younger siblings read from their readers.
• host poetry tea times.
• help with science experiments for younger kids.
• read history and science lessons to the younger kids.
• help to teach / guide / correct one child’s work as you work with another child.

 

Homeschooling multiple kids with BookShark is certainly doable. Large families (or smaller ones with stubborn kids like my own) can still use a literature-rich homeschool curriculum without being overwhelmed by the amount of books. Pick a few of these tips to help create a routine that maximizes your time so that you can share these amazing books with your kids.