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5 Reasons I Love Our Four Day Homeschool Week with BookShark

I am a BookShark Brand Ambassador and did receive curriculum in exchange for sharing details of their product.

There are numerous reasons we homeschool our children, the main one being we want the flexibility. There is so much life has to offer and we want to experience as much of it as we can. Homeschooling gives us more freedoms to pursue it all.

With BookShark, the Instructor Guide does a beautiful job outlining our schedule for us each day. (Hooray for no time spent having to plan lessons.) The BookShark week has only four days scheduled. The fifth day of the week is like a gift and you get to decide how to use it. Sure, we are homeschooling and have the freedom to take as many days off each week as we want (within reason). However, seeing it on the schedule really seems to bring home the importance of that fifth day off. Let me share with you just five of the countless things you can do with the extra 180 days a year.

Special Interest

My son has a serious interest in robotics. He has several robots and has more opportunity to play with them on our extra day. His Dash robot requires him to use coding and programming, which my son loves. He is having fun and I am excited to see him learning something that could be his career one day.

Getting dedicated time to learn more about a hobby is a wonderful way to keep learning light and fun.

The US Space & Rocket Center is fun for the whole family. Located in Huntsville, Alabama it is out of this world!

 

Field Trips

Our love for museums of all kinds is apparent to those that know us well. Children’s museums, science museums, history museums… some are more fun than others to the kids for sure. But I don’t know a kid anywhere that would rather read about a mummy as opposed to actually seeing one in real life.

We purchased a museum membership at our local history museum. We are now able to enjoy free or deeply reduced admission at museums within the ASTC group. This membership has been one of the greatest investments into our homeschool journey.

This is also a wonderful time to go to the library. We have more books in our house than we will ever be able to read, but the ones at the library are just more fun. AND some libraries have programs during the week that you can participate in.

Co-op

We are not currently a part of a co-op, but there are so many families that are and find it to be a huge benefit to their family. Having an extra day scheduled into the school week for co-op could certainly make adding this to the family’s schedule a much smoother transition.

Outdoor Activities

Take a hike. No, really what a great opportunity to take up a fun outside activity. We have used our day to visit parks, go to indoor trampoline parks (some of those even have a homeschool day), meet friends at the pool, or just stay home and ride bikes. Having more time to spend outside is as good for our kids as for the parents.

We have learned so much American History this year with our BookShark Curriculum, and we are excited to go in depth and learn more about the Civil War. We recently took a family trip to Chickamauga Battlefield where an important part of the Civil War took place.

More Travel

Having a longer weekend can make it possible to travel more. Your field trip can be out of state and last an entire weekend. You could take those outdoor activities and go for a camping trip. Travel is my favorite way to learn, and is a large part of our motivation behind homeschooling.

 

Whether you decide to stretch our your 4 days of lessons into your 5 days (I have done this many times as well). Or you go with some of the ideas I have shared I feel like a 4 day schedule is a great guide to have. We enjoy having a day to close the books and experience life.

 

If you are interested in a 4 day schedule and having BookShark guide you on this homeschool journey, make sure you check out their amazing curriculum. (We have been huge fans, and are in our 5th year using them.)

5 Reasons I love our 4 day homeschool week