I am a BookShark Brand Ambassador and did receive curriculum in exchange for sharing details of their product.
When we first decided to homeschool our son I was a bit overwhelmed with all the options available. How would I know I was picking the correct one for our family? The truth is I was leaning toward an online curriculum. It just felt like the easier option and being new to this I wanted to simplify as much as I could. I had not yet found the ease of a boxed curriculum with an instructor guide.
Every spring when we are closing in on the end of our school year, I evaluate how our school year was going. Like many homeschool moms I begin researching to be sure I am making the choice that is best for our family and not falling into a rut and just doing the same thing every year because it is what we know.
Our current homeschool curriculum, BookShark, is the one we have used for the last 5 years. Every year I step back and take a hard look at how our school year went and if we want to continue using the same curriculum. Every year I look at our other options to be sure it is still the best one available. Every year I come back.
Our family is planning to begin traveling more this fall. We are going to be packing up only the necessities into our RV and head out to see more of the world. In our decision to begin “roadschooling” (homeschooling while traveling full-time) we had different evaluations when looking at next year’s curriculum. We will be concerned with weight and space this year. Something we have never considered.
Benefits of Online Schooling
I looked at online curriculum again this year. To be able to homeschool with nothing more than the iPad we will be carrying anyway seemed like a great way to keep down the weight in our RV. Not having to store books and having more room for other things would be a huge win.
But the concerns I had with picking an online curriculum were far greater than my desire to save on weight or space. My kids love electronic devices. They love to play Minecraft and Lego Dimensions. They would play all day every day if it was an option. I began imagining a world every homeschool mom dreams of… with kids so excited to do school work that I have to tell them to quit for fear that they will do an entire month of school in one afternoon. But that would not be reality in my house.
The Many Reasons We Love Literature-Based Learning
We limit screen time in our house. We just find that we have a happier household and our kids are more likely to play with each other, their toys, or pick up a book and read if they don’t have access to electronics all the time. It seems counter-intuitive to attempt to get them doing things outside of electronic devices and then hand them a device for school work. We absolutely use videos in addition to our regular school work, but it is just an added bonus to our studies.
With our current literature based curriculum we may be looking at a few extra pounds of weight, and we are going to have to find a way to organize the books since our RV has no bookshelves. But looking at my kids holding a book instead of them holding a device and wearing headphones is the preferred learning method for our family.
My son frequently will pick up old science books he has already read and look back at something. My daughter will be using his BookShark curriculum that he used years ago. So not only will she be learning it for the first time, but since he will likely be in the same room when she learns it… he will be getting a refresher. Having educational books laying around our house to read again or just to look back at when we want to look something up are such great benefits.
I want to be involved in their homeschool journey. When we first started homeschooling I realized my son was not the only one learning, but I was also learning some things I had forgotten over the years. I want to be reading the books with them so that we can discuss it further. I want their learning to be a family experience, not a solo mission they are on alone.
I have to be honest… some topics are just not interesting to my kids. Some things I don’t want them learning about just yet. We recently studied WWII and I did only scratch the surface when talking about the holocaust. My son knows innocent people died, but he doesn’t need many more details… we can cover that more when he is older. Because we are literature based we get to read the details if our kids are ready, or skip them if we don’t think it is best. Being able to skim quickly over some topics allows us more time to dig deeper into others. My kids LOVE science. We are often watching YouTube videos on things we find interesting, or doing experiments multiple times. Getting to dive deeper into interesting topics and skimming over the ones we are less interested in gives my kids a greater love of learning. I’m not sure all this is possible when using an online curriculum.
We start our day with books instead of devices. I love that my son gets up in the morning and in the quiet while everyone else is sleeping he picks up the book I have laid out for him and reads a chapter. I don’t know about you, but so often I pick up my phone with the intention to do one thing and find myself 20 minutes later scrolling FB or Instagram and lost in social media; completely forgetting why I picked up my phone in the first place. How can I expect the same thing won’t happen with my kids when they pick up the device! I have never seen him pick up his book to read and then accidentally finding himself on Netflix.
I was concerned with having to plan lessons and making sure I didn’t forget to teach certain things. I was sure I would have to spend too much time planning our school schedule and figuring out which books to use. But BookShark, a boxed curriculum is my one-stop shop. I am able to buy everything I need for the entire year from them and I get an instructor guide to follow so that I don’t leave anything out. Literature based has really turned out to be so much easier than I could have ever dreamed.
Of course some of our other reasons for not wanting an online curriculum are in the unreliability of the device. In our travels we won’t always have access to internet. On one of our last camping trips we didn’t have any internet or phone service for 3 days, but we brought books so learning was still taking place. We also don’t want to have to worry with charging devices in order to make school happen.
Overall I just feel like we already rely a lot on electronic devices and while I am sure my kids will be able to work a device just fine when they are older and need to… I want them to enjoy the smell of a new book and the thrill of turning each page until you are at the end of the book. For our family literature based learning and good books are just our style of learning.
