Homeschool Curriculum Review: BookShark History Level 4

hi I'm Candace and you're watching homeschool on the hill and this is a homeschool curriculum review for book shark history level 4 and it is the condensed version which I will explain later but I want you guys to look at my shelter here there are stacks of books and all of these books and any of the materials you see here they were all sent to us by book shark in exchange for my review and that's what this video is a little bit earlier in the school year I did a how we use book shark history level 4 in our homeschool video and I will link that at the end of this video in case you haven't seen it but this is actually my review we have finished all 36 weeks of this program and I want to share my thoughts with you and so what I'm going to do for this video it's going to be a long video heads up long videos so if you have like a basket or tin of laundry to fold then just grab those and turn the video on and keep watching but here's what we're going to do I'm going to take you through all of the different books and pieces that are included in this program and I'm also going to have my boys share with you their favorite books from the program and then I'm going to come back and just do some closing thoughts we'll talk price and that sort of thing so settle in here we go all right so let's start with the book shark instructors guide for American history now we did the one-year condensed program this is a program you could actually do over two years and it is available in the level 3 and level 4 now we chose to use the condensed version and there was a reason we'd had some American history before so that's why we chose to do that the suggested age range for this program is 9 to 12 and my boys who actually did this program were 8 and 11 when we started the program at 9 and 12 when we finished the program so it worked out really nicely for them you can see this is already punched for a three-ring binder but I've taken it out just so I can kind of show you the pages and I want to just open up here see this is this is week 2 here so we'll look at this this is week 2 from the instructors guide I will not go into just great detail about this because I feel like I did it in the other book shark history video that I did and I'll link that at the end of this video but quickly you can see one of the things I love about book shark is that they set up a four-day week for that fifth day to be a flex day and do whatever it is you want to do po ops or extracurriculars for us we do a fun Friday we get a little creative on that day but here you have the information to let you know exactly what to read for history and geography here read Aloud's the independent readers and then you can write in other subjects if you want so this particular week you can see that we were finishing up a book called Pedro's journal on Monday and - I say Monday and Tuesday day 1 and day 2 and then we started North American Indians on day 3 and for hear this we sing America I'm going to show you as an audio CD and I'll show it to you in just a minute and then we had some read Aloud's here the witch of Blackbird Pond and then there's this poetry book and there's always a couple of suggested selections each week we started just changing that to make it on our fun Fridays at our tea time sometimes we would read the suggested poems for the week and sometimes we'd read some other things and then we have the instructions here for the independent readers and those are what my sixth-grader used this year I realized a little late into the program that my third grader probably could have read some of those as well but we just pulled things from our bookshelves now here's really what I want to show you and I won't take long with this because like I said I've shared this before when you turn the page on that instructors guide you get all of these details for each particular day so so many things are covered in here like this is why I would not want to do this program without the instructors guide so you know we had our reading selection in Pedro's journal and so it gives you some ideas of what to discuss after you read some questions and answers here and it tells you what you might want to listen to on the audio CD then as we did our read aloud it has a different words that are your vocabulary words and you guys I am not kidding I am not so sure we should have done we at a geography program this year we didn't need and we had a vocabulary program we could have gotten rid of because we really could have had it all right here in this program and it's my first time using this if I didn't know it I want to make sure to share that with you guys but so many words that you know we can come across while we're reading that we could stop and discuss if we needed to immediately or we could pick them and just use them as vocabulary words in our notebook and and then the kicker for me is that even the independent reader has some you know just kind of discussion questions in on this particular day there's only one question but it was just enough to keep me from having to read that independent reader as well to check and see if my son's reading this was good for me to be able to ask him and just check and see if he's reading and understanding and so it goes through every day of the week telling you exactly you know what to ask what you you can discuss and these are just suggestions because there were plenty of times that we got into our own discussions and that that kind of flows naturally within a family but I think these are great to help you out if you feel a little stuck but you don't have to feel like you have to do this a hundred percent but this is just a quick look into the instructors guide because I feel like so here's day three and day four I feel like I have I've shown you guys this before there's the end there and going into week three so a lot of notes and a lot of valuable information for you as the homeschool parent or teacher whatever label you want to use alright I want to show you just a couple of the extra materials that are included in this level for condensed package I touched on this Wheesung America CD and so here it is just a variety of different American songs and then some quotes from some you know famous speeches like Thomas Jefferson Abraham Lincoln Martin Luther King jr. so things you will be familiar with so the CD is just right here in the pack and pull it out and when you see it and then it also came with this little song book here so you'll have all of the lyrics then if any of you play instruments you can play I have be honest we didn't use this a whole lot I think if my kids were a little younger we might have used it but we we only pulled it out a couple of times it wasn't a big thing for my boys okay next I want to show you the maps first there's this fold-out map that was included and it can go right inside your binder here it's laminated you can write on it and you would write on it with these wet erase markers these are really great because they won't and just rub off unless you use a wet paper towel or something like that and then they clean right off so it's a lot better than dry erase markers and also this other map is included and you guys it's huge I'm not going to be able to get it all on camera it's in it's folded into thirds here and then into half I'm try to lay this out for you so pretty large but you can tuck it away and store it and on one side you have the United States I'm working on it guys in the second and on the other side you have the world map this is awesome because you can fold it up and store it we didn't fully utilize the geography aspect we did use our classroom maps to point out some different things I feel like we missed out because of that and I will not make that mistake again this is incredible and I'm just telling you from a person who spent a year with the program please take advantage of the geography component the last little extra piece I want to show you here and is this book shark timeline now the timeline figures will be included with your program and this is just a little front sheet that I'm showing you here but they were all stapled and they have adhesive on the back so you don't have to glue or anything you just have to cut them out and then you get this timeline book again so awesome especially if you're in a small space you don't want to hang things on the walls we happen to hang a time line on the wall and make one just for fun but this thing is awesome it would be for more than just this particular time period because you can see here that we're at 3800 to 3700 BC here so and you can see it continues to go way way up all the way to to 2050 but this is awesome you could just stick your timeline figures in there right extras on there and and all of the information for timeline figures and geography that's all found in the book shark instructors guide they're going to tell you everything when to pull out a timeline figure and when to access something on the maps it's all in the instructors guide but I would say that if you are dealing with a small space or you just really don't like things hanging on the walls this timeline book would be ideal we chose to hang ours on the wall but just know that this is available in the program as well now let's take a look at the history materials and I'm starting with these two books here these are referenced quite a bit in the book shark instructors guide you won't just you might read them for a week or so or maybe you'll need a read aloud and then cover these for a couple of days the instructors guide tells you exactly what to read and I've shared these in other videos they are the landmark history of the American people volume 1 and volume 2 so you have from Plymouth to the west and from Charleston to the Moon and I'm going to kind of flip through as I'm talking so just to kind of give you an idea of what the books look like because they have some really great illustrations but I have shared in other videos they're a little dry to read aloud at least that's how we felt about them so what I started doing is looking at the selection that I was supposed to read this day and I loved looking at these pictures that's bringing back memories but I would actually pre read some of the selections and then I would hit the high points with my kids and then I would point out some of these awesome illustrations and you know you can use your instructors guide if you need some conversation starters or whatever with your kids but just reading it aloud was a little dry for my kids but having said that I would not want to do this program without these books I thought they were great and I thought they were needed just a little dry as a read-aloud but the way I ended up doing it worked perfectly aren't these great I'm going to give you just a quick glimpse into the other one I don't want to stay on this too long but I know a lot of you are like me and you just you want to see so I'm just going to kind of flip through here also you didn't always read this in order we bounced around a little bit just depending on how the instructors guide would tell us to use this but I think these are great resources and like I said before I really wouldn't want to do the program without them okay here's a look at our history real ouds and as you can see there's quite a stack here so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on each one because I covered a lot of these in the monthly what we're reading videos home school updates I might have mentioned some things that you might have seen some of these titles or all of these titles before but I just want to share them especially if you're new to my channel I want to share them with you so that you can see what all was included in our book shark program so we'll start here with Pedro's journal I don't necessarily have them in the order that we read them but this was our first history read aloud Pedro's journal a voyage with Christopher Columbus August 3rd 1492 - February 14 1493 and you can see here it's by Pam Conrad it's a Scholastic book and it's a great little paperback written in journal form so everything is dated here there's some small illustrations not just a ton but they're sprinkled in there and this really captivated my boys and they really enjoyed this book then we have a small paper back here North American Indians I think it took us a couple of days to read through this this tied in nicely to one of the independent readers my son was reading but I thought this was a nice little read next we have one of these if you so if you were there when they sign the Constitution by Elizabeth levy and this took us a few days to read it actually has a lot more to it than I realized lots of illustrations good questions what's a compromise and great ways of kind of explaining these things I shared in another video a little bit of humor in here as well so this covered a lot more material than I thought it was going to just by picking it up so I think these little books are great and there's there's a whole series this is the only one of the fu books we read in this particular level here we have what's the big idea Ben Franklin by Jean Fritz this was fun and funny but it had a lot of information on Ben Franklin and a little bit of humor too and so I'm just flipping through to show you some of the illustrations again took us a couple of days to read this book so just letting you see some of the fun illustrations this is the Lewis and Clark expedition by Richard L Neuberger and I actually thought this was a very interesting read the boys liked it too because there was a lot of action happening a lot of adventure here I'm trying to show you some of the sketches the little illustrations here in this book not not too many but there were some this is freedom train the story of Harriet Tubman by Dorothea Stirling it's a Scholastic biography and my boys might say this was their favorite history read aloud there's one more they really really liked no illustrations in this but a wonderful read I highly recommend this one and like I said my boys might say this is their favorite history read aloud of the year here's another scholastic biography and it's the story of Thomas Alva Edison inventor The Wizard of Menlo Park and it's by Margaret Davidson very small read lots of illustrations this only took a couple of days to read through this is the book my boys might say is their favorite out of all of the history read Aloud's and it is the Wright brothers pioneers of American Aviation by Quinton Reynolds no illustrations in this book it is a chapter book but it's a wonderful read and I highly highly recommend it if you're wanting to learn more about the Wright brothers this little book is here Oh over here a story of World War one by Kathleen Kuklinski maybe I'm saying that correctly and this only took us a few days to read there's some illustrations throughout the book a reasonable amount but it is a chapter book and it's a sad story I talked about this in a monthly update or something about the Spanish influenza outbreak during World War 1 the last history read aloud is a letter to mrs. Roosevelt by sea koko de yong and this was a really really sweet story of a little girl whose family was having a very hard time financially and this little girl who thought you know she could write mrs. Roosevelt and maybe something would change I don't remember any illustrations it's a little chapter book and this is a very hope-filled story and I will tell you there's a part in it held the boys attention even mine if I'm being honest I had to read ahead to see how a certain part ended before I ever read it to the kids I had to read it on my own because I was a little bit worried about one part that it all worked out so anyway this was a wonderful read okay now for the reading read Aloud's and as you can see I have a pretty big stack here so I'm going to go through them kind of like I did the history read elapsed and just in case you're curious what we would usually do is start our day with our history read aloud and then usually before lunch we would read our reading read aloud and all of that is in the book shark instructors guide now we're going to start here with our first book the witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George spear and I loved this book so much my boys love this book so much this precious girl kit comes to live with some family in New England could have been raised in Barbados and after her grandfather died she had to come live with some family in New England and they are Puritans and she befriends a Quaker woman and there's just a whole lot tied up into that my boys love this like I love that my boys were really upset about who kits cousins were going to marry I mean it was a big deal to them and so we all really really love this book this is honestly one of my new favorite books if you've never read it please read it next up is Johnny Tremain a story of Boston in revolt by Esther Forbes you can see here it's a Newbery Medal winner and most of you are familiar with this book so you want to touch on the Boston Tea Party the Battle of Lexington you can have this young boy Johnny of course historical fiction Johnny Tremain and he was a silversmiths apprentice and then could no longer do that due to an injury and so he ends up intertwine in the stories of John Hancock and Samuel Adams and Paul Revere just a really wonderful action-packed piece of historical fiction here's another book you guys are probably familiar with it's carry on mr. Bowditch and it's the story of Nathaniel Bowditch who ended up writing what's called the sailor's Bible the American practical navigator and so it says here he fine-tuned the mastery of navigation and he was primarily self-taught so a pretty amazing story and he really has to overcome a lot a lot of tragedy in his life so very interesting read here we have across five april's by Irene Hunt I loved this book so much and in fact as I'm picking these up I'm remembering sitting and reading these with the boys I loved being in this story with my boys and we really got attached to this family and so if you're looking for a good piece of historical fiction for the Civil War I highly recommend across five april's another Newberry book caddie Woodlawn by Carroll Ryrie brink and let me just tell you if you like little house in the Big Woods kind of things you will love caddie Woodlawn and caddie Woodlawn is just a spunky fun little girl but she's got that sweet family life like you would expect in Little House on the Prairie or little house in the Big Woods and she's based off of a real person the author's grandmother was the real caddie Wood so this was a fun little read like I said if you like the Little House on the Prairie little house in the Big Woods I think you'll really like caddie Woodlawn next up is Little Britches father and I were ranchers by Ralph Moody and I'll be honest with you I didn't actually have any expectations of this book at all like I didn't even know what to expect and I ended up really like having an emotional reaction to this book actually sobbed really hard and my teenage son had to do some of the reading aloud for me because I had a really hard time composing myself it was I just got really attached to these characters it's about a boy Ralph Moody and his family he was 8 years old it says here when his family moved from New Hampshire to a ranch in Colorado in 1906 and it just really talks about the struggles they had getting their ranch up but just a lot about this little boy growing and becoming a young man and like I said I had a very strong emotional reaction my boys did not but I did and I was just really pleasantly surprised by this book next up is roll of thunder hear my cry by Mildred the Taylor and I'm going to sound like I'm an emotional wreck but there were tears with this book too this was fantastic and thanks to you guys I now know it's a series and I've already got in the second book in the series also the Ralph moody books there are more of those I just found out on the back of the book and so yeah this one we had some amazing discussions you're in South Mississippi in I think 1933 and boy does this family have to face a lot and really it centers around Cassie Logan here but the entire Logan family and the hostility within their community wonderful book and I'm eager to read the second one I don't know if I'll do it as a read aloud or what this summer our last read aloud for the school year was another Newberry metal book and it's miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen I thought it was a really sweet book I think I said in another video and maybe I didn't maybe I just thought it I've talked about caddie Woodlawn like if you like little house in the Big Woods or a Little House on the Prairie you like caddie Woodlawn and for me this is kind of a more modern version obviously but still with that sweetness so if you like that type of thing and let me just tell you my boys did they liked this they liked caddie Woodlawn we loved little house in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie and so if you like that sort of thing there's just a lot of sweetness in these books but and just a really good storyline and we all really enjoyed this one as well here is the poetry book I referenced when I was showing you the instructors guide this is the Oxford illustrated book of American children's poems and it's edited by Donald hall and I have shown this book in so many of my what we're reading videos I think I've shown it in our fun Friday so I have just shown this in several several videos and these are wonderful the instructors guide can give you some suggestions on what to read each week we would use this during our tea time and sometimes we followed the instructors guide I'm trying to give you a look at some of the illustrations here sometimes we did not follow the instructors guide and we just read what was interesting to us but I think this is a great book for us to have in our homeschool library especially for our tea times so now for the readers the independent readers that came with the book shark program these are the books that your child would read solo without you and I had my sixth grader do all of the readers and like I said before at least I think I've already mentioned it I realized a little bit later my third grader could have handled some of these but I didn't push those on him we just used what was on our bookshelf so mainly just my sixth grader read these and I'm going to go through them I don't know if they're in the order that he read them but I tried to kind of keep them in that order I'm going to go through them one by one and very quickly um Casto Blackfeet twin captures an elk dog by Kenneth Thomas smih I don't know if I said that correctly okay I'm just going to tell you we love this so much we've already picked up two more books by this author so this was a good one then Pocahontas and the strangers by Claude Robert Beulah and the Scholastic biography very interesting and we did watch Pocahontas afterwards and my son made sure to let me know that the Disney version is not correct but I'm still very entertained by the matchlock gun it's winner of the Newbery Medal by Walter D Edmunds and actually my son said this was really really exciting I'm just going to kind of touch on these briefly but he actually said this this was really really good I know he really liked Tolliver's secret by Esther would Brady then he spent just a very small amount of time in this book here Phoebe the spy by Judith Barry Griffin and I was just going to quickly flip through and let you see there are a lot of illustrations in here Justin Morgan had a horse by Marguerite Henry my son didn't fall in love with this it's just not his particular taste then he read the great horn spoon by Sid Fleischman this is the gold rush adventure and off the cover I thought it was going to be good and he actually said my son that read this book actually said it was quite good the great turkey walk by Kathleen car and he said I actually was really surprised by the whole storyline and when we would discuss it this sounds pretty entertaining here is turn homeward Hanna Lee by Patricia Beatty I think this was one of his favorites he this surprised me I didn't expect him to like this so much but he loved it says Ken handily fulfill her parting promise to her mother and so these takes place in the final days of the Civil Wars here is shades of gray by Carolyn reader and on winner of the Scott Odell Awards here we have the Civil War is over at this time I don't remember him saying too much about this one so maybe not one of his favorites because I don't nothing is standing out to me Old Yeller by fred gibson must view this and it's a Newbery Honor book and my son never did watch the movie I don't think he will watch the movie after reading this because obviously he thought this was really sad all right here we have Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia McLaughlin and I remember reading this when I was in school and right now my niece is staying with us a little bit for the summer and she's about to read this book so this is a wonderful book here is the Great Wheel by Robert Lawson and my son liked this okay not his favorite but he didn't hate it he didn't actually hate any of the books that he read it's just some he liked a lot more than others all right here is a Scholastic biography about Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson and this was a small little book and he really really enjoyed this thimbles summer by Elizabeth in right this was not his cup of tea just not his particular taste like I said before he fell in love with um Casto and learning about the Native American tribes and their ways and so that that was his thing this was not so much his thing but I hear other people say they love this author and even in particular this book in the year of the Boer and Jackie Robinson by BETT Bay oh Lord I hope I said that correctly and my son actually said once it got going it really held his attention he couldn't wait to see what happened next lastly the 17th swap by Eloise McGraw which my son said was sad but not depressing he said that he really liked it it says how many swaps does it take to make a dream come true and so that's a boy swapping out different items to get some boots for his friend and so like I said my son said it was kind of sad but it wasn't like it was depressing he wanted to keep reading it alright so I have my boys here who actually used this program and we have the history read Aloud's on the table right now and I thought they might want to choose their favorite history read aloud and show you which one was their favorite so go ahead and pick your favorites here okay and so Bradley you want to show everybody you chosen freedom train the story of Harriet Tubman and you have picked the Wright brothers and the pioneers of American Aviation and so ok why did you choose yours Bradley I feel like it was I feel like Harriet Tubman had a nice heart like toward others and I feel like it was I think it was a book that was meant to be written kind of thing so I don't know it was a hard topic to learn about but it was I think she there I think and I wanna know more about her okay and what about you you picked the Wright brothers book so why did you choose that probably chose like a lot of things they invent and how they have so much confidence and that they always do make it happen yeah okay cool now these are our reading read Aloud's and the boys are going to choose their favorite reading read aloud alright go ahead and choose okay okay now whether you chose and we just found out what the author of this book that goes on with this series yes so we're very excited about that and what did you choose Oh miracles on Maple Hill now why did you like that one prior just then don't work hard in they help the father Tracy had come back from the war and he was stirred and so they moved out into like where when really a lot of city people andand there's hardly anybody yeah it was a cool story okay hey which one do you guys think was my favorite reading read aloud yeah hold it up you know me well it was my favorite okay these are all of the independent readers that you read this year Bradley with your book shark program I know you didn't choose any of them but you ended up liking some of them and I want to know which one is your favorite out of all of them I think I know which one but you pick uh okay so uh thought would my favorite because how interested is but then one of our Pocahontas it's like the exact same but like this is like earlier but it's still back you know whenever the English we're just first starting this was like right when the English were coming but this is a you know been way kind of things where they have to like actually start moving out and fighting the English and making peace so I think I like Pocahontas more Pocahontas and the strangers alright so now that I've shown you all of the amazing books that are included in book sharks level for reading with history program I want to start talking to you about why we chose the program and what I think of the program alright so first off why I chose book shark okay so let me just tell you first and foremost I knew that I was going to do something different with history this year and you I didn't want to use a text book and so I started looking into other options about the same time my husband said hey I would really like it if we could find some materials that were faith neutral because the materials we were using were Christian materials and my husband and I don't share the same faith and so we wanted to see what is out there that does not have you know a certain religious perspective already injected into it what can we find that's just history and so we hit on book shark right away that was our first hit we both kind of looked into the program and thought this could be a good fit for us and it was I don't want to repeat myself too much because I've been saying these things kind of all school year and I've already set them in the video but just some of the things I love about book shark I love that book shark is arranged in levels and not grades there are suggested age ranges and you can kind of decide if you want to stick to those or not I love that it's literature based oh my goodness I love that it's literature base we read all of these amazing books this year you guys and so many things stick because we have these characters to attach our memories to and so I'm just thinking back and I know I shared and as I was flipping through the books just across five April's and I'm thinking about that family and the Civil War and what it did to that family into that immunity and so anyway the historical fiction and even the biographies and some of the reference materials but but particularly the fiction it just gives you something to attach your memories to and it makes that historical event seem really real I love the four-day program I've said that over and over throughout the year that allows our family to have our fun Fridays which I'll link that at the end of the video if you haven't seen that but we like to have kind of a different day on Friday and because of that four-day program it makes it a lot easier for us to do that okay so now I just want to talk cost because most of the interaction I've had with you guys and the comments have had to do with the cost of the program and I'm actually going to link the exact program that I am using in the description box because it is not on the website because it tends to confuse people a little bit because it is a condensed version of the level-4 and people get it and just the regular level for confused so I will do a link in the description box but right now if I'm not mistaken it is four hundred twenty six dollars and yes four hundred twenty six dollars for all of the materials that I showed you today and something I didn't show you there's something called required resources I believe that's what it's called and that includes a very large book short binder that's full of tabs to divide up your instructors guide and I didn't get one of those and it was just something that was accidentally left out and I made it through the year just fine with the binder that I had but I do have to admit especially since I used three programs I really would have liked to divided up my different guides and with behind the different weeks I think it would have been really easy to flip through it that way and so I think that's one of the required resources and that is a $65 charge not in addition to the 426 that I'm telling you that is included in that so if this wouldn't it say it's not your first time purchasing book shark you actually wouldn't need that binder again you could use it again I hope I'm understanding all of this correctly also things like the timeline that I showed you like the book I believe that's included maybe the map and the markers so those things would be kind of like one-time purchases so when you purchase book shark later you'll be able to deduct those required resources from the total I'm pretty sure I'm explaining that correctly definitely check with book shark in case I'm incorrect about any of that and then the book shark instructors guide itself like I said I believe it's $79.99 on the website so let's just go ahead and say $80 just to kind of know you know how how are they reaching this four hundred twenty six dollar total I also forgot to mention with the instructors guide when you purchase the program you will have access to an online version of the instructors guide so that is something that's convenient for you I guess to maybe have on an iPad or on your computer just know that you will have access to that as well as the paper copy so I have a piece of paper here so I can kind of read because I had to kind of count everything that was included so you have nine read Aloud's and that's including the poetry book and then you have the the different timeline figures and the CD and a little book that comes with that and and then you have 12 of your history read Aloud's or I guess 10 read Aloud's and then 2 of the reference books the independent readers there were 17 of those I think kind of those a couple of times the 17 of us so that is what's included in that 426 dollars and I sat down and I was like playing with the numbers a little bit I used this with two children and I did share with you guys I didn't have my youngest son used to independent readers I just used things that we already had or things from the library later in the year I realized his reading ability like he could have read some of these independent readers and I think most of you when you're looking at using this program most of you are looking at using it with two or more children which is what's so great about the levels so what I would do is I would look at the total cost of the program which is 426 okay and if you're like me you're probably going to use it for two kids so if I just divided that in half I'm looking at 213 per kid now honestly that 4:26 over 140 if that is the instructors guide and also the required resources and so the rest is all of the books but 213 per kid if you if you really weigh this out I would tell you this because I'm a first time book shark user and so I would say I made a couple of mistakes one of the mistakes I made was not taking full advantage of the geography program and actually purchasing a separate geography at the beginning of the year before I really understood this program so if you hear me say nothing else in this video please take advantage of the geography component that is fully integrated into this history program do not waste your money on anything else so when I look at this program I've got reading I've got history and I've got geography and then I would also tell you just like I said when I showed you the instructors guide I would also consider on not picking up a separate vocabulary program and using the vocabulary words that they pull from the stories you're already reading to the children that seems like a very natural way to learn anyway I know a lot of you probably do that on your own so when you look at this you now say okay let's say you're using it with two children and not three you've got your 426 you've divided it in half so now you have 213 per kid and each kid is getting their history each kid is getting their reading each kid is getting their geography each kid is getting their vocabulary now you might be like me and say uh you know my son couldn't use certain readers like I said we didn't go and spend on readers we used what we had around the house or we used from the library but like I said later in the year I realized he could have used some of those readers I just was under estimating his reading abilities and you will have to make those decisions now a lot of you are concerned about that price tag and have even asked me would I purchase this program if it wasn't given to me my answer is I love this program and I would definitely purchase this program if it wasn't given to me if it's in my family budget I'm not going to purchase anything that's not in the budget so for me now we've really fallen in love with this literature based approach and so now I got to figure out from year-to-year can I swing this and that's with anything you guys that's when we splurge and we get teaching textbooks or any of those programs I'm looking at rosetta stone right now that's a pricey program and so I have to weigh these things out like how good is the program where can we cut back here I've a teenage driver now all of these things come into play for me now to what do I think the program is worth the money yes I do do I think it's in everybody's budget no probably not it's not even always in my budget and so you have to decide that year-to-year family-to-family I'm never going to encourage you to do something that stretches your budget too thin but I think this program is fantastic it was the perfect fit for us I cannot even tell you guys what an awesome year that we've had to not be in a textbook because I didn't want to do that to get to read all of these amazing books to see how well my kids seem to retain this stuff and then something else I didn't touch on and this was a plus to me there's no busy work that comes with this program okay there's not there's there's no on worksheets and things like that now if you want to add on the language arts component which we did not do you I told and the people at book shirk I really liked what we were using for language arts and I didn't want to change anything this school year but that is also integrated in with the readers and so that's something for you to think about if you want to take it to that next level and consider adding in the language arts component it's going to tie in with all of your reading selections but I can't speak for that because we didn't do it this year but I love the way that everything was intertwined and this was just a perfect fit for us I can't guarantee it would be for you but it really was a perfect fit for our family and I have cherished our reading time together like I I say it on different videos and my friends probably get sick of hearing me say because my boys are growing and I've got one about to enter the 11th grade now and so I'm watching them grow up so quickly and so with my younger - I'm really trying to slow down I'm enjoying reading together and I just feel like we had a bunch of shared experiences like we didn't just learn stuff we had experiences together okay so for all of you who are rolling around the cost right now trying to figure out can we do this can we not do this I want to let you know that book shark has provided me with some promotional codes for $15 off a $150 purchase and to get one of those codes all you have to do is email me at home school on the hill at gmail.com and I will provide you with a unique code the code can only be used once and it expires August 31st 2017 so make sure you email me if you would like one of those codes I still have a few of them left and I know a lot of you are just trying to make decisions for the upcoming school year and I know it's a lot to consider I am looking at materials myself so my homeschool mom I am very frugal a lot of you guys have seen that here on my channel and so it's one of those decisions only you can make for your family and only I can make for my family but I will tell you we really really enjoyed the program I also want to take a moment to say thank you to book shark for sending my family all of these materials and allowing us a chance to use them and review them here in our home school it has been a fantastic year and I really have to tell you guys I loved your program this level for history condensed love to love learning about American history you guys have some amazing book selections and we are very very grateful to have used your materials in our home school if you guys have questions about the other book shark history programs or their science programs I really recommend you check out books are calm I know you can request a free catalog you can also call and speak with one of their representatives they are so helpful and they will be able to tell you more about the different levels things that I haven't used even that language arts component which I am really interested in for next year if you have any questions about the materials I showed you today in this level in particular please post in the comments section below I would be happy to answer any of your questions that I can and guys I thank you for hanging in for this really long video I am so happy to be able to provide this review for you and give you a closer look at book sharks history level 4 and I have more reviews coming your way this is like our second week of summer and have really been trying to play jump on a few things and so I promised to get some other materials you know on camera and get some reviews out to you just kind of little by little through the summer so I thank you guys so much for watching I hope you're having an awesome summer if it is summer for you if it's not summer for you I promise I'm not trying to rub it in I promise but it's summer for us and I'm so glad so anyway I thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you later bye you

Channel: Homeschool on the Hill

Views: 8,553

Rating: 4.9400001 out of 5

Keywords: homeschool, homeschool curriculum, homeschool curriculum review, bookshark, bookshark homeschool, bookshark curriculum, bookshark history, homeschool history, bookshark books, bookshark review, bookshark level 4, homeschool literature, literature, literature based, home education, faith neutral, secular, secular homeschool, secular curriculum, secular history

Id: 7UkfkbQo75o

Length: 44min 59sec (2699 seconds)

Published: Wed May 31 2017