Workbooks: What They Are and How to Use Them
Workbooks at Ms. Libby’s Lab are guided, thoughtful experiences that help students meet the writing, reading, critical and creative thinking goals you set for your homeschool year while engaging directly with great books and meaningful prompts. Many of them come in categories that reflect genres and interests your students already love, from adventure and historical fiction to mystery, dystopian worlds, and memoir.
These workbooks are designed to help students slow down enough to think deeply, practice disciplined writing, and interact with texts in a way that builds confidence. Some include essay review options with Ms. Libby for parents who want structured feedback and another layer of guided reflection.
You’ll find two kinds of offerings here. One category functions like a full course centered around a core text, with enough material to shape weeks of study. The other kind builds on specific skills or interests as extension lessons your student can work through alongside whatever else you’re teaching on that subject. For many parents, the distinction comes down to how much structure they want in their year and how deeply they want their student to explore a given topic.
To decide between a full course workbook and an extension lesson workbook, start by thinking about your goals for the year. If your student is ready for a sustained journey through a story or genre with a clear sequence of lessons and projects, a full course workbook will fit that need. If you’re guiding a student through a larger literature list or you want to focus on one skill while they also do other work, choose the extension workbook that aligns with what you’re teaching.
As you help your student go through a workbook, the pace matters less than the consistency and attention you give to the thinking and writing process. Suggested timelines on each product page are guidelines based on typical homeschool rhythms — for example, a certain number of weeks at a cadence that feels reasonable for most families — but you can stretch or condense that depending on your student’s reading speed, age, and enthusiasm.
When choosing a workbook based on what you’re teaching this year, look for connections between the theme of the text and the broader subjects you want to emphasize, whether that’s narrative craft, historical understanding, voice development, or analytical skill. Parents often select workbooks that align with their literature focus or that challenge students to sit with a story long enough to write about it with clarity and curiosity.
Workbooks are meant to support your homeschool, not replace the rich conversations you have around books and writing. They give your student a reason to think critically, to articulate ideas in their own voice, and to grow a body of work they can be proud of as the year unfolds.