Resources for Homeschooling the Middle School Years - -

Our Favorite Choices and Favorites - for Middle School

Three Frugal Resources for Creative Writing 

Our Homemade Course in Video-Making

Our Choices for Math

Our Favorite Books for Bird Watching - PreK - Middle 

Fun with Origami and Critical Thinking 

Growing A Leader

Oak Meadow English 8 Review 

Oak Meadow English 8 is all about introducing the components of good literature to your middle schooler, and getting them writing about it, too.   

We loved how Oak Meadow’s focus is on hands on learning and it works to meet the child when she is:  head, hands and heart......

Middle School Writing 

Nature Study

Why I am Thankful for Being a Homeschooling Mom 

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college junior, whom she homeschooled from preK through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.   She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting. 

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Thriving in the Early Years with Your Sensory Kid -

For down to earth tips for dealing with your sensory child, just click here, as this post has moved to this new link below....

-----Thriving in the Early Years with Your Sensory Kid---- 

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school, college, gifted/2e.  She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

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Copyright 2019 

All Rights Reserved

Homeschooling High School with Frugally with Confidence -

Overview - Preparing to homeschool doesn't have to be hard!  This article tells you all about the keys to homeschooling high school, including assigning credit, searching for homeschool high school curriculum, making those homeschool transcripts, and some affiliate links may be included.  Please see my disclosure policy.

Is homeschooling high school really not that hard?  Have you seen that saying around on the web? 

What do you think?

Well, first I would say yes it really is not that hard.  But then I would say no, it can be hard in some ways, too.

It was harder for us than middle school, just because there were more things to think about...like college, or trade school, or entering the world of work....Where will my teen be heading?  

So what's a mama to do? 
For us, we knew that our teen wanted to go directly into college after graduating.  We wanted her to have the high school years to just be a high schooler, and decided not to go the dual credit route, except for a course or two.

Are  you nervous about continuing to homeschool all the way through high school?  

I was, when contemplating it during the middle school years...My daughter was doing so well with her homeschooling, that we wanted to continue all the way, to allow her to explore her interests and prepare for the next step in an individualized manner.  

Today I'd like to share how I became confident as a mom who was homeschooling her teen.  

There were four key pieces of information that were important to me for my high school planning....And once I got them under my belt, my confidence grew....a lot.

Once I could understand how to deal with Credits, Curriculum, Core Studies, and Transcripts....Then I was ready to take on high school with confidence.  

If you have these 4 tools under your belt, more specifically, having:

- an understanding of high school credits
- resources for choosing your curriculum
- an understanding of what core studies your teen would need
- how to's for making your teen's transcript.....

Then you will be much better equipped to take on the high school years.

First of all, let's talk start with high school credits.

1.  Assigning High School Credit

It is not that hard to assign high school credit.  Here are 3 ways to do just that.

I call them ...................1.  the Textbook method

                                         2.  the Hours method

                                         3.  the Mastery method

All of the work that your teen does earns high school credit!   This includes courses that you make yourself, volunteer and paid work hours, internships, time spent reading, etc.  

The textbook method is the traditional way.  

The hours method involves keeping track of the amount of time spent in learning activities.  

The mastery method refers to assigning credit based on demonstrated mastery of a subject or a skill. That could be video making, playing an instrument, etc.

We did a lot of different kinds of learning, and all of it counted!  I have a post on this, which you can find by searching my blog for "3 Ways to High School Credit"

It is also included in my book, mentioned below.

Secondly, let's talk curriculum.....

2.  Curriculum Search Resources

First we started with our favorites from middle school.  I wanted to keep whatever was working  best for my daughter.  For example, we used SOS from www.aop.com for math in middle school, and just continued with it for most of high school.  That was a no-brainer.  

My daughter was a big part of this process.  Together, we searched the internet, our favorite blogs and homeschool catalogs, and talked with our homeschooling friends, to find new ideas.  

Here are my favorite resources for your search:

------ There is a great CURRICULUM DIRECTORY at Let's Homeschool High School

This curriculum directory for high school is the most complete one I have ever seen!  And it includes TONS of links, too! 

------ 7 Sisters Homeschool Innovative Homeschool Help

7 Sisters Homeschool offers a variety of high school curriculum. They cover a lot of the core subjects that your teen will need, all faith based.

Their courses come as PDFs and are much more frugal than any other curriculum source that I have seen. Many are around $30.00. 

Each is written by veteran homeschool moms who developed their own courses for high schoolers in their co-op.  

So all of their resources and courses are tried and true. 

No busywork English Curriculum

Are you looking for a quality homeschool high school English course for your teen?  

Or would you prefer to put your own course together, with the help of a well put together literature guide or two? You are in luck, as they have both.

Their English courses capture a student's interest and then lead them into a solid study of literature, all while avoiding any busywork.

My book on homeschooling high school with college in mind has lots more information on choosing curriculum, and what we chose to use in our homeschool.  

You can also find more info on our favorite high school curricula, by searching my blog.

Thirdly, you want to be familiar with what core courses our student will need to complete.

3.  High School Core Studies

Core studies are just the basic high school courses, in math, english, social studies, and science.

What your choose for core studies is most often up to the individual homeschool family.  You do not need to follow the public school graduation requirements, only those laid out in your state's homeschool law.  

Most states do not lay out requirements for a homeschool diploma. It is usually left to the homeschool family to decide when to graduate their teen.  

So in most states, you can shape your teen's high school years around their needs, depending where they will be heading.

If your teens might be going to college, then you will want them to do the core studies that are outlined by the colleges, ie, the college entrance requirements.  Checking likely college websites is essential for college bound teens. I have much more on that in my book, laying out typical requirements for a different kinds of colleges, mentioned below.

If your teen is headed to community college, it is adivsable to just check in with admissions there.  In our state of WA, the incoming students just take an entrance test, which evaluates their math and english skills.  

It is usually SO much less complicated compared than going into a 4 year college, and usually the SAT/ACT is not needed.

AGAIN - You do not have to follow the public school graduation requirements....those are for public school kids!

Now that you have the resources for finding your curriculum, and you understand what core studies are, let's talk about searching for high school curricula.

Before we ordered anything, we spent time talking about my teen's special interests. 

Those influenced our choices for core studies and also became my teen's high school electives!  

What is your teen passionate about?  How do they spend their time, when they have free time?  What are their gifts?What is your teen passionate about?  

The beauty of homeschooling high school is that you get to build and nurture your teen's interests and help them to discover their strengths.  Even with preparing for college, my teen had lots of time to do electives and try out her interests in activities.

Now that we finished talking about credits, curriculum, core studies and a bit about electives, let's talk transcripts. 

4.  Making your High School Transcripts

Volunteering is a great leadership building activity and the colleges love to see this on their applications.

Compiling your teen's transcript is really not that hard!  Really! 

Transcripts are just a document that lists all of the courses that your student took, with grades, a place to put their SAT or ACT scores, with identifying information on it.  More on transcripts can be found on my blog.

My book below also has a full chapter on how to put your transcripts together, with lots of planning forms and a fillable and editable transcript form for you to just fill in. 

High School was my favorite time, of all of our homeschooling years. 

No it was not easy. Yes, it was much more complicated than the earlier years.  But having my daughter at home meant that she her individual educational needs could be met. 

She also had more time to try out new activities and develop her interests, and go to youth conferences, etc.  And watching her blossom and grow, during the teen years... priceless! 

Have you seen my frugal book yet on high school?

Homeschooling High School with College in Mind 

Kindle and Paperback are on Amazon

Get my best tips on college from a homeschool perspectiv.  Make your high school planning easier! 

 It includes 12 high school planning printables plus a fillable transcript form, the type that the colleges are used to seeing!

What are people saying about it:

Heidi, from Starts at Eight says:

"If you are planning on homeschooling high school then Betsy's book is the one that you want to have on the shelf"......click here to read the rest of her review."

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope that this post will help both you and your teen,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her college grad whom she homeschooled from through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool about the early years, high school, college, and is the author of "Homeschooling High School with College in Mind".  She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting.

Want to stay in touch?  

 Pinterest, 

Click here to get yours.

Copyright, 2025, All Rights Reserved

4 Steps to Planning High School at Home -

This link has moved.  To reach this article please click below:

How to Plan High School at Home - Updated

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled from day one.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote the book - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.   She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting. 

Want to stay in touch?  

 Pinterest, G+, Twitter, Facebook 

Click here to get yours.

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.

Copyright, 2018, All Rights Reserved

Different Paths to Follow - Traditional OR Untraditional?

Summary:  Planning post high school for those who are homeschoooling teens.  Do you want to go the traditional college route or a more traditional one for your homeschooled high schooler?  Includes two book reviews. and one is about homeschooling to college.

Do you have a teen who is graduating soon, or will next year?  Or maybe you are planning ahead with your teen for their future....

Do they want to go to college?  Do they want to do something different than that?  Or do they really have no idea where they will be heading.

There are so many paths our teens can follow, the traditional path of applying to college, going directing into a vocation, or training for that.  Or maybe something else.  More unique!

What do you do if your teen has no idea where they are headed after graduating?

What's a mom to do as far as nurturing them during this time?

My friend, Kelly Hirt, homeschool blogger and mama from My Twice Baked Potato blog, has found two great books that can both be a real help with this kind of thing.

One of the books is aimed at teens who want to go to college.  It is a guide to college for homeschoolers.  Kelly does a review of my book in the article below.

The other book is for those who want a more untraditional, a different path post-homeschool.

Kelly wrote about both resources, in depth, and also shares how they helped her to look at this issue with her own homechooled son, looking in to the future.

Excerpt from her post - Different Paths to Follow

"Because my homeschooled son is entering eighth grade, his higher learning options have been on my mind lately.  Homeschooling has been great for my family, but I have wondered if it might limit his educational choices in the future. With this in mind, I set out to read and educate myself."........

Click here to read the rest of this delightful article, full of encouragement, and I promise you it is a good read!

Different Paths to Follow includes a look at two different ways to go.

The traditional way, ie going to college and deciding on a major, or more untraditional ways, such as internships or a mentorship of sorts.  It is a great read from a homeschool mama.

Read on by clicking here for her review of both books.  Two different ways to go.

Do you have a college bound teen?

My book called - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind - 2nd edition...

is full of tips for homeschooling high school for your teen.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

 Betsy

Betsy is mom to her college grad whom she homeschooled from preK through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool about the early years, high school, college, and is the author of "Homeschooling High School with College in Mind".  She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting.

What to stay in touch?

Subscribe, Twitter, Facebook

This post was shared on my favorite link-ups here.


Copyright 2018 @ BJ's Homeschool

 All Right's Reserved

BJ's Homeschool Curriculum Choices for Middle School

Some resources have links that send me small monetary thanks for sharing.Please see my disclosure policy.

I have lots of great memories of homeschooling middle school. My daughter did irish stepdancing, really loved doing nature photography in middle school and we also did a lot of bird watching for the backyard bird count events! 

In middle school we used a variety of resources, some faith based and some secular.  One of my favorite thing about middle school was that I got to watch my daughter begin to discover what she wanted to do.

Here are our favorites for middle school homeschooling curriculum:

1.  MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH CURRICULUM 

We have two favorites for middle school English.  --- Oak Meadow and 7 Sisters ---
Both are high quality and well put together. Let's start with Oak Meadow.

Have you heard of them yet?

---- Oak Meadow Middle School English

We started using Oak Meadow homeschool curricula when my daughter was in 4th grade. Oak Meadow also offers courses for middle school in math and science, which I also would recommend. They offer all subjects, which can be bought as a bundle, or individually. 

Here's why - 

Oak Meadow is a hands-on project oriented curriculum, that "strives to reach the child's head, hands, and heart."  It is written by creative educators, who originally were Waldorf based.  

My daughter loved it!  It was stimulating, creative, and very flexible. I loved how the lessons were written to the child, in a gentle way, but also packed with solid, child oriented, honors level information.  My gifted daughter loved it. 

Each lesson offered a number of creative activities to choose from. My daughter loved their hands-on focus.  All of the social studies curricula was paired with lit, that went right along with the topic of study.  


Sixth Grade English focused on composition and grammar, with three lit selections.  Click to see a sample lesson.  Each year was full of creative approaches to lit and writing.

In 7th Grade, my daughter's essay writing skills blossomed.  She loved the selection of the novels included in this course. Seventh Grade English

English 8 from Oak Meadow, focuses on reading 7 classic novels and writing about them.  I loved the questions for both comprehension and critical thinking in this course. It includes work in grammar and usage as well.  I have a review of the course here. 

Oak Meadow tends to be quite pricy.  

Want a more frugal option for middle school English, that still offers many of  the benefits of Oak Meadow?

---- 7 Sisters Frugal Middle School English

7 Sisters Homeschool is a popular site that is run by veteran homeschool moms who developed their own curriculum for high schoolers in their own co-op.  So all of their resources and courses are tried and true.

The 7 Sisters approach is based on over 20 years of homeschooling and was developed by moms who were teaching their own teens while running an umbrella school at the same time.

These veteran homeschool authors know how to capture a student's interest and then lead them into a solid study of literature all while avoiding any busywork.

And that they offer English resources for more than 40 literature or fun reading books.

They are perfect for making your own middle school English course!

7 Sisters Literature Guides 

Let's take a look at their frugal Literature Guides.  They offer over 40 of them, for under $5.00 each, including:

• A Separate Peace
• A Raisin in the Sun
• The Scarlet Letter
• The Hobbit
• British Poetry Selections
• Joni
• Anne of Green Gables
• Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
• The Invisible Man
• The Three Musketeers
• Animal Farm

and over 40 more!

Each guide gives your student questions to answer as they read their literature selection.  This is a great way to introduce literary analysis to your middle schooler, without your having to explain what it is.

Just have your student answer the questions provided for each literature selection.  AND many of the lit guides are for FUN and more free reading like books, not just classic literature.

7 Sisters Homeschool Writing Courses 

How about a fun way to get your middle schooler writing?

Middle School Short Story Writing will inspire your young teen to learn to love writing!

It also will help your child learn what literary analysis is, while they are having fun putting together their own story.

My own middle schooler loved trying her hand at story writing, and learned so much from that, while having FUN!

This guide is designed to be used only 4 days a week for 5 weeks.

The lessons are short and set up for success.

The  conversational tone makes the course easy to follow and understand, and helps to eliminate any anxiety about putting words onto the page.

Do you want help teaching your young teens how to write essays?  7 Sisters has a great course for that, too.

Middle School Guide to Essay Writing is a very frugal course that will teach your teen how to write essays

This is great preparation for later writing assignments in high school.

It gentle introduces essay writing to your young teen with an easy to follow, NO busywork approach.'

This guide will teach your studnet how to write a coherent essay, starting with:

- Basic essay format
- Persuasive essays
- Compare and contrast essays
...and more.

It also offers an easy way to grade your kid's essays.  How about that!

2.  HOMESCHOOL MIDDLE SCHOOL SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM 


Sixth Grade - Ancient Civilization

Oak Meadow's 6th grade history curricula was stellar, and our very favorite of all of their social studies courses. 

We learned all about world history, one country at a time, with an emphasis on ancient history. It has respect for all cultures in its tone.

This was our ALL TIME FAVORITE history course, full of child-oriented lessons and excellent hands-on activities to go with them.

Then Oak Meadow Social Studies continues into 7th grade with:

Seventh Grade - World Civilization - From Age of Enlightenment to the Present

3. WRITING FUN - NaNovWriMo

In November each year, we dropped our regular studies and joined in the fun at the National Novel Writing Month (NaNovWriMo). It is a time to join others who are working on creative writing that month.  We used this book for middle school to help us get started.

1,000's of other great middle school homeschool curriculum finds can be found at the Rainbow Resource Center. 

Are you thinking about maybe homeschooling your teen through high school?  We are so glad that we did, but were nervous at first.

Would you like tips that are easy to follow from a veteran homeschool mama who has been there?

At BJ's Homeschool our always homeschooled daughter just graduated from her top choice U. 

This book covers how to plan for high school, with 12 exclusive planning forms and my best tips for helping your teen get into college, too.

The kindle is on Amazon Prime to read for FREE. 

In print, too.

We also offer the first chapter of my first edition free.

Click here this free download and we don't do email marketing. I am retired now.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled from day one.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school and wrote the book - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.   

Want to stay in touch?  

Copyright, 2025, All Rights Reserved