Homeschooling in Washington State 

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    




    
Summary:  How to homeschooling in WA state, with resources and homeschooling group links, too!
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    


    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    



    My family has homeschooled in Washington State for 14 years now.  Our homeschool law is very homeschool friendly, and there is a lot of homeschool support here, too. 
    



    

    

    We homeschooled our daughter here in WA state, starting in preschool and we decided to go all the way through high school.  

    Our daughter is now in college, and in fact, is almost ready to graduate from the University of Washington, one of the four colleges that she was accepted by after graduating from our homeschool.

    





Today, I am sharing resources on our law, and all the good support that our state has to offer to homeschoolers. 

    





SO we will cover today:

    • Our WA State Homeschool Law
    • Support and Resources
    • Annual Testing and Assessments
    • Our State Convention
    • Nature Study/Field Trips
    • Ask Betsy at BJ's Homeschool Help
    • What about college bound teens?

    




First, to get started, here is information on our Washington State Homeschooling Law:

    


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1.  Washington Homeschool Organization - WHO

    


This is our statewide homeschool organization, with a large website, full of resources and information on our homeschool law.

    
It also explains how to fill out the required Intent to Homeschool Form each year, by September 15th, once your child is 8 years old.

    


WHO also offers a free Introductory Parent Packet to all new homeschoolers.

    


2.  Qualifying Homeschool Courses are also offered by WHO and Christian Heritage.

    


3.  Christian Heritage also has a brief description of our homeschool law.
    

    

    

    Support and Resources

    

    
 1. Teen Events@ Auburn Library
    

    
2.  Maple Valley Covington Homeschool Group  is a Facebook group that offers park days, field trips, and weekly play times.
    

    
3.  To reach info on our Homeschooling Co-ops, click on Support Groups & Co-Ops 

    

    
4.  Youth and Government, through the YMCA, offers teens a chance to learn about our state government, speech and debate, and more.  We so loved doing this activity and the Youth Mock Legislature meeting event in Olympia.  
    

    5.  BJ's Homeschool - This is my website, full of homeschool resources for 

    
6.  GHF Learners  

    Do you have a child who is gifted or twice exceptional?  

    A child who is struggling with sensory processing issues, or one who has ADHD behaviors?  

    
Check on my page on that and also the wonderful site that I write for at Gifted Homeschool Forum, too.

    Looking for quality curriculum? I write reviews for this site, along with other veteran homeschool moms.  

    

    

    

    

    
Testing/Assessments 

    

    
Washington Homeschoolers are required to do annual testing or  assessments each year, starting at age 8.  Here are four resources for getting that done, including options for testing yourself, in your own home.  


    

    

    
Our Homeschool Convention
    

    

    

    
Every year, we all gather at our statewide homeschool convention!  For more information, just click on  our WHO Convention.
    

    


    

    
 Nature Study/Field Trips

    


    

    

    



    		For ideas on nature oriented field trips, click on Stay-cation in Seattle, full of fun ideas to get your kids out into nature.  

    




    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
Homeschool Help
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    


    

    

    
I offer homeschool help and also free messaging exchanges through my page, BJ's Homeschool. 

    

    
This can be as simple as asking a few questions and/or any of these:
    

    

    

    
1.  How do I Get Started Homeschooling?
    

    
2.  Choosing  Curriculum
    

    
3.  Adapting things to fit my child's needs.  
    

    
4.  Homeschooling Styles
    

    
5. Am I doing enough?
    

    
6. What about Special Needs?
    

    
7.  Homeschooling High School
    

    
8.  How to Apply to College
    

    
9.Washington State Homeschooling
    
10.  Homeschooling preschool, K, elementary, middles, too.  
    

    

    

To reach me or for more info, please click here.

    

    
Do you have a college bound teen in your house?  


    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
Homeschooling High School with College in Mind - 2nd edition, 
     Amazon 
    
and 
    
Barnes and Noble 


    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
More high school posts are on Pinterest here: Homeschooling High School Pinterest Board.
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
This post is linked to the blog hop at Homeschooling State by State, where there are many resources from all around the US.   And I work with families from all over, too.
    

    

    

    

    
Thanks for stopping by,

    

    

    

    
Betsy
    

    

    

    


    

    
Betsy is mom to her college grad whom she homeschooled from age 3.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote the book Homeschooling High School with College in Mind - 2nd Edition.  She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting. 
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
Want to stay in touch?  
    

    

    

    

    

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6 FRUGAL Ways to help Prepare Your Middle Schooler for Homeschooling High School

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    


     This post may included affiliate links to products that we love and have used or would use in our  own homeschool. Please see my     disclosure policy.
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
Do you have middle schoolers at home, who you are thinking about homeschooling through high school? 
    

    

    The other day I spoke with a homeschooling family, whose middle schooler was interested in going to college, when the time came. 

    She wanted to homeschool her through high school, but was not sure how that would work.
    

    
Another parent wondered how she could prepare her middle schooler for high school.  She wanted to keep her interest-led style going, but also did want to be sure she would be ready for high school at home, when she was old enough for that.
    

    

    

    
During our discussion, I came up with seven factors to look at, for your middle schooler to help prepare them for high school at home.  

    And keep your nurturing, interest-led homeschooling style all the way.

    

    

    

    
Let's start with English skills: 

    

    

    

    1. Take time to Discuss what you Read

    

    

    Does your curriculum, whether published or homemade, include critical thinking questions to discuss?  Is your child beginning to analyze what they are reading?  
    

    

    There are, of course, many options for middle school English.  In our home, we used Oak Meadow, and also 7 Sisters Literature and English courses and lit guides.
    

    

    

    
7 Sisters Homeschool Middle School English is all about introducing the components of good literature to your middle schooler.


    Middle School Guide to Essay Writing
    

    
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    This is by 7 Sisters Homeschool, a FRUGAL PDF course that is also Christian based.

    Through this course, literature became something that my daughter looked forward to each day....She enjoyed learning about plot, setting, point of view, and characterization. 
    

    

    

    
For many more ideas for middle school English, go to The Curriculum Choice, and read about 7 Sisters Frugal English courses.  They have lots of middle schoolers, too and are less than $30.00 for a whole year long course.

    


    

    2.  Encourage Free Reading.
    

    

    


    Kids who read a lot, develop strong vocabularies. We  know that.  My daughter loved reading science fiction and adventure stories, and we encouraged that. 

    Check out the many Literature Guides that 7 Sisters Homeschool offers.

    They include options for middle school lit guides, too.

    Not that all books they read need to have a lit guide with them. But these can be a lot of fun to do!

    3.  Math - Get Pre-algebra done.
    

    

    

    
Most colleges ask for algebra 1 in 9th grade.  So a good understanding of pre-algebra during middle school can really help.  

    We used Teaching Textbooks, then went to Switched-On-Schoolhouse's, which helped my daughter with retention. There are many great resources for pre-algebra. 


    4.  Write a lot! 

    Encourage all kinds of writing, such as fiction, middle school essays, book reports, journaling, etc.

    We all know how important writing skills are to the college student.  How is your child doing with their writing? 

    The key to learning to write well is to make it FUN!


    This Fairy Tale writing course is by 7 Sisters Homeschool, which is Christian based and  frugal.

    One year, my daughter was really interested in airplanes and the airline industry, so that became the focus of her research report that year.  

    We all know how important writing skills are to the college student.  How is your child doing with their writing?  

    Do they have a chance to practice different types of writing? Are they finding a way to express themselves in the  written form? 

    Use their interests for their writing assignments!


    

    5.  Consider providing Practice in Test Taking.
    

    

    

    
We used hands-on approaches in our homeschool, with lots of unit studies.  But somewhere in 7th grade, we began to incorporate some quizzes and tests. 
    

    

    Test taking skills are key to success in college.  And starting in middle school gives your child plenty of time to practice.  

    I hated to add this in, but starting in middle school gave my daughter plenty of time to get used to tests, and not be anxious about them.  Knowing how to take tests has helped her so much in college.

    More ideas on this is here, from my friend Vicki at 7 Sisters Homeschool: Authoritative Guide to Transitioning to High School

    

    

    

    6.  Encourage their Budding Interests.
    

    

    

    
It's never too early to encourage our young teen's special interests.  And isn't this one of the reasons that we homeschool anyway?  
    

    

    Does your child like to babysit?  Then they might like to begin this fun course from 7 Sisters Homeschool?  


    It's also very FRUGAL, and a fun way to explore what a high school course might look like!

    7 Sisters Homeschool has lots more elective courses, to look at, too. Such as drama.. 

    There are many ways to show your child's leadership skills, volunteering at church, assisting in a class in co-op are just a few.

    

    What would you add to the list?  
    

    
Homeschooling is a great way to educate our kids, and to prepare them for future endeavors in their life, including the college option.
    

    
Are you looking for information on transcripts, and high school?
    

    My book below, is FREE to read on Amazon Prime, and goes over doing high school at home. 
    

    Plus college tips, not that is something you are wondering about for your middle schooler. 


    


    


    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
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, highschool, 
    



    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
Copyright, 2025
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All Rights Reserved
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

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Stay-cation in Seattle 

    

    

    

    

    


    

    

    


    
This week, we all took off, for a week of rest, hiking nature trails, spending time at the beach, and generally relaxing from our work to help my teen prepare for college this fall.  And we have had sunny and warm weather here, in the Pacific NW!
    

    
So today, I am sharing what we did on stay-cation, with links and resources for those of you who also live in our neck of the woods.
    


    

    
Stay-cation in Seattle
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
I love stay-cations as they don't involve packing, 
reservations, or even arranging for someone to pick up our mail.  Talk 
about stress free and convenient! 
    

    

    
This week was all about stay-cationing  in the greater Seattle area!  There are so many things to do here in the Pacific NW, with museums, zoos, farmer's markets, the Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center and more.

    I will share links to these field trip ideas in a later post, as this time, we focused on all out-of-door activities, in nature.
    

    

    

    

    

    

    
I wanted to do relaxing things that would help my recent 
homeschool graduate de-stress, and the same for myself, and my husband, 
too...  The last few months have been busy for us, with homeschool graduation, end of the year picnics, and all the getting ready for college things, too, lol! 
    

    

    
We all wanted to get out in the country, and breathe the fresh air, so we started off by visiting our favorite U-Pick farm- Duris Farms 
    

    

    

    
 
    

    

    
It is located in Puyallup, Washington, and has been there for over 40 years.  Nothing like feeling like being out in the country, close to the earth, not have to go far to get there, and bringing home 2 crates of raspberries, the strawberries were done in June...
    

    

    

    
 
    
Afterwards, we decided to walk down the road a bit, and saw Mount Rainer peaking out again....We passed by llamas on our way back...
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
There is something about being out in the country, that always gives me a sense of peace and beauty.
 
    

    
That afternoon, we made freezer jam.  This has become a tradition for our family, and we try to make enough to last the year.  We just used the Pectin that is made for freezer jam, and followed the instructions.  Then we added one more step.  We heated up the jam mixture, in the oven at around 120 degrees, for 30 minutes, to help set it.  Here's my daughter, hard at work...
    

    

    

    
 
    

    

    

    
Washington State U-Picks

    

    

    
For a guide to U-Picks in Washington State, click on  Pick Your Own - Washington State.
    

    

    
Also, here's a few more, for the greater Seattle area... 
    

    
1.  Remlinger Farms - Carnation, includes steam trial rides, pony rides, farm animals.
    

    
2.  Whitehorse Meadows Farm - Arlington, offers blueberry Upick, and Day's Adventure, all about making a fun day-ation in their beautiful river valley.
    

    
3.  Linbo Blueberry Farm  
 - Puyallup, offers U-Pick with classical music, and this 70 yo farm is a
 natural blog, great science here.
    

    

    

    

    
The next day, we spent at the beach at Dash Point State Park, and found wildflowers....and this beach.
    

    

    

    

    

    
Dash Point park if full of trails and a forest to discover....
    

    

    

    

    

    
....and it is only 45 minutes out of Seattle.
    

    

    

    
 State Parks in Washington
    

    

    

    
For information on all the state parks in Washington, please go to the Guide to Washington State Parks.  All you need is an annual Discover pass that will get you into all of them.  Or day passes are available, too.
    

    

    

    
The following day, we went for a ride, then happened upon a nature trail, that ran along the Kent Golf  Course.  This trail, goes along the golf course a bit, then follows the Green River, and connects up with the Green River Trail . This trail is a 19.6-mile (31.5 km) pedestrian and bicycle trail in King County.  
    

    

    

    
Links to Nature Trails 
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    


    

    

    

    

    
If you want a boat ride afterwards, click on  Boat rentals in King County
    

    
Next week, it's back to our summer routine, but we always build in time for another road trip, or nature walk, along the way....
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,
    

    

    

    

    
Betsy  
    

    

    

    

    

    
Betsy is mom to her 20 year old daughter whom she homeschooled from day one.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool.  She offers homeschool help and messaging at BJ's Consulting. 
    

    

    

    

    

    
Want to stay in touch?  
    

    

    


    

    

    

    

    

    
Copyright, 2023,  All Rights Reserved
    

    

    
   
    

    

    

    

    

    

    
            
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
            
    

    

    

    

    

    

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Homeschool Graduation Ideas and Homeschool Diplomas 

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
This post may included affiliate links to products that we love and have used or would use in our  own homeschool. Please see my disclosure policy.
    

    

    

    
Will you be graduating one of your teens this spring?  If so, are you thinking about doing a special family event or instead thinking  about a graduation ceremony?
    

    
Homemade Celebrations

    Do you want to host a family graduation party? My friends at 7 Sisters Homeschool have ideas for a homemade ceremony that I think you will love.

    And Sue, from Journeying Sue blog, has a wonderful post on how she made her own graduation ceremony for her son. 


    And Let's Homeschool High School has lots of ideas for family oriented celebrations. 

    

    

    
Homeschool Graduation Ceremonies
    

    In our house, my daughter wanted to participate in a graduation ceremony.  

    This year our association still offered the ceremony and adapted it to be online.

    Back a few years ago, we went to one in our state sponsored by our homeschool association, in person.  
    

    It was a regional ceremony, sponsored by WHO (Washington Homeschool Organization).  And do you know what we had the day before?  My teen's homeschool prom!  Somehow, everything came off....

    
The next morning, we all got up early, ironed my teen's graduation gown and went to our state's own graduation ceremony.

    What is a homeschool graduation ceremony like?
    

    
The main part of the ceremony was the following:  Each grad wrote up a short statement to be read at the ceremony, about their homeschooling years.....

    

    

    

    It was a joy to listen to all of them.  Each story reflected the individuality of each student.  And what they each got out of homeschooling.
    

    The parent was then called up to the stage, and they presented their teen the homeschool diploma.  It was just beautiful.  
    

    Some teens were planning on going on to college or community college, others had vocational oriented plans, and some didn't know yet where they would be headed....

    They all shared their homeschool experiences in their own way.  
    Here's the whole graduating class:

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
Homeschool Graduation Ceremonies in Your State
    

    

    

    
Many homeschool associations offer these around the country. Google your state's homeschool association to find out.  

    For more information on How to Have A Homeschool Graduation click the title, written by my friend, Vicki from 7 Sisters Homeschool.
    

    


    

    
Homeschool Diplomas

    

    

    

    

    


    

    
Graduation reminded us of how happy we were that we homeschooled all the way. 

    Having the opportunity to homeschool our daughter helped make the difference in her finding her own way and in her personal growth and in her faith.
    

    

    
Watching her learn and grow, we grew as a family.  Together. 



    It's a great place to start if you are new to homeschooling high school OR if you are wondering about college.

    It's a step by step guide to planning and doing high school at home.

    Plus resources for college, if that is in the plan for your dear teen.

    Would you like to get a PDF of a chapter of my book? 

    It's a free download. The link is below this graphic.




    Just click here to get your FREE PDF.
    Subscribing is no longer required.



    

    

    

    
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, and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition,   She offers FREE homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting, and has had some of her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.
    

    

    

    

    
Want to stay in touch?
    

    

    

    

    

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 Just encouragement for your homeschool
    
 in your inbox occasionally.  
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    
Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool
    
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All Rights Reserved
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

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