BJ's Most Popular Posts on HIGH SCHOOL and COLLEGE



This page is full of a collection of my best tutorials on #homeschoolinghighschool and getting into college.  Including help for: planning, curriculum, assigning credit, transcripts, #100highschoolelectives, plus how to get your homeschooled teen into college.  #gettingintocollege #bjhighschool 


Are you considering homeschooling your high schooler or have already begun doing that?  

Are you concerned about college?

I have written about homeschooling high school and getting into college for years now.   

I began as I was helping my teen get into each of the colleges that she applied to, with scholarship offers.

This article is a collection of my tutorials on that, including:

  • high school planning
  • choosing college bound curriculum
  • assigning high school credit
  •  transcripts, 
  •  100 high school electives
  •  homeschool speech and debate
  •  a day in the life of high school at home
  •  plus how to get your homeschooled teen into college. 

Today I am releasing my best articles in this collection for you.

I encourage you to pin each article, as I usually do not share these., but you can save the links on Pinterest.

Be sure and PIN each one!

Look for the small icons at the bottom of each article.

And I invite you to also follow me on BJ's Homeschool Pinterest to keep up to date on high school and college.


WHY HOMESCHOOLED HIGH SCHOOL


Here at  BJ's Homeschool, my husband and I homeschooled our daughter all the way, and we are so glad that we did.  

Homeschooling it gives you and your teen, a chance to be together, side by side, as they enter the all important years, and begin to explore their future possibilities.



I found that being there, as my daughter grew into a young adult, was priceless. 

Let's get started.  First, with planning tips for high school: 
 
4 Steps to Planning High School @ Home  Here is my guide to planning for the high school years....




Our favorites, plus tips for meeting college admissions requirements.

 Here are 3 ways to do just that.  We did a lot of different kinds of learning, and all of it counts!




 What should be included in your high school transcripts?  What colleges are looking for.


Building Up our Teens - Teens need to know they are important, and that they have special gifts to offer.  


BJ's Homeschool - Our Journey Towards College: Finding the Play in our Days!

Finding the Play in our High School Days 
This article is linked to 100 High School Electives



What is the best way to share electives with the college?



and Life Schooling

With links to where to build leadership skills, through activities and volunteer opportunities.


Building Teen Relationships  - Easing transitions for our teens and ourselves.


The Value of Homeschooling High School  links to your FREE High School Helps PDF



Living Literature and Literary Analysis - Oak Meadow English

 One of our favorite living lit curriculum and how it helped my daughter to expand her narrations and essay writing, with 
creative questions. 
or
Homeschool Speech and Debate

Links to activities and frugal resources for developing leadership skills in your teen, like the colleges are looking for.










Get Your Teen into College in 5 Easy Steps

- The story of how my teen was accepted into one of our premier state's 4 year colleges, and later three more.






Don't miss this one!



What to do, virtually or in real life, and what to look for, with help to make your list.







Here is one of my most popular articles, that I usually never share, except in 
my book.


100 ideas for High School Electives.

PIN THIS ONE FOR SURE!

See the tiny icons at the end of the article for pinning.





Tips for transcripts, accredited or homeschooled?, plus how to prepare for College Writing and more.



or
 5 Tips for Getting into College  




Above shares some of the key steps that we took in our journey towards college...don't forget to pin them for your use.


or
8 Tips for Getting into College




I wrote this article after my teen got accepted into the top state college in our state.  



   


 A Week in my High School Life @ BJ's Homeschool  If you are new to high school at home, here is how it might look.


 A Rooster and a Prom Dress - with resources for finding a homeschool prom for your teen.



Celebrating graduation was special, and a little bit hard for me. But little did I know, those special moments would continue, and even become fuller and richer.






















Homeschool Graduation Ideas  - Here's how we celebrated, with lots of ideas for your teen....There are so many different ways to honor your graduate, with links and resources, too.
 
  We at BJ's Homeschool are Washington State homeschoolers


Be sure and PIN each article, as I don't often share these.  They are mostly just in my book now.

Note - Look for the small PIN icon at the bottom of each article.

Follow me on BJ's Homeschool Pinterest to keep up to date on high school and college!

Have you seen my facebook group called Homeschooling Through High School?


Join us!


After helping my homeschooled high schooler get into each of the colleges she applied to, I wrote this guide:


Paperback is at Amazon $11.99



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, 
college, gifted/2e and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition,   She offers 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?

Subscribe, Pinterest, Facebook 
No spam ever.  
Just encouragement for your homeschool in your inbox.



Copyright, 2019 
All Rights Reserved

Posted by at 4 comments:

4 Steps to Planning High School at Home



Summary:  This is a 4 step tutorial on how to plan your homeschool for your high schoolers.  Including tips on transcripts, curriculum and more.  Every mom can homeschool their teen.  We did it and our daughter is was not ruined! In fact, she loved being homeschooled. This post may included affiliate links to products that we love and have used or would use in our homeschool, and here is my disclosure policy.  #homeschoolhighschool #highschoolplanning #highschoolcurriculum



When we began thinking about homeschooling high school, it felt more than a little daunting to us.  

We had been homeschooling for years but the thought of doing high school meant that we would have to make transcripts, assign high school credit and other things that we did not yet know how to do.

Read more »
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Our Adventures in Annual Homeschool Testing - 2e Style




Summary: This article shares experiences with annual homeschool achievement testing, plus favorite resources for doing homeschool annual testing in the home.  We share favorite resources that we have used or would use in our homeschool.  Please see my disclosure policy.



We found out that our child was gifted when she was quite young. Since she was eager to learn and precocious we began homeschooling when she was around 4 years old.

In WA state, annual achievement testing is required starting in 3rd grade.  When our daughter was 8 years of age, we went ahead and arranged for her annual testing along with our niece's too, as we also helped with her homeschool education.

We used the BJU Press Testing Service, with oral instructions.  My child did nicely with this test, but our niece had difficulty following the testing instructions given in this manner.

Here was my niece who had been doing great with all of her homeschool studies.  She was an avid reader, a kid who enjoyed writing in her daily journal, and one who enjoyed doing her math.


Making Accommodations



If your child does not do well with oral instructions, this is a simple fix.  Many standardized test use written instructions.  

We contacted Family Learning Organization (FLO).  They offer both annual tests with oral instructions, and another one that is done with written instructions. They also offer more informal assessments, in addition to regular testing.


Annual Testing at Home


The California Achievement test, or the CAT, is done with written instructions. 

We enjoyed the support and services from FLO, and the fact that we could test our daughter at home.  Many homeschoolers test in at home, but can also do this in a group setting, organized and provided by their homeschool support groups.  

FLO offers standardized assessments plus teacher reviewed assessments, both of which they have done for over twenty years. 


At Home Testing Options

Are you interested in testing at home, too?  Here's some links to at home annual homeschool testing options:


1.  Family Learning Organization - It is owned and operated by a homeschooling family who are based in Washington state.  



3.  True North Homeschool Academy  My friend Lisa, veteran homeschool mom and owner this Academy offers the Performance Series Test at a frugal price. This test is considered state of the art standardized testing, and includes Reading, Math, and Language Arts for K - 12 grades.  The test is delivered online to any computer that is accessible to you.  For more information, click here.


3.  a2zHomeschooling - They offer a list of 10 more testing companies



Test Prep 


I decided to do a little test prep the second time around, to help build up my niece's confidence. For this, we chose Spectrum Test Prep.  Spectrum offers a nice series on test prep, for grades, 3 - 8.  I have a review of Spectrum Test Prep 3 right here.

We continued to use their series each year. It helped my daughter to get used to the type of questions that were asked on standardized tests. 

Later, we found the Academic Challenge Cup by the Critical Thinking Company.  

It's a video game, for test prep. But, of course, test prep is not necessary to do. Tapping into play with this test prep video game, was a helpful way to reduce testing anxiety.  

My niece developed confidence in test-taking, so by the time she needed to do it for real, ie the SAT's  test for college application, she was ready.

What testing or assessment option do you like to use in your homeschool?  I would love to hear about that in the comments or on Facebook. 

My friend, Amy offers more information on this at How to Choose a Standardized Achievement Test for Your Child.

I was recently asked to write for the top special education site on this topic.  I invite you to click 8 Tips for Homeschooling a Twice Exceptional Student for more ideas and encouragement.




Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,


Betsy



Betsy is retired O.T, homeschool blogger, and most importantly is mom to her 2e college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school, college and 2e.  


Want to stay in touch?


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Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool 2023
All rights reserved.



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Helping Struggling Handwriters with Easy O.T. Tricks




Summary:  Tips for helping your struggling handwriter, using O.T. related ways, easy-to-make guides and more.  Even a tongue depressor can work to help kids with their handwriting.  


Do your kids have trouble spacing their letters?  Or are their letters all over the page?  

Some kids try so hard and their writing is still illegible.    

 Did you know that the visual system does not completely develop until age 9?  

But handwriting requires a lot of visual perception skills. 
That means that our younger ones are often struggling with where, and how to place their letters on the page, and they often can land all over, everywhere!  

Young kids need lots of time to learn to letter shapes and such....through 
  • fingerpainting, 
  • making letters in the air, 
  • playing games with letters, 
  • and writing them on big sheets of paper with no lines at all,etc.

But once your child knows his letters, and is trying to put words on the page...his visual perception may just not yet have developed.  

 And practicing over and over again, in a workbook can just get really frustrating, and may not be helpful for some of our kids.

 Handwriting can become tedious, and no fun, and that just makes it all the harder.   Today, I am sharing some handwriting approaches to help your struggling handwriters. 

 Here are four important helps for handwriting, from my OT days, and how to help develop them:


 1. Learning to Write from Left to Right:
Make a green line on the left side of the handwriting paper, and a red line on the right. They say "Start at the green light, and stop at the red one!"  Make it a game! Like red light, green light...


 2.  Leaving Space between Letters and Words:

Many kids struggle with spacing, as this requires more visual perception skills than many young writers have yet. Typically kids crowd their letters together, leaving no space at all, or too much space between words.  

 What's the answer?  A popsicle stick or a tongue depressor

 Why?  A popsicle stick can make a great spacer for your kids. The ones that are thicker at the end work best for the widely spaced handwriting paper.



Take the stick and show your child how to space letters.  This shows them spacing, that their visual system doesn't yet tell them about.

I recommend having a family popsicle party first, and by all means, coloring it, and decorating each one, to make it their own.
3.  Placing letters where They go on the Lines:  

 Letters can also be hard to place on the line, especially when dealing with different sizes of letters, ie, f takes up two lines, e only one.  

 Here are some handy guides, for each type of letters.  I just made mine out of cardstock, but cardboard would probably last longer.

One guide is for the small letters, a, c, e, etc, another is for the tall letters like b, d, l, etc, and one more, for letters with tails, like g, j, p, q, y...
Here are the templates for each of these guides.  




Feel free to copy them, and cut them out of cardboard or cardstock for your kids. 

 Just fit them to your size of handwriting paper.  I recommend the widely spaced ones, like I used above.

 I would pick one type of letter to focus on first, say the little ones, a, c, etc, and help your child get used to using the guide.  

 Then I would continue with the other types of letters.
4. Using a Game approach, short Sessions, with a focus on Success.  

 Here's some handwriting paper that we used.


They are frugally priced writing strips available from Student Handouts.com available free for printing.  

Short Writing Session Ideas

Do one of these writing strips a day. Short and sweet lessons are the best.

 Using these guides can help your kids with their handwriting, until their visual perception kicks on. 

 And keeping on with handwriting actually helps to develop tthose important visual perceptual skills. 

 Going to keyboarding right away can be a mistake.  But that depends on the child.  Kids with dysgraphia often do well keyboarding early.

 Keyboarding does not help to develop the sensory motor system in the way that handwriting does.   

5.  Learning to write by hand, vs typing has so many advantages for many kids:


1.  It improves visual perception skills.

 2.  It helps to learn to shape of the letters, as they feel their shape, as they write with their pencil.  This helps develop kinesthesia, and the sensory processing system.

 3.  It helps with retention, as the act of  writing the words on the page helps to plant the info in the brain, in a way that does not happen with keyboarding.  

Using their sensory motor system to write the words helped to make the information stick in their memory.


Would you like to take a break and work on handwriting, without even writing? 

I have 6 more posts on games that teach handwriting skills.  

Click here for Handwriting Helps and Games.



Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy


Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs about the early years, high school, and college and is the author or Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd edition.  Betsy still loves going on nature study trips whenever her daughter can fit them in.



Want to stay in touch?

 Pinterest, Facebook 



Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool, Revised 2022




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