Making a Study Space for Your Teen

Do you have a homeschool dedicated space for your homeschooling high schooler?  How we put together a simple study space for ours.

Today, I am sharing how we fixed up our homeschool space for my high schooler.  We had a lot of fun doing this together. 

 I wanted her to have a cozy place to study, and she was looking forward to having it in her own room.  We didn't have a desk in the house, so we set about making one.

Making a Desk

 Here it is, below..

We combined a small chest of drawers with a wooden table, that we already had.  Then we went to Goodwill, together, and looked around for a desk shelf.  

Can you see the fish rug on the floor above?  It was made from a puzzle, that my teen put together, then just added a layer of clear packing tape.  By the way, our kitten ran in while I was taking this picture, so he was a surprise addition to it...!

We then, found a desk chair at a garage sale. After that, my daughter went about decorating it with her favorite things. She put in her touches, to make it her own.  I loved how she kept one of her stuffed penguins, and found a place for it, in her high school desk area.

Can you see the penguin here?  She also stores our printer on her desk, one that we found used from a computer shop.  

Next, my teen did some simple redecorating, along the walls of her room.  She took down her old things, and updated them with her new finds, including this one....

The Reading Nook

Well, we decided that we also needed to redo the reading nook. This was a little reading area, was and here's how we used it, when she was young. 

 It used to have a large stuffed whale pillow on it!  Of course, that went by the way......My daughter decided to use the same bookshelves, and remake it into a teen reading space....

Next, we went shopping for school supplies, getting what was needed for certain subjects, like a protractor for math, along with lots of spiral notebooks.  

We bought three for each subject.  We gathered together all the supplies and books needed for each subject, and just put them into a box.

Our Workboxing Method

We used the spiral notebooks for her written work, such as essay drafts, math problems, taking notes on a history text, etc.  That way, we didn't have the problem of losing and having to find this paper and that.

It was our version of the workboxing method...I know it is not truly workboxing, but it was our way of doing it!  And. later, when my daughter started college, she took the concept of workboxing, with her to college, and it helped her alot!  

That's how we set up things for high school.

Of course, the desk was not the only place where she would study....But it was a favorite place to study, next to going to the coffee shop!  And then there's all the fun, high school activities that our kids can do, too!

And, our nature studies, of course, always took us outside, to  explore the pacific northwest through mini-road trips. Sometimes my teen "took me", as she was practicing her driving skills....

I love reading your comments.  Where is your teen's favorite place to homeschool?

This post is a part of the 8th Annual Back to Homeschool Blog Hop-SchoolRoomWeek.  Check out all the other great posts from other homeschoolers.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is a veteran homeschooler who blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school and college too.  She offers homeschool help and free messages at BJ's Consulting.  Her e-book, "Homeschooling High School with College in Mind" is available on Amazon.

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Our Playful Choices for Preschool and Kindergarten --

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While we introduced learning activities in preschool, we always took a playful approach, which taught my daughter that learning.....was FUN.  Here are my favorites for the preschool and the kindergarten years.  

We picked and choose from these ideas and activities each day, as our preschooler had a very short attention span as most preschoolers do.  And kindergarteners have just a bit more.  Our focused learning time in kindergarten was about 1/2 hour to an hour at most. 

Let's start with math play.....then touch on early language arts, fine motor fun, handwriting, art, early science, and the fun of a field trip or two.

   

MATH PLAY

When you are four, or five, everything is math!  Toys can be counted, towels sorted and put into sets.  Cookie making became a lesson in adding and subtracting, and beads got sorted into patterns as well, as making necklaces.  

Also, buttons, shells, rocks, sorted by shape, color, size, what have you.  Even laundry could be sorted into sets, or small, medium and large, such as with towels. 

Here are two early math workbooks that we also enjoyed, with my reviews, so you can see how we used them:

 Shapes and Beginning Fractions

 Numbers and Patterns  

Math Manipulatives Kit

Nothing has to be bought for math play with manipulatives, as small toys, buttons, shells, or whatever you have will work out just fine!  Anything that your kids can count, sort, and put into groups, or sets..will be wonders for their learning!

We didn't use a complete math program, but preferred doing our early math, with our own hands-on activities, card games were great, too.

Here's a review of Saxon Math for K if you would like some guidance for early math.  It involves a lot of great hands-on learning, too. 

My daughter loved learning about letters in...

EARLY LANGUAGE ARTS

A is for Apple

We introduced the letters of the alphabet with simple ABC crafts projects and a great little book called  the Big Book of Alpha Tales.   

This book has a humorous story for each letter of the alphabet.  There are ABC mini-book to make as well, which was a favorite activity in our house!

Our early reading activities centered around read alouds, and going to the library a lot.  Of course, they have lots of books for introducing the abc's for free! 

Phonics and Reading Readiness

Not every homeschool family does phonics, but we found that it to be key to developing reading skills.  For early Phonics, we used the Explode the Code Primers (ETC).  

This is a very well researched program, which has been proven to improve reading levels.  It is kid friendly as well!  ETC primers covers all the basic phonics.  It also includes writing the abc's, more early reading skills, and word families. 

For those who are ready to move on, here is info on the next books in the series by Explode the Code.  We let our daughter take reading at her own pace, and followed her lead. 

Learn to Read with Explode the Code

When my little one was ready, we decided to use the Bob Books series as our first readers, which introduced one vowel at a time. We also liked the series at I Can Read .  

Next, my daughter loved arts and  crafts for...

FINE MOTOR FUN

To develop the hands and wrist for handwriting, we did LOTS of crafts, enjoying sidewalk chalk art, etc.

We played with playdough, did drawings, cut with sissors, fingerpainted, and often did gluing projects. Sometimes we tore paper into small pieces to make a design with glue, which helped to strengthen the finger muscles.   

Here's more ideas for small muscle games.  Do what your child enjoys...if they don't like crafts, playing with legos, small blocks, playing with small cars, etc. 

This post, below, has more fun ways to help your child with fine motor skills and grasp. 

9 Ways to a Mature Grasp - Games and Fun! 

And that lead to learning how to write....

HANDWRITING 

photo credit Oak Meadow

We wrote letters in pudding, in the air, on the sidewalk, in the sand, and on large newsprint paper....the bigger the better.  This gave my daughter the feel each letter. 

 Teach Your Kids to Write  has lots of ideas for beginning handwriting, if your little ones are ready for that.  It doesn't matter when your kids learn to write, they will get it, when it is the right time for them.  

Then sometimes art became a place to do a little early writing....

ART 

Coloring, painting, playing with clay were popular at our house.  A favorite was painting with pudding, when I had the time to get it out.

My daughter had a lot fun drawing, then sometimes she would dictate a few words about her picture, which I would write down for her to copy.When she chose the words herself, her copywork was very meaningful to her. 

We also had fun making very simple little books sometimes.....

The Art of Simple Book Making - Your Child is an Author! 
How to encourage story telling in your young child.  I would write down her words for her in the "book".


Next, here's some things that we did for early science activities, when it fit into our day...

SCIENCE FUN 

Early Science - Hands-On!

Our Favorite Books about Birds and Birdwatching

And finally, we sometimes took a field trip or two...

FIELD TRIPS

Some of our best memories are doing little field trips with our young learner, like going on a train ride, fishing at a kid's fishing hole, or joining other homeschoolers for a parks day.

One year, my daughter asked to do a ballet class, like she had read about in one of her library books.  So we found a pre-ballet class, and she loved it.  Here's her class picture...

None of the kids really knew their dance, at recital, but that didn't matter.  They were up there, doing their thing.

And now that my daughter is a rising junior in college, (Can that really be, already?).... 

....and I now have more time to share about our earlier years, and all the fun we had homeschooling them.  

This post is a part of the 8th Annual Back to Homeschool Blog Hop-Curriculum Week. 

 Click on the title above to check out all the great posts from iHN veteran homeschoolers.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool, 

Betsy

Betsy is a veteran homeschooler who blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school and college too.  She offers homeschool help and free messages at BJ's Consulting.  

Want to stay in touch? 

 Subscribe Pinterest | G+ | Twitter | Facebook. 

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.

Copyright @BJ's Homeschool 2016

All Rights Reserved

Frugal Homeschool Curriculum Choices for 8th Grade -

Summary:  Our homeschool middle school curriculum choices for 8th grade and a few for 7th grade, too.  (You don't have to go by a grade, btw)  #homeschoolmiddleschool#frugalhomeschoolcurriculum 

Note - 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 .

I have lots of great memories of homeschooling middle school. 

My daughter was in irish step dancing then, and really loved doing nature photography with me whenever we got the chance.  

She also started volunteering as a TA in a science class in our co-op then.  Volunteering was a great way for her to build up her confidence.



In 8th grade, we used a variety of resources. Here's our choices for curriculum for her that year.

Our 8th Grade Curriculum Choices 

Social Studies

We did Oak Meadow's US History course in 7th grade, then Civics course in 8th grade, and my daughter loved both. 

It explored government on the local, state and national level.  The writing assignments helped my young teen to develop her writing skills with a variety of exercises.  

English


We did both English 7 and then 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.    

Through this course, literature became something that my daughter looked forward to everyday.  I found the Teacher's Manual, which can be purchased from the Oak Meadow office, to be very helpful in teaching this course.

Science


We used Science 7 and Science 8, from the Rainbow Resource Center.  This frugal book included physical science, life science and earth and space science. 

I liked how it covered a wide variety of science concepts, and prepared her for 9th grade science study.  Specific activities, experiments and puzzles went along with each concept that was introduced.  

Then special interests were dived into whenever they came up.  

Math

For 7th Grade we did Teaching Textbooks, then in 8th we did Switched on Schoolhouse Pre-Algebra.  To learn more about Teaching Textbooks, click here, even though we are talking about using it in high school in that article.  It still gives you an introduction to Teaching Textbooks, which we liked for 7th. 

That covered Pre-Algebra topics with a multi-media approach.  The explanations were clear and helpful, and that is according to my daughter.  

It had the structured and depth that helped my daughter retain what she had learned.  I also liked that it was a self-graded course, a great time saver.  We also used their tutoring by the half-hour at times, when there was a problem.  

In November that 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.
It is described in this post on 3 Frugal Resources for Creative Writing.  This became a fun November break, that we continued into the high school years.  

And creative writing helped not only to build up my daughter's writing skills, it also taught her about the components of literature, plot, character, setting, etc.

What are your choices for curricula for 8th grade?  Please feel free to share in the comments, as I love to hear about new resources that you have discovered.

Betsy has been homeschooling for over 14 years.  Her daughter got into each of the colleges on her list, with scholarship offers, including a Tier One U.

She helps you homeschool your teen, and also makes the process of getting into college easy to understand.

Her book includes 12 high school planning printables, to make your record keeping easy.

This is recommended by: Lessa Scherrer, Certified College Counselor from College Inside Track

Amazon for  $11.99

"Betsy has a wealth of understanding and knowledge to share with the parents of college bound homeschoolers.  She provides support, encouragement and step-by-step advice on all aspects of the homeschool high school and college application process. This book is a must-read for parents considering homeschooling high school and for parents in the thick of the application process."

For more information, click here - Frugal College Prep for Homeschoolers or to buy it here - my book on Amazon for only $11.99.  

High School Planning Printables included will make your record keeping easier.

The high school planning forms include:

College Entrance Requirements Form

Overall High School Plan

Curriculum Planning Sheet

High School Credit Record Form

Transcript Form

Activities and Awards Form

Homemade Course Form

Writing the College Essay Form

Course Descriptions Record Keeping Form

Reference Letter Request Form

PE Record Form

For more information, click here - Frugal College Prep for Homeschoolers or to buy it here - my book on Amazon for only $11.99.  

And don't worry about forgetting things.

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.

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This post is a part of the 8th Annual Back to Homeschool Blog Hop-Curriculum Week.  Check out all the other great posts from iHN veteran homeschoolers.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college junior, 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?  

Subscribe, Pinterest, G+, Twitter, Facebook 

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.

Copyright, 2017, All Rights Reserved