Homeschool High School - YOUR Way - for your 2e Teen

Summary: How to do high school your own way, even when applying to college. About pubic school graduation requirements and more.  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 policy.

As many of you know, we are a homeschooling family.  We began that early on, during preschool, and it worked well for our  daughter that we continued on for many years.  

Then we hit middle school.

When she was a 7th grader, we began to think A LOT about her future and the college options for her.  Our gifted, 2e daughter was thriving in our homeschool. 

She was exploring her interests in marine biology and also trying out her skills in teaching, as a volunteer TA. We loved that we could choose our own curriculum and adapt it as need be. Homeschooling was working well, and we saw our daughter continuing in it through high school. 

But there in lies the rub.  What about college?  

What about applying with a homeschool transcript?  Would our daughter have the same chances of getting into the college that she wanted, as a homeschooler?

As a homeschooling family, we had already heard of college experiences from our homeschooling friends.  The talk in our group was that it would be hard to get into the tier one U in our town, and probably still difficult for the other colleges in our state.  

Many of our friends went the community college route, and later applied to the 4 year college as a transfer students.  They told us that was the easier route, and that was a possibility for our daughter, too.

But we didn't want our daughter to be limited to that.  We wanted her to have the option of going to a 4 year college from the start. So she and I got busy studying the college entrance requirements for her top choice U, and some other contenders, too.

College Entrance Requirements

It was easy to find this information, just by checking the college websites.  

The good news was that all we had to do was to do those college entrance requirements and any extra homeschool requirements, if there were any.  (Be sure to check for those on each college you apply to.)

We added in high school electives and activities, which was the beauty of homeschooling.  And the colleges want to see some high school activities, too.  (See more on that below)

Public School Graduation Requirements

Homeschoolers in almost all states do NOT have to follow the public school graduation requirements.  Your state's homeschool association will know if yours in one of the few states that do require that.

Knowing that gave us a lot more leeway.  Instead of having to do economics during senior year, as the public school kids had to do, we had a lot of choices. 

You see, our college entrance requirements gave us lots of choices for social studies.  So my teen could chose from those, including sociology, psychology, more history in an area she was interested in, etc. 

We made sure the college requirements got done, but we didn't have to changed our homeschool style and we found time for teen-led learning, too.

Curriculum - Prepared or Homemade

For core studies, we used a lot of Oak Meadow and 7 Sisters Homeschool curricula, which were more creative and project-learning based, and my daughter really loved it.  

We also made our own homemade courses , too and designed her learning based on her college entrance requirements. 

Meanwhile, I contacted a number of admissions departments, and did research on  course descriptions, college reference letters, assigning high school credit, transcripts, scholarships etc, in an effort to best present my daughter to the colleges.  

College Reference Letters

We were concerned about the college reference letters, as they asked for one from a teacher and one from a school counselor.  But we were able to find a way that worked for us.  Coaches, group leaders, youth ministers, etc can be great resources for those college reference letters.   

The Common Application asks the homeschool parent to write a recommendation letter on their student, to the colleges.  I wrote up a guide on this, which is available here.  Just a few additional bits of paperwork required for homeschoolers now.

Colleges Becoming More Homeschool Friendly

And in the spring of my daughter's senior year, we got good news. My teen was accepted by her top college choice U and the other colleges that she applied to as well, with scholarship offers. And here's a second piece of good news. 

My teen's top choice college now has all but dropped their extra requirements for homeschoolers, the year after she was accepted. And that seems to be the trend, in our state of WA, and around the U.S. as well.  

I am so glad that we stayed with the homeschooling option, as it allowed our 2e daughter time to explore her interests much more than she would have done if she were in public school. 

High School Activities

Even though she was busy with her core studies, she also had time for irish stepdancing, some science camps, mock trial, and a leadership program, called Youth and Government.   And the last two groups helped her to discover what she might want to do as a career.  

Are you familiar with these two programs?  Mock Trial was offered at a local high school, where teens enacted real court cases, under the supervision of volunteer lawyers. 

 Youth and Government is a leadership program that focuses on state government and politics. The teens write their own mock bills, debate and discuss them, then compete regionally.  Finally, they gather once a year, in their state capital for the Mock Youth Legislature.  

There, they take on the rolls of legislators, senators, and elect a governor, while voting on the mock bills that are presented there. These activities later helped my daughter to decide on her college major of Communications, with global leadership and political science. 

100 more ideas for high school activities and electives is now a chapter in my new book below. 

Most colleges want to see what high school electives and activities that your teen has done.

The colleges are looking for leadership and perseverance in their applicants, and those things can easily be shown through our teen's high school activities.

If your teen wants to go directly into a 4 year college from homeschool, you may like my book called Homeschooling High School with College in Mind - 2nd edition.  

Do you want a guide to high school and college, plus my exclusive guide to the Common Application for homeschoolers? 

I have gathered together all my best tips for high school and college and put it into my new book, Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition. 

It gives you everything that you need to plan your high school homeschool for your college bound teen.  Plus how to help them get into the college of their choice.

Amazon 

Paperback is on Amazon for only $11.99

This book is an easy-to-read guide to college for homeschoolers, recently updated with 7 NEW chapters, including:

- My own homeschoolers guide to the Common Application

- How to write the Counselor Recommendation Letter

- Where to find college scholarships

- SAT/ACT Prep

- How to make your own homemade courses

-  Included are also 12 homeschool high school planning printables to make your record-keeping easier.

10 easy to do steps to homeschool high school with college in mind. And it really is NOT that hard!!  

This book does not tell you how to homeschool high school.  Instead it gives you guidance for doing it your way!  

Keep your nurturing homeschool style and showcase their accomplishments to the colleges!

Recommended by: Lessa Scherrer, Certified College Counselor

                               from College Inside Track

"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."

And help for record keeping!  With my exclusive high school and college planning printables.

The high school and college 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   

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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Copyright, 2020
updated
All Rights Reserved

4 FUN Ways to Help your Young Handwriter

Summary:  How to encourage your child's handwriting skills through a playful approach, based on my Occupational Therapy experience.  This article includes tips for fine motor play, strengthening, developing mature grasp patterns for handwriting and more.  #homeschool #handwriting

Do you have a child who is just starting to learn to write?  

Or do you have a child who is struggling with handwriting?  Do they hold their pencil in an awkward manner, hold it very tightly, or just hate to write?

Today, I'd like to share 4 different types of activities that may help your struggling handwriters.  And most of these ideas do not involve handwriting at all!   They include helpful activities to build good:

1.  -- Fine motor skills
2.  -- Mature grasp patterns
3.  -- Postural control and shoulder strength
4.  -- Visual perceptual skills

If your child is struggling with handwriting, they are likely to have problems in one or more of each of these areas listed above.

And they can improve their handwriting by working and playing with the activities discussed below.

Each activity is fun and play based. They come from my work as an OT, and also from my time homeschooling. 

I hope they will be a help to you as you encourage and guide your young handwriter.  

First, let's look at fine motor skills.

1.  Fine Motor Activities

The first thing that we usually look at when there is a handwriting problem is small muscle coordination.  Does your child lack hand strength or small muscle coordination?  

  

If so, the post below includes a number of clever and easy to do games for developing fine motor skills. 

Small Muscles Games 

Click here for lots more ideas for fine motor coordination--Small Muscles Games. 

Then, if your child needs to strengthen their hand and finger muscles, Oak Meadow has a number of ideas for doing that with clay, below.  These may appeal to the older child as well.

For hand strengthening click Developing Hand Strength with Clay Activities. 

Next, let's talk about how your child holds her pencil, or grasp patterns.

2.  Grasp Patterns

Does your child have a very awkward grasp of their pencil?  Do they hold it with their whole hand?  Or do they have a tight grip on their pencil?

The post below explains what a mature grasp pattern is, and shows many ways to encourage that, through playful games.  

These fun activities are all designed to encourage a fine pincer grasp.  And when your child uses that kind of grasp, writing will become so much easier.  Click the link below for much more on grasp activities.

9 Ways to a Mature Grasp - Games and Fun!

There are many variations on the theme, re mature grasp patterns, so if your child develops one that is not quite the same as the photos show, that is ok.  

The idea is to find a grip that decrease the effort and pressure when writing.

Some kids do better using a grasp aid or device.  Here are a number of them, offered by Draw Your World.  If you see one that you would like to try, I recommend googling it.  There are many devices on the market now.

For more on Aids/Devices for Grasp just click this link.

Another thing to think about is your child's posture when writing.  

3.  Postural Control and Shoulder Strength

When our kids struggle with handwriting, we usually think about doing small muscle activities, but sometimes that is really not the problem.

When we write we need good postural control, which refers to strength in the core muscles of the trunk.  And the shoulder muscles are also important to handwriting.  How can we help our kids develop these foundational skills when they don't have them?

Play Pack Gross Motor Cards have some easy to do activities that can help.  More info on this here.

Click here for those activity ideas that can help build postural control and more in your kiddos.

And lastly, here's some ways to help kids who struggle with visual perception, also key to handwriting success.

4.  Visual Perceptual Skills 

Visual perception is not fully developed until age 9.  That can make learning to write and staying within the lines.. SO hard for kids.  

If you child's writing is all over the page, writing guides discussed below may really help.  

Click the title below to learn about these simple-to-make writing guides: 

Helping Struggling Handwriters 

So we have discussed four different things that may help your struggling hand writer, including:

- developing small muscle coordination and strength
- encouraging a mature grasp pattern
- developing core strength and shoulder strength
- compensating for visual perception issues

I recommend scrolling through whichever topic or activity speaks to you,  and start with one of two activities at a time.  

What have you found to be helpful for your struggling handwriters?  I so love to read your comments.  It makes my day!  

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 wrote - 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, Facebook 

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.

Copyright, 2020

All Rights Reserved

BJ's Homeschool - Through My Teen's Eyes

Homeschooling through my teen's eyes...well that is easy to do, as my daughter loved taking pictures, and sharing about her homeschool, especially during high school.

When my daughter was a senior in our homeschool, she decided to make a video about her homeschool.  She had been studying video making as an elective, and wanted to put together something that would tell her friends and family about her high school years.

I just provided the video camera, and she did all the rest.  Well, I got to help with some of the filming, too.

So today, I am sharing her video....then some of the highlights of her high school years and graduation.  Those I took, but they were some of her special memories of high school at home.

LINK - My Homeschool Adventure Video - We are a small family, with an only, so we did a lot of extra-curricular activities. I hope it gives you encouragement and ideas for your homeschooling journey through high school.

Now for some high school highlights, here's one of the best parts for my teen - her homeschool prom.  Here' s the story of that....She found this dress at a thrift shop.

A Rooster and A Prom Dress

She also loved participating in a speech and debate program called Youth and Government.  Here's a selfie with some of her Youth and Government friends....

Here's one of her field trips with her co-op friends...

She loved reading on our deck....

and doing science experiments at our local river, related to salmon and spawning....

and entering contests at our state fair.

This gave her outside feedback on her work.  But best of all were 
our study breaks at the beach, and it didn't have to be a sunny day to be fun...

Finally, here are the photos of her homeschool graduation picnic... 

Celebrate Your Graduate Your Way has photos from the ceremony and a link to graduation ceremonies around the US, hoping they will be held again this spring.

So that gives you a peek into our high school years at home, from my daughter's eyes. 

Every homeschool is different.  That's the beauty of homeschooling.

Does your teen like to do photography too?  

What do you like best about homeschooling teens?  What is your biggest challenge?  

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

If you would like to follow me on Pinterest, I have many high school and college posts there: 

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 Homeschooling High School Pinterest Board

Homeschooling high school yielded us so many gifts, for my daughter, for our family, and for her high school education.

Thanks for stopping by,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her 20 year old daughter whom she homeschooled from day one.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.   She offers homeschool help and messages at BJ's Consulting.

 

Want to stay in touch?  

Subscribe, Pinterest,Twitter, Facebook 

Copyright, 2016, All Rights Reserved

BJ's High School - A Week in the Life -

Do you wonder what homeschooling your teen might look like?

Today, I'd like to share how we did our days during my daughter's senior year...fitting in core studies, but also making time for other important things like..cookie making, homemade electives and not to forget, nature study to refresh and renew us.

Usually, my teen and I would meet on Sunday nights, and make a schedule for the following week, based on what was needed to be accomplished for each core subject.  Then my daughter would write out a rough schedule for her week. 

We always met in the mornings to go over the studies for the day. My teen would decide, then, what she wanted to do when.  Once she was a senior, she scheduled her week herself, based on a list of assignments that I gave her each Sunday. 

Core studies were usually done in the mornings through the early afternoons.  After a break, we often took time for science experiments, writing projects, or electives.  Homeschooling high school took us a lot more time than middle school.  But we still had time for teen-led electives, and we built in the fun, too.

Then evenings were for outside activities a couple of days per week.  Sometimes evenings were used to finish up work, as needed.  
Yes, that's a lot of study time.... 

However, when we got behind we would do a catch up week, and take a whole day to do each core subject, like English on Monday, math on Tuesday, etc. 

For catch-up weeks, my teen got up early, and did a whole block of one subject each day, allowing for solid studying through the late afternoon.  Then we looked for something fun to do afterwards, to de-stress. 

So, here's how one of our catch-up weeks went, from my teen's senior year...... 

It was in the spring, a few weeks before her homeschool prom. We had just bought this dress....

We got this at a thrift shop.

After all the excitement of the prom dress...we did some catch up work, but also a lot of goofing off, too.

Monday, my teen focused on her chemistry course, at the coffeeshop. We are using Switched on Schoolhouse (SOS).  I love how it is self graded!  

If there is a question that I can't answer (btw, I am not a science person!), my teen could have tutoring from SOS, by the half hour, which was easily arranged, and has been a great help to us.  There are also a number of online tutoring options available, for help, as you know.


Tuesday, it was warm enough to study outside....so nice!! So my teen studied outside and made it an English day, using our Oak Meadow Literature and Composition course.  Afterwards, we drove together just for fun and for her driving practice.

Studying outside makes it so much better!

Wednesday, she worked on her online Government course.  Taking a lot of time at once, really helped her to catch up on this course.  Then she had an irish dance practice, getting ready for this recital...

A chance to hang out with her teen friends.

Thursday was math day. We went to the library, where I worked on some computer projects, while my teen did her online math course, also from SOS.

Later we stopped by our local farmer's market and picked up some favorite veggies, for a easy to prepare dinner for that night...

I love the farmer's market.

We also picked up some veggies starts at this market, can't wait until I can plant them!

Friday morning, a friend came over to study. They worked together on one of my daughter's electives, video-making.  I think making cookies and was just as interesting, though...

After she left, there was one assignment and an essay to finish for the weekend.  

But we both needed a break, so we decided to head out... into a beautiful, sunny day!  We drove to our most favorite beach... and were treated to this gorgeous blue sky!  Yes, I am a photography mom.

I think that 1-on-1 time is so important to our children as teens, especially as they begin to widen their horizons.

Enjoying nature means a lot to me and I am so glad to be passing that onto my daughter.  She has become quite a photographer, too.  What hobbies do you like to do with your teens?  They can be made into a homemade course!

My daughter had a busy senior year to finish her college entrance requirements in English, science, social studies, and also her elective.  There was a lot of concentrated work to be done, so we also built in concentrated FUN, too.  You gotta play!

Especially when there is such a nice sunset.....

My daughter has developed a true appreciation of nature.

We made sure that we not only worked hard, we played hard. too.  And all of our electives were teen-led.  Plus my daughter got to choose her curriculum for each of her high school courses. 

Are you curious how our days looked when my daughter was younger?  We homeschooled all the way, and here's how we did it in the elementary years.

My daughter is in college now.  She received acceptance letters from all of colleges that she applied to, with scholarship offers,...... and that could be your teen!  It really is not that hard!   I put all my best tips for high school and college into a book.  Have you seen it around yet?

Kindle or in print on Amazon 

What does your high schooler's day look like?  I really do love reading your comments.

If you would like to follow me on Pinterest, I have many high school and college posts there: 

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 Homeschooling High School Pinterest Board

Homeschooling high school yielded us so many gifts, for my daughter, for our family, and for her high school education.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

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,Twitter, Facebook 

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.

Copyright, 2017, All Rights Reserved

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 policy.


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