My Favorite High School Curriculum & Resources - and some for College, too!




How to homeschool high school and also help them get into college, if desired.  Tutorials on how to homeschool your teen.  #homeschoolhighschool #planninghighschool


Is homeschooling high school hard?  

Yes, in some ways, it is. Just because it involves more planning and record keeping, and such. 

Are you thinking about homeschooling all the way through high school, or are already doing that?   

Sharing today, my favorite resources for high school ----that really helped us to not only get high school done, but also find the fun and joy in it all.   


But with the right resources and tips, it doesn't have to be that hard. And we are so glad that we went all the way.  It gave our teen time to figure out who she was, and to discover her own gifts. 

Are you looking for high school planning help?


Our Favorites for US History and how we made it 
into our own course, with a few frugal resources.



This now includes a high school helps freebie!  




Our Homemade Course in Video-Making
Lots of fun and easy to put together.





Lots of ideas for bird watching activities for teens, and how to make them into a high school elective, if you like.






How my kiddo found that she wanted to become a leader, including lots of leadership activity ideas for yours.





 Favorite living lit curriculum is Oak Meadow, and here is how it helped my daughter to develop strong essay writing skills, and dive deep into literature.



-and goal setting tips, too.





Homeschooling high school is so much more than just core studies....with resources for finding a homeschool prom for your teen.


 Preparing my heart for Graduation and then all the fun of watching her take on college the next year...Folks, it only gets better, seeing how your child has benefitted from homeschooling, in their lives.




















 Here's how we celebrated, with lots of ideas for your teen... and links and resources to find events in your state.

COLLEGE
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Homeschooling prepares our kids so well for college.  

 They go in knowing how to research, organize their studies and with a motivation that many other college students lack. This is based  on my own teen's experiences, and her observations on campus.  
  
I was nervous as she entered college, then she came back to me with honors grades.  Why did I worry so?  We really don't need to!  And colleges are becoming so homeschool friendly, too. 




My always homeschooled daughter was accepted to all of the colleges on her list, with scholarship offers.  And it wasn't hard to do. We were able to keep own homeschooling style along the way. 




Going from Homeschool to College - This is Our Story








It lays out 10 easy steps for homeschool to college, with 7 NEW chapters. Recommended by Lessa Scherrer, a certified college counselor and a homeschooling mama of 3.

Create your own unique and nurturing high school program for your teen and showcase their accomplishments to the colleges. 

The 17 Chapters include:

>Chapter 1 - How to Start Homeschooling if you are a Newbie
>Chapter 2 - 101 Reasons to Homeschool High School
>Chapter 3 - Researching and Getting Started
  Chapter 4 - Planning High School and Making a 4 Year Plan
>Chapter 5 - Choosing Your High School Curriculum
>Chapter 6 - Three Ways to High School Credit
>Chapter 7 - Making Your Teen's Transcripts
>Chapter 8 - 100 High School Electives
>Chapter 9 - Making Homemade Courses
>Chapter 10 - Writing a Winning College Essay
>Chapter 11 - Course Descriptions and Reference Letters
>Chapter 12 - The Common Application - Your GUIDE
>Chapter 13 - Preparing Your Teen for College Writing
>Chapter 14 - Dealing with College Testing SAT/ACT
>Chapter 15 - Top Sources for College Scholarships
>Chapter 16 - Dealing with “Those Questions” from Others
>Chapter 17 - Don’t Forget the FUN!



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 @ BJ's Homeschool, 2018
Revised 2020
 All Rights Reserved
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Elementary Homeschooling Resources


Frugal homeschool curriculum resources for homeschooling preschool/K, and the wondrous elementary years.  


Sharing today, my favorite resources for preschool/k, elementary, and more, and how we used them with our own daughter.  

I hope this is a help for those of you who are looking around for new ideas and resources for your kids.  Let's start with hands-on learning resources that we loved for preschool/K:


PRESCHOOL and KINDERGARTEN


 "Here's what we did for those precious early years, and how we had fun doing it, with curriculum ideas and more..." 




 Preschool/K - Early Language Arts...including phonics, reading and pre-handwriting



  Preschool/K - Early Math... hands-on learning fun.



....my daughter's favorite things to do for preschool/K science/nature study. 
second page for birthday book for betsy's review

Encouraging your Littlest Author - It all starts with art, painting or drawing a picture, then adding words to the page.  Helping very young ones express themselves in writing, or copywork.



 Our Favorite Books about Birdwatching - PreK - Elementary


FOR the ELEMENTARY YEARS  

- Favorites for Elementary
-Handwriting Helps 
- Tips for ADHD, and Sensory Issues

1.  Elementary Resources

Best Amazon Finds for Hands-On Learning






Learn to Read/Improve Reading with Explode the Code




The Art of Simple Book Making - Your Child is an Author
How to encourage story telling in your young child.

Elementary Science in our Homeschool 
 Child-Led and Hands-On 

  Nature/science studies for your kids, on a variety of topics, including animals, earth, plants, rocks and fossils, habitats, etc, with easy to do experiments that teach STEM.


Helping Your Kiddos with Friendship (This was written for kids with Aspergers)




Birdwatching - Nature Study 

 This post is all about birdwatching, with photos of birds in our area, and  resources to help you incorporate STEM into your day...


Our Favorites for US History




Science FUN in the Garden - Let's grow some veggies! with Printables




 A complete curriculum, that is creative and full of hands on activities, with lots of art, and resources for every subject.

Oak Meadow Review - Complete Fifth Grade Package www.thecurriculumchoice.com



"Oak Meadow strives to reach the child...head, hands and heart, with it's creative, project-oriented approach, similar to charlotte mason in many ways"





How we did Spelling in our Homeschool - including tips for 
struggling spellers.





Lions, Tigers, and Testing, Oh, My! - There are so many ways to approach testing for your child.  Here is how we struggled with it.  Our state required annual testing.


 My main focus for writing, during the early elementary years was to help my daughter become comfortable with the written word.  This simple series was a big help.








Twice Exceptional Resources



 Here is how we went about homeschooling her during the early years.  (She is in college now, be encouraged.)

Tips for working with kids with ADHD, including setting up your day, direction following for your kiddo, and sensory activities to help with it all.
reading c ards




...sharing our curricula choices for our nephew, PreK/first grade, with gifted, 2e (ADHD)

What else would you add to this list? 



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. 


Want to stay in touch?  
This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.
Copyright, Revised 2020, All Rights Reserved
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Homeschool Elementary with Oak Meadow Curriculum - 2e Style



Our favorite homeschool elementary curriculum for gifted/2e.  It focuses on the heart, head, and hands with an innovative hands-on educational approach. This post may include affiliate links to 
products that we love and have used or would use in our  own homeschool. Please see my disclosure policy.



When my daughter was a young one, she was all about exploring... Making things, asking lots of questions, wondering "why's" and eager to learn new things.

Sometimes she would take her World Book encyclopedia to bed with her for hours and read about penguins, the life cycle of frogs or rats, her first essay topic ever, lol.

So when we were looking for a homeschool elementary curriculum, I wanted something that would nurture her explorative spirit. We found that in Oak Meadow, a project-based, creative hands-on homeschool curriculum for preK - 12.

Elementary Oak Meadow Homeschool curriculum is a project based, hands-on program that was ideal for my active child.  It includes early academics with a focus on art and handwork, too.

Have you heard of them? We started using it in 5th grade, then continued with it through high school for some subjects.


Oak Meadow Homeschool Curriculum Philosophy



Oak Meadow (OM) strives to meet the child where she is: head, hands, and heart.  

It still follows rigorous academic standards and is also developmentally based.

I loved its gentle, yet complete approach to academics as well as it's efforts to make it interesting to the fifth grader's experience.

Oak Meadow is very adaptable, and all the planning is done for you. You can make it as structured as you want or as relaxed as you desire.  We did both.

No need to do the research to find the science experiment, project or book that your student needs.

It is all put together for you in weekly suggested lesson plans.  That saved me a lot of time with preparations. Yet we could adapt them or change them up as much as we wanted to.

Oak Meadow Publications was originally developed by Lawrence Williams, EdD, who had an extensive educational background, including training as a Waldorf teacher.

It is like Waldorf in it's gentle approach and  focus on hands-on, creative learning.

However, it is NOT strictly Waldorf at all, and has NO connection to Steiner theosophy.  It is secular in it's approach.

Oak Meadow has been revised many times over the years, to stay current and is aligned to state standards. 

It incorporates art and hand arts, like knitting, weaving, etc into it's lessons with it's project-based learning approach, along with projects for English history, geography and science.

Oak Meadow offers curricula for preK through high school.  I picked 5th grade today, to give you an idea of what they do for elementary.

Oak Meadow 5


Oak Meadow 5 includes social studies, English, science and math.  This program can be purchased all together as a package, or bought separately.  The English and social studies was integrated into one course for 5th grade, all in one book.

OM comes with easy-to-follow instructions with hands-on learning throughout each subject.

What is included in Oak Meadow Fifth Grade?
  1. US History/English 5 syllabus  - with 9 literature books to go along with both
  2. Science 5 - with an Environmental Science focus
  3. Math 5 - which is quite similar to Saxon Math.
  4. Oak Meadow Teacher's Manual for reference
  5. Optional art and crafts supply kit or list of what to get

How We Used OM 5 in our Homeschool


The 5th grade history lessons covered U S History.  My daughter loved these lessons, full of information written to the child, including things that she cared about...like how the children might have lived at that time in history, etc.  

I especially liked how the history lessons were combined with English, including related literature that coordinated with the history lessons.

This program was flexible and easy to use.  Planning was easy, as all the projects were laid out and well explained.  My daughter just chose the project that she wanted to do.  

So it really cut down on my planning time.  

Crafts and Executive Functioning


This curriculum is not a Waldorf curriculum per se, but it has is routed in solid child development and uses crafts and hand arts during the elementary years, as Waldorf schools do.  

The hands arts are used every year in Oak Meadow, just like they are in Waldorf schools.

Hand Arts - Many children learn so much from doing hand arts, eg, knitting, sewing, weaving, etc.  It can help to develop not only fine motor skills but also attention span, attention to detail, etc.

This curriculum does a good job of building up writing skills.  We continued using Oak Meadow for social studies and English from then on, all the way through high school.  




Click here to read more about Oak Meadow 5 in my detailed review.  We did not use Oak Meadow in the early years, but they do offer a nice 1st grade curriculum, which is discussed below.


Oak Meadow 1



P1250616
Oak Meadow Homeschool Curriculum begins in the early years, with even a preschool curriculum. 

I love how OM 1 is hands-on yet still presented all the early academics, but in a fun and approachable way.  And it was not hard to teach.

Each week was laid out in easy to follow and adaptable lesson plans.  

I was delighted when I found Oak Meadow – First Grade – full of hands on activities, beautiful art, and lots of resources for her early learning. 

I love how it is so rich in art....and crafts, too.This approach gives a child a nice, gentle introduction to elementary academics.  

But the early science in OM was so lovely and full of innovative projects to do. The Oak Meadow First Grade curriculum consists of the teacher's manual, easy to follow lesson plans and the core curriculum, hands-on, all rolled into one!  

Above are some of the books that were included in their lessons.  (They could be from the library, instead of purchasing from Oak Meadow.)

Early Math....made use of little gnomes to introduce addition, subtraction, etc, as a way to make it more hands-on for young kids.


DSCN7007


I also have a review of Oak Meadow 1  here.



Oak Meadow 1 Review (Covers have been updated)


Oak Meadow K 


Many would consider Oak Meadow K Homeschool Curriculum as more aligned to preschool learning, but it is very creative and unusual in it's approach to learning the alphabet and early math, so I think it is worth looking at. It may be a good fit for some preschoolers.


Note - Oak Meadow also offers used curriculum under Oak Meadow Seconds for 

The Oak Meadow Families Facebook Group also includes used curricula sales plus connections with other OM families.

Or send me a message at BJ's Homeschool.  I love talking about Oak Meadow.  

We continued to use it in middle and high school for English and Social Studies. It is a college prep homeschool curriculum in the high school years.

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.

What would you add to this list?   I love reading your comments.




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.  


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Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool 2023
All rights reserved.






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