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

Top Picks for Early Learning - Hands-On Preschool/K

 "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.

Early Science - Hands-On!

....my daughter's favorite things to do for preschool/K science/nature study. 

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

  Where our Homeschooling Happens

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

Oak Meadow - First Grade

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

Elementary Homeschooling - Our Favorite Hands-On 

Curriculum 

"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.

Spectrum Writing - 2nd grade

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.

Our Days Ways - A Day in the Life at BJ's Homeschool

How our days typically went during elementary, and sometimes not so typically...

Learning Sign Language is FUN! 

Stamp Collecting for Kiddos  

Learn Geography, while having fun, and practicing organizational skills, too.

Handwriting Resources



Indoor Play Activities that Help with Handwriting

1.  Small Muscle Games

2.  Teach Your Kids to Write

3.  Aids/Devices for Grasp

4.  Develop Hand Strength with Clay Fun  

5.  9 Ways to a Mature Grasp - Games and Fun!

Helping Struggling Handwriters 

4 Fun Ways to Help Struggling Handwriters

Twice Exceptional Resources

How I Homeschooled my Kiddo with ADHD, and Sensory Issues, too.

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

Homeschooling Kiddos with ADHD 

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.

Helping Struggling Readers with Reading Focus Cards

Tim's Homeschool - working with ADHD 

...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?  

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Copyright, Revised 2020, All Rights Reserved

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

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.

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 

• Oak Meadow K-3 guidebook
• Oak Meadow 1 Seconds, click here, for used OM on Amazon.
• OM 5th Grade here.

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.  

Want to stay in touch?

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Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool 2023
All rights reserved.

3 Ways to High School Credit -

Does assigning high school credit seemed daunting to you? 

 It doesn't have to be.  Really.

As homeschoolers, we look for signs of learning, and as we work with our kids, 1 on 1, we know what they are getting and what they are missing....

Assigning credit is just a way to translate what your child has accomplished into terms that the outside world can understand. 

Well, we found it to be a lot easier than we first thought.  We found that we could assign credit and still keep our homeschool style.

Below are three ways to approach high school credits, and we used all of them.  

We needed to ramp up our recordkeeping, but still kept our nurturing, homeschool flavor, .....well, most days, anyway! 

 How to Homeschool High School 

FREE PDF

includes:

3 Easy Ways to High School Credit

plus 4 Steps for Planning to Homeschool High School 

I put this into a FREE PDF called How to Homeschool High School below.  Use your email to sign in for this, and then you get to keep your own PDF!  And feel free to unsubscribe anytime!

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now 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 

Copyright, 2023  All Rights Reserved

What You Really Need to KNOW about COLLEGE - For Homeschoolers

As homeschoolers, we are already experts in planning. We have searched for and chosen curriculum each year for our kids. We have decided on which subjects to focus on and how to teach them to our kids. 

Planning for high school, with college in mind is really no different, except for one important thing.....Now your teen has their college entrance entrance requirements to fulfill.  How to find out your teen's college requirements is discussed in depth in chapter one of my book, "Researching and Getting Started".

To get a FREE download, just click here.

Click here to get yours. 

Some bloggers suggest that all we need to do is to check the college websites for their freshman entrance requirements.  

Is that right?

Actually the answer is NO.   

But it's a good start.  There are two more pieces of information that are important to have.  And they are not hard to find....

It is also important when preparing for college to:

1.  Find out if there are any special homeschool requirements for your likely colleges, and many colleges still have them, but they are not hard to deal with.

and.....

2.   Check to see what the colleges require re testing -  SAT or ACT - and also - Do they also require the writing portion of the test or not?

Both of these pieces of information are discussed in Chapter 1 of my book, in free as a download above, or click here,

Most colleges still do require the SAT or the ACT, but there are many that do not require the writing portion.

And if they don't require that writing portion, then your teen doesn't need to do it!  We did not need to do the writing portion of the SAT, and that was great news for our teen!

Tips for how to find out these important things are in my first chapter, which you can get FREE above, or here. 

This download includes: 

- how to research college websites 

- the typical requirements for different types of colleges 

- tips for finding out about homeschool requirements

- how to find out what test is required SAT or ACT, or none!

- whether the writing portion of the SAT or ACT is required or not!

Once you have this information from my FREE first chapter, 

:..then you are ready to make a 4 year plan for your high schooler.

Making an Overall High School Plan

Making an overall plan was the best way for me to keep calm about college, and carry on, so to speak.  Then I could lay out all of my teen's college entrance requirements and see how they could be completed, one year at a time.

Please click here to read about Making an Overall High School Plan.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  (Tech issue)

Thanks for stopping by!  

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, 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?

 Pinterest, G+, Twitter, Facebook 

Subscribe and get this!

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.

Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool 2017 
All Rights Reserved