4 Steps for Planning Your High School at Home -

Summary: Planning to homeschool high school is not that hard if you know these 4 key homeschool high school planning steps.  #homeschoolhighschool #highschool #homeschoolplanning #transcripts #highschoolcredit #homeschoolcredit #homeschoolhighschoolcurriculum 

Are you homeschooling high school or thinking about doing that next year?  

I am glad that we continued all the way, as it was the best fit for my 2e daughter.  Planning for it ahead of time, well, just a bit ahead of time, lol, made all the difference for us.  

Looking back, I gathered together my resources for planning, including those for assigning high school credits, choosing curricula, making transcripts and finding high school electives for your teen. 

 Credits, Curriculum, Transcripts and High School Electives.

You know, like the saying goes...Lions, Tigers and Bears.......That's what they sounded like to me when we began thinking about homeschooling high school.  But really, if you have these 4 tools then you have all that is needed to basically plan out your homeschool for high school level.

I am pleased with our choice to continue homeschooling through high school, as it gave our daughter the chance to really explore her interests, delve deeply into topics of high interest, while preparing for college without having to deal with public school classes that would not have met her individual needs.

First of all, let's talk about high school credits....

1.  Assigning High School Credit

3 Ways to High School Credit

We found that assigning high school credit was not hard to do.  

There are three methods commonly used, including............
- the textbook method
- the hours method
- the mastery method

This article explains each of these approaches and all of the work that your teen does counts.  

This includes courses that you make yourself, volunteer and paid work hours, internships, time spent reading, etc.  And dual credit courses count as 1 year of high school credit for each quarter of college credit completed.  We did a lot of different kinds of learning, and all of it counted.  

Secondly, let's talk curricula.....

2.  Curriculum Search Resources

For any new searching. my daughter was a big part of this process.  Together, we searched the internet, our favorite blogs and homeschool catalogs, and talked with our homeschooling friends, to find new ideas.  Here are my favorite search tools for curricula:

-a.  CURRICULUM DIRECTORY at Let's Homeschool High School

This curriculum directory for high school is the most complete one I have ever seen!  And it includes TONS of links, too!   Ths includes both secular and some faith based choices.  We preferred secular, but modified a few faith based choices, like SOS, because it's quality was so high, imho.

-b.   THE CURRICULUM CHOICE

This site is full of curriculum reviews, written by a team of authors who have used the curriculum, at home with their families.  There are reviews of curriculum such as Tapestry of Grace, IEW for literature and writing, Oak Meadow, a number of Charlotte Mason options, and tons and tons of many more reviews, too.  I write curriculum reviews there, on my faovrite curricula.  To reach any of them, just click here and search "by Betsy".

Next, what exactly are high school core studies when it comes to homeschoolers?

3.  High School Core Studies and Electives

Core studies are, of course just the basic high school courses, in math, English, social studies, and science.  But as homeschoolers, most state homeschool laws give you, the parent, your choices for your teen's core studies.  This is most often up to the individual homeschool family.  

Most states do not list what is required for a homeschool diploma. If you are unsure of this, check with your local homeschool organization.  We just followed our prospective college's freshman entrance requirements for our core studies in high school.

But before we ordered anything, we spent time talking about my teen's special interests. These influenced our choices for core studies and also became her high school electives.

High School Electives

At a video competition

My own daughter wanted to learn about film making, and also had an interest in political science.  So we did some video making that one of her homemade electives. 

Here's a list of 100 high school electives and activities for high school, with links, etc, for you to browse if you like.  Some of my best memories with my teen happened during her elective and high school activities.

Now that we finished talking about curriculum, core studies and electives, let's talk transcripts...

4.  Making your Teen's High School Transcripts

Compiling our homeschool transcript was really not hard to do.  All of the details involved are listed in this link above.

High school was my favorite time to homeschool.  Really.  Watching my daughter  blossom and grow during the teen years... Well, that was priceless.  Yes, the days are long, and were long, but the years, they are short.  My "baby" is graduating college this spring, what can I say?  

Homeschooling did prepare her very well for college.   

Have you seen my High School Guide for homeschoolers yet? 

Homeschooling High School with College in Mind
 2nd Edition 

Amazon

It lays out 10 easy steps for homeschool to college, and covers everything you need to help your teen get into the college of their choice, 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!

>There are 12 downloadable high school homeschool planning printables plus a transcript form for you to just fill in.

The kind of transcript form that the colleges are used to seeing.

For more info: Homeschooling High School with 

College in Mind - 2nd Edition

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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Just encouragement for your homeschool in your inbox.

Copyright, 2022 Revised, All Rights Reserved

Skipping Public School.....all the way to College -

How we got started homeschooling our gifted twice exceptional child, with tips for researching state homeschool laws, finding support groups and more.  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.

We started out homeschooling when my daughter was 4.  She was so ready for kindergarten, but was too young.  In fact, we would have had to wait 2 more years for her to be at the right age to start K, with her late birthday.

So we took the plunge early.

This article has moved.  To reach Skipping Public School All the Way to College (How We Started Homeschooling) click here.

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, high school & college, gifted/2e and wrote - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.   She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

Want to stay in touch?

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Click here to get yours!

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.
Copyright, 2018, All Rights Reserved


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Skipping the Public School Route...all the way to College -

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.

Our topic this month is on transitioning from public school to homeschooling.  Well, as a homeschooling family who just started out on the homeschooling route, we actually don't have any experience in making that big change from public school to schooling at home.

Unless you count preschool co-op.

We started out homeschooling when my daughter was 4.  She was so ready for kindergarten, but was too young.  In fact, we would have had to wait 2 more years for her to be at the right age to start K, with her late birthday.

So we took the plunge early.

This post has moved.  To reach Skipping the Public School Route click here.


This post is a part of the Gifted Homeschool Forum's blog hop.  To reach all the other great posts on this topic, please click here.

More on College:

If you are looking for some tips on college from a homeschool perspective, or homeschool college prep information, feel free to click here, for more on my book - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.

It lays out everything from making your homeschool transcript, finding curricula, writing course descriptions, assigning high school credit, dealing with references as a homeschooler and much more.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college senior, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college, gifted/2e and wrote - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.   She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

Want to stay in touch?

,Pinterest, G+, Twitter, Facebook 

Click here to get yours!

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.
Copyright, 2018, All Rights Reserved


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Skipping the Public School Route...all the way to College -

How to get started homeschooling, how we did that with our 2e daughter, with tips for you re your homeschooling law and other important things to consider when beginning your homeschool journey.  How ours got into college as a homeschooler is mentioned, too.  #2e #homeschoolgifted 

Are you new to homeschooling?

We found that learning about other families homeschool journeys helped us get started on ours.

I read about homeschooling, talked with my friends who were doing it, got ideas for curriculum from them.....

This article has moved.  To reach Skipping the Public School Route...all the way to College (And How To Get Started Homeschooling click here.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college senior, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college, gifted/2e and wrote - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.   She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

Want to stay in touch?

,Pinterest, G+, Twitter, Facebook 

Click here to get yours!

This post was shared on my favorite linkups here.
Copyright, 2018, All Rights Reserved

A Bus Ride in China -

Welcome!  We are glad that you are here!  If you like follow me on Pinterest, G+, Twitter, Facebook and Subscribe to BJ's Homeschool.

Summary:  Our adoption story and how we found out our daughter was gifted and twice exceptional, how we began homeschooling and figured out her to deal with her special needs.  This is part of the Gifted Homeschooler Forum's blog hop. Today I am joining our GHF blog hop to share more about our journey and how we found out that our daughter was gifted and twice exceptional.

We found out early that our daughter was gifted.  It happened on an exciting but long bus ride in China, just after we completed our adoption papers to bring her home.  Here we were, in a foreign country, that we had already come to love during our two years of waiting to be matched to our adopted little one.

We were all tired, well my husband and I were.  But our daughter was awake and eager to see everything out of the bus window, while all the other recently adopted babies were busy crying and carrying on.

To be expected.  But not our daughter........

This post has moved.  To read about how we found out that our daughter was gifted/2e, please click the new link below:

A Bus Ride in China - How We Found Out that Our Daughter Was 2e

This is part of our GHF blog hop on How You First Learned Your Child was Gifted here.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled from the early years 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,  and has had her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

Want to stay in touch?

 Pinterest, G+, Twitter, Facebook 

Subscribe and get the first chapter of my book on high school & college.

Copyright, 2018, All Rights Reserved

From a Bus Ride in China to Graduating College -

Summary:  Today I am joining our GHF blog hop to share more about our journey and how we found out that our daughter was gifted and twice exceptional.

Well, that was more than a few years ago....

This post has moved.  I invite you to click here to reach this article.

Thank you,

Betsy

A Bus Ride in China - How We Found Out Our Daughter was 2e.

Summary:  Our adoption story and how we found out our daughter was gifted and twice exceptional. We began homeschooling when she was 4, which helped to deal with her special needs.  This is part of the Gifted Homeschooler Forum's blog hop. Today I am joining our GHF blog hop to share more about our journey and how we found out that our daughter was gifted and twice exceptional.

Finding out our daughter was gifted and twice exceptional.  Well, that was more than a few years ago....

Our "kiddo" is almost ready to graduate college, and is excitedly looking for her first after-college job, hopefully in her field of study, Communications.

And who is struggling with an adjustment reactionn to adulthood?  Well, that would be me!  My daughter's biggest worry is whether a new apartment will allow for her pet cat.

We are proud of her and learning to let go.....but that is for another post.

So when did we first notice that our daughter was gifted and twice exceptional?

Our First Sign of Giftedness - Intensity and Intelligence

It was clear that our daughter was very intelligent early on but did not know that she was gifted until later.  But there was a light bulb moment actually...... when we adopted our daughter as an infant.  

We were in China, having just received our 11 month old from her orphanage, and were going on a long bus ride, from one government office to another.  That was as part of completing the adoption.

Well, most of the other babies were crying as you would expect.  New parents to deal with, and on a bumpy bus ride.  What was our baby doing?

She was starring at everything that went by our bus window.  And she was mesmerized.

For hours.  It was a long bus ride!  We had to tear her away from that bus window when we arrived at our destination.  She would not miss a thing!

That was our first clue to her intelligence.

As a toddler, she was the same way, always aware of what was going on, and extremely curious.  It was hard to change her as she was always wanting to stand up to look out the window.

Early on we got her a simple electronic communication board, kind of a game.  She would push the picture of a glass of milk, for example, when she was thirsty.  The board had pictures of all the usual things a toddler would request.

She mastered this quickly and became very adept at asking for what she wanted, by pushing the appropriate button.  Friends would tell us she was precocious.

When she was a preschooler, we started doing some preschool type activities at home.

Too Young for Kindergarten

Since she was too young for K and already doing first grade work, and I was an early childhood ed. person, we just started homeschooling.

Our kiddo had a voracious appetite for learning and was so full of questions, that I dropped into bed, exhausted at the end of the day.  (Bath therapy was needed...for me!  Really.)

Then we noticed that she liked to take the encyclopedia to bed with her a read at night.  As she progressed in academics, we saw that she had almost a photographic memory.  She also hated to be interrupted, big time.  We thought that was interesting......

Early Sensory Issues

We did notice sensory issues early on.  When we used the vacuum, she was almost traumatized,  but hugs and lots of snuggling helped her.  She hated loud noises for years.

Our daughter also loved to spin in her dad's desk chair, hated any tight-ish clothing, and was a very fussy eater.  Very, very.  We got her sweat pants, simple tee shirts, and cut the labels out of them.  And as far as her diet, we found many different ways to serve her soft textures, which were the ones that she enjoyed.  And would eat.

Rice, beans and rice, macaroni and cheese, noddle dishes, repeat.

Since I had a background in OT, we just worked to adapt things for her as best we could.  We bought a big exercise ball for her to bounce on, and a spinner from a local consignment store, that she used for years.  Oh, she just loved that spinner.

Difficulty with Verbal Directions 

Our daughter was always on the move, climbing over the couch in as many ways as possible, so much so that we needed a new one soon!  She also loved doing somersaults, jumping, rolling, and

seeking out lots of sensory input.                                 

Then as our homeschooling progressed, we noticed that our daughter struggled with verbal directions.

If I gave her simple verbal directions, she often missed most of it, even short ones.  So I would write down the directions, or ask her to repeat them.  Writing things down, giving her time to repeat any verbal directions really helped her.  This may have been a sign of ADHD.

Since we were homeschooling, we could just accommodate to her needs on this.  And we used a lot of written curricula, avoiding videos and such until she was older.  That worked out quite well.

By this time we knew our child was very intelligent, had sensory processing issues and probably some ADHD behaviors.  But we didn't realized that she was gifted/2e...yet.

Fitting the Pieces Together - Gifted/2e

Being an only child and never having been in a school setting, we did not really know where she was, related to intelligence, etc, as we didn't have anyone to compare her with.  The thought of her being gifted or 2e really hadn't come into our vocabulary...

Then when she was 10, she was in a part time public school class.  It was a hands-on lab science class.  Her teacher was impressed with her vocabulary and the quality of her questions that were asked during discussions.  She noticed that she was way ahead of her peers and also how adventurous she was.  Our kid was the first to volunteer to hold a cow's heart specimen.  Very intense, very interested.

When she said that she might be gifted, things began to fit together.  And her ADHD behaviors and sensory processing issues, made her twice exceptional.  She was always exceptional in our eyes..

College 

Now, as a young adult her sensory needs are met, by her.  Our daughter's exceptionalities and intensities have either subsided, or have become well modulated.  And she adjusted well to college classes, except that she did not prefer writing an essay on an un-interesting topic.

A fall out of homeschooling, lol!

Now she is intensely interested in things related to her major, plus out exploring her interests in dance, and local politics.  And she has a serious boyfriend, who I suspect is also gifted.  So lovely to see her young adult life coming together.

Those long days of exhaustion as a parent, with incessant questions and all...have yielded a delightfully intense motivated young adult.
 

She walked for her college graduation this last spring and is now working at her first job, doing Communications work for a small music company.

Can you believe I miss those spinning, summersault days?  I do!

Have you seen my guide to college for homeschoolers yet ?

It is called Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd edition.

This is part of our GHF blog hop on How You First Learned Your Child was Gifted here.

Betsy is a retired O.T. and mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled 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 homeschool help at BJ's Consulting,  and has had her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

Want to stay in touch?

 Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook 

Copyright, 2018, All Rights Reserved