Homeschooling High School - How To's and More

 

Are you homeschooling a teen, or thinking about homeschooling 

high school? Or already doing that?

Does that give you pause?  They did for me, until I found out that homeschooling high school was really not that hard to do.

This step-by- step book can help guide you as you homeschool your precious teens, your way.

It is an easy-to-read guide for homeschooling your teen including:

• choosing your high school curriculum
• homeschool transcripts step by step guide
• assigning high school credits
• making your 3 or 4 year high school plan
• creating your own homemade courses the easy way
• where are the best scholarships?
• choosing high school electives
• Common Application guide 
• reference letters for college apps
• course descriptions 
• lots more.

With 12 PLANNING PRINTABLES

The paperback and the kindle allow you to downloaded them including:

• Making a high school plan
•  Curriculum planning
• Credit recording form 
• Transcript form with step -by-step instructions
• College entrance requirements for your student, just in case they decide to go there.
• P.E. Form
•  Course descriptions recording form and more.

Kindle is on SALE at $3.49 on 

  Amazon 

This is an easy-to-read book that covers all the basics of homeschooling high school. At around 100 pages long and 17 short chapters it is not a daunting read. The author starts with reasons why you should consider homeschooling through high school and then walks you through curriculum selection, extracurriculars, transcript creation, where to find scholarships, etc.

.....by Meryl van der Merwe, homeschool mom of 3 grads

I homeschooled my teen through high school, then helped her get into each of the colleges she applied to with scholarship offers.  including a tier 1 University. 

Then I put my best tips for high school into this book. And I am honored that Lessa, a certified college counselor, wrote the introduction to my book. 

Read my ebook for FREE on Amazon Prime

My hope is that it will be an encouragement to you for record keeping and more, so that you can focus on your teen's needs and have lots of continued focus on fun family activities along the way.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is a Christian and mom to her college grad whom she homeschooled from the early years onward.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd edition.   She offers homeschool help through BJ's Consulting. 

Let's stay in touch! 

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Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool 2024

All Rights Reserved

How to Help Your Homeschooled Teen Get into College - Video by BJ's Homeschool

Summary:  Video based - 8 Tips for Getting Your Homeschooled Teen into College.  And it is not that hard to do. #homeschoolhighschool #gettingintocollege

Hi! I am Betsy from BJ's Homeschool where I blog about high school, college, and frugal resources.

Today I will be sharing 8 tips for homeschooling your college bound teen.  Many of these tips will also apply to teens who are headed to trade school or community college. 

I helped my daughter get into each of the colleges that she applied to with scholarship offers.  

 

Join with me on Getting Your Homeschooled Teen into College by clicking on the video and follow along with the step by step guide below.

To get started....let's talk about college entrance requirements.

1.  Know your prospective college's admission requirements

You will find these on the college websites.  Check at least 3 colleges in your research.  They are not all the same.  They vary from college to college.

Look for "freshman admission requirements" 

They will list the CORE COURSES required and credits required in:

•  Math
•  Science
•  English
• Social Studies
• Foreign Language
• Fine Arts
• Electives

FREE download on Getting Started with College Research

2.  Choosing Your Homeschool High School Curriculum

My favorite resources for curriculum searching:

 - CURRICULUM DIRECTORY at Let's Homeschool High School

This curriculum directory for high school is the most complete one I have seen. I invite you to check it out.

- THE CURRICULUM CHOICE

This site is full of curriculum reviews, written by a team of authors (I am happy to be one) who have actually used the curriculum.  Mostly faith based options.

Our favorites for high school curriculum, and how they helped us get the college requirements for  done are in my book.

Free PDF on High School Helps - Full of top articles on high school.

FREE PDF High School Helps 

--No email needed--

3.  Making Your Teen's Transcript

What are transcripts really?

"Transcripts are a record of the courses your child completed in high school, the credit he earned for each course, and each course's final grade. Transcripts also include personal information used for identification purposes and, usually, a grade point average (GPA)." 

From HSLDA

Transcripts include all courses and studies your student has done, in the home and out.  It is the place to compile all courses, including those from a community college or public school. 

SAMPLE HOMESCHOOL TRANSCRIPT 

Teachers Pay Teachers:

My book has a full chapter on transcripts plus an Official Transcript Form, with step by step directions, to just fill in.  It is the kind of form that the colleges are used to seeing.

4.  Do High School Electives 

Did  you know that your teen's electives can be key to getting into college?  

Colleges want to see what activities and electives your student has completed. Let's talk about:

Special interests and skills

Leadership

Perseverance

Working with others

More on high school electives and how to share them with the colleges are in my book.  Also included is my list of 100 High School Electives.

5.  Add in an additional credit or 2 in a core course to show rigor  

AP courses?

SAT Subject tests?

Dual Credit?

Another way to show rigor is:

--Adding in an extra core course or two can show rigor.-

Based on your teen's strengths and interests. 

6.  Know the # of high school credits that will be required by the colleges. 

This can vary from college to college.  It will be on the college's page on freshman admissions requirements.  Our prospective colleges asked for 24 credits.  But best to check with the college your teen is applying to.

7. Do the PSAT and Prep for SAT/ACT
 

Why do the PSAT?

SAT/ACT Prep 

Scholarships

Schedule the SAT or ACT during the junior year of high school. 

Much more on the SAT/ACT and test prep frugal resources are in my book. Including how to decide which test to use.

8. Get the College Application & FASFA in.  

The Common Application

College admission tend to be on a first come, first serve basis, so try to get your teen's college application in early, in the fall of senior year.

The FAFSA

For scholarship consideration or financial aid.  

FAFSA comes out October 1st.  Do it in senior year.

The FASFA is the application for financial aid, but it is also used for scholarship consideration by your colleges.  

And don't forget - Memory Making/Don't forget the Fun!

Getting out in nature with your teen.

Sharing your hobbies

Photography?

Handwork?

Crafts?

Sports?

Doing projects together

Video Making?

Special Routines

Tea Time?

Book Clubs?

Nature Study?

Special Events

Bird Counts?

Contests?

My book offers many more tips on homeschooling high school and getting into college. For the Homeschool Summit, the ebook is reduced to $1.99 through Thursday, January 26th.

Free to read with Amazon Prime

17 Chapters including:

• what is needed for college admissions
• homeschool transcripts
• assigning high school credits
• preparing for college writing
• make your own homemade courses
• scholarships
• my Common Application guide
• reference letters
• course descriptions
• lots more.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is a Christian and mom to her college grad whom she homeschooled from the early years onward.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd edition.   She offers homeschool help through BJ's Consulting. Follow on Pinterest or Facebook 

for more on high school and college plus frugal resources.

Copyright @ BJ's Homeschool 2023

All Rights Reserved

The Nervous Mom's Guide to College

Summary:  A step by step guide to homeschooling your college bound teen.  "homeschoolhighschool" "getintocollege" 

Are your homeschooled teens interested in college?  

Mine was and is now a college grad. 

This article has been published on the iHomeschool Network.

It is full of tips and helps for getting into college as a homeschooler. 

To reach my article on applying to college as a homeschooler, click on the link below:

Homeschool to College, It Isn't That Hard!

Be encouraged!!  My teen got into each of the colleges she applied to, with scholarship offers.

If you missed that link, here it is again.  The Nervous Mom's Guide to College is here.

Feel free to send me your questions, too.

More tips on getting into college as a homeschooler, plus how to plan your high school at home are in my frugal book below.

 Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition

Frugal Paperback and Kindle are on 

Amazon 

This book includes:

>Chapter 1 - How to Start Homeschooling if you are New to Homeschooling

>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 

>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!

The good folks at Lit Pick, a great place to find quality, faith based books for your kids and teens, were kind enough to review my book.  Click here to read that. 

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy homeschooled her now college grad from preschool through high school.  Her teen loved that she had multiple offers for college acceptance with scholarship offers.  Betsy blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about high school, college and the early years, too.  She offers homeschool help at BJ's Consulting, and loves meeting with homeschool families.  

50 Hands-On Holiday Gifts for Homeschoolers

Note - This post has affiliate links to products that we love and would use in our homeschool.  Please see my disclosure policy.

It's December and I am still working on my holiday shopping list, or you, too?  Each year, when my 2e daughter was young, we always filled our list up with hands-on fun holiday gifts for her, that were educational.

My daughter learned so much from doing hands-on projects in our homeschool, especially during the cold winter months, when it was too chilly to play outside. It was nice and cozy inside when my daughter had a fun project to do.  So we always included two or three hands-on kits or projects in our holiday gift buying for our daughter, when she was in the elementary years.

And she loved getting these gifts!  At the same time, doing hands-on projects taught her so much, and with her ADHD tendencies, we saw improved attention span, concentration, attention to task, and more.  And doing these activities or kits together made wonderful memories, too.

Here are 50 hands-on gift ideas for you, including creative arts and crafts, fabric arts, my favorite science kits, and even some construction kits for making things with wood.

Let's start with arts and crafts, which are so great for developing small muscle skills, and more.

ARTS AND CRAFTS KITS

Arts and Crafts were always big in our homeschool.  My daughter learned to hand sew early on, and loved making small sewing projects.  We also enjoyed spinning art, origami, and crafting with clay.  And anything project oriented from American Girl.  Here's some creative kits for each of these activities that I just mentioned.





Have you ever thought about teaching your kids how to knit or weave, using very simple projects? Oak Meadow Homeschool curriculum got us started with some knitting and weaving.  These projects were so fun to do together and also helped my daughter with her attention issues and concentration skills.

HAND ARTS  - KNITTING & WEAVING



Each year, in the elementary years, we spent Thursday mornings working on a hand arts projects, using VERY small, VERY easy projects.

Now that we have touched on Arts and Crafts and Fiber Arts, let's turn to hands-on science FUN with science kits...

SCIENCE KITS

Do your kids like to do science hands-on?  For science in the elementary years, we mostly focused on simple science projects from Evan Moor, and hands-on science kits that my daughter chose herself. These make great gifts for your young scientists!

One of my favorite companies for science kits is the Magic School Bus.  Do you love using Magic School Bus for science, too?





Then, when my daughter was a middle schooler, we found some great educational science kits from Science Wiz Kits. We especially loved these.  Here is my review of one of them, if you would like more information.

And finally, I'd like to share some wonderful wooden construction kits that I found.   At our house, my daughter started out making things out of cardboard and tape, and here's one that she made of the rides that she took at our state fair.  Then she got into making things with wood.....

WOODEN CONSTRUCTION KITS 

Building with wood, what a great way to play and learn on a winter's day!  Making things with kits like these below, improved my child's direction following skills, attention to task, organizational skills and more.  And then, there was the pride of creating something by hand, and a job well done!

I hope that this gives you some helpful ideas for your own holiday gift shopping list. 

 Here are reviews for 5 more of my favorite hands-on gift ideas for your kids.  What would you add to this list?  If you share your ideas below, I am sure that other families would be interested in them.  I wish you a cozy and warm winter, with lots of hands-on learning fun with your kiddos!

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her 20 year old college student whom she homeschooled from day one.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote a new e-book for College Bound teens.  She offers free homeschool help and messages at BJ's Consulting.

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