DS schedule for 10th grade (APUSHistory with PA homeschoolers &NCFCA?)..

[Leonor]

I am debating whether my ds15 should take APUS history with PAHomeschoolers next year for 10th or wait until 11th.He will be competing in NCFCA speech and LDvalue debate. These are the courses he will be taking:

Finishing FLVS Spanish 1 (he started in April)

GB2 with Oxford Tutorials

Latin 1 with Oxford Tutorials

NCFCA Apologetics with The Potter School

Finishing Apologia Biology and going into Chemistry

VideoTExt Algebra/Geometry

Constitutional Law(HSLDA- Fall semester)He loves history(possibly to major in)If we wait on APUS then he will continue w/the Teaching Co. courses, Spielvogel and TOG. Then, I am concerned about 11th being to heavy w/SAT testing, etc. Kim Anderson(Countdown to College) recommends 11th spring semester and 12th fall to be their lightest b/c of testing, applying to college and scholarships? What to do? Help!:bigear: I'm all ears, please post.

Thanks,

Maury

[Gwen in VA]

I don't know what you have planned for junior year, but I have never ever heard that junior year should be the lightest load because of all the testing. In fact, I have always heard that junior year should be the hardest!

 

Junior year is the last year that the college admissions folks will see the entirity of -- they will see which AP courses were taken, what the final grades were, and what the AP scores were.

 

Between college applications and scholarship stuff and senioritis, it's hard to do a really challenging course load senior year. (One of my older two did three AP's and one did two, but they only took five classes total so they had a bit more time for the college stuff.)

 

My two older kids were out of their minds by the end of junior year -- they both took 6 online classes, three of which were AP. But after talking with parents of other kids who are applying to competitive schools, I realized that that seems to be the norm. Junior year is just plain stressful! (I have talked with parents whose kids took four and five AP's.....)

 

If your child is interested in taking APUSH during sophomore year, I would go for it, but I would make sure that --

 

1) Your child is mature enough for the course. You want him to do well on the AP exam, and some kids benefit from the extra year of maturity and writing development. If you think he is academically and emotionally ready for an intense class, do it!

 

2) Your child doesn't intend to lighten up junior year. From everybody I've talked with and from my own experience, junior year is the most rigorous. Colleges might look oddly at a lighter load junior year than sophomore year; they might take it as a reflection that the student overloaded sophomore year and really can't handle an overly challenging course load.

 

(Many kids take a SLIGHTLY lighter load senior year just because of all the application stuff, but the admissions folks stress that they expect to see a rigorous course load senior year as well.)

[Leonor]

Thanks for your reply.

Maury