Athena's Advanced academy- is it really advanced?

[Kathy G]

So we are trying some online courses.  After reading reviews of AAA I thought middle school chemistry might be a good course.  It has only been 2 weeks.  However, we are finding it pretty watered down.  Lots of  "fun" videos to watch- no lack of volume.  But it really doesn't seem to go in depth.  Trading cards of the elements?  Really - my kids did those in 2nd grade.  Someone please tell me this gets better.  She is yearning for real work and depth, not frills.

 

[SierraNevada]

We too found chemistry to be really watered down. Overall the classes vary. Some are advanced but also have a fair share of fluffy assingments. There is always a ton of content thrown at you--YouTube videos, other websites, it's too much, in my opinion. DS loves the actual classes, the day of discussion and teachers are wonderful. But I'd like to see a little less fluff and a little more rigor as far as assingments go. I guess they are trying to appeal to a broad base of students.

[Runningmom80]

We only did one class and it wasn't very challenging. It was SOTW 3 in half a year, so it was fast paced which was good for my 9 year old, but had he been even a year older, it would have been way too easy, instead of just easy.

 

I think the age of AAA skews young so it's tricky. I know and understand wanting something for younger gifted kids online, but it does muddy the waters for middle schoolers who are capable of more output, and more advanced thinking.

 

I don't think we'll do anymore AAA at this point, and I'll avoid it for my youngers who by the time they are mature enough to be online, will be cognitively past the info available.

[Dmmetler]

AAA tends to have a lot of extras. I've noticed that tends to be a thing for teachers who are dealing with a wide range of ages/abilities-DD is doing a biology class locally this year and that instructor is doing the same thing. Tons of Youtube videos and cutesy stuff that really doesn't add much if you can actually read and understand the book.  Actually, the online supplement to the book does the same thing.  I actually think one big benefit of it is that it gave DD the opportunity to recognize that not everything is of equal importance and to learn how to distill down to the meat and just focus on that.

 

DD started at 7, and at 7, the history and literature were about right. She needed higher level content, a chance for discussion, and minimal writing, and loved all the crafty, fun, fluffy stuff. At about age 9, it morphed more into a fun extra as an add-on, and DD has chosen to stay at Athena's for the social side of things and because she loves Suki and Kirsten, often as a teaching assistant. And she is perfectly comfortable skipping any of the extras that don't seem worth the time they'd take to do, which, now, includes a lot of the crafty fun stuff.

 

I've also noticed that when DD designs programming for our math club or her animal group, she does much the same thing-a core of important information, plus additional, fun stuff that reinforces and supports for younger or less focused students. I think she's learned a lot about teaching from Athena's Academy, which she wouldn't have learned from me because in our homeschooling, I tend to do just the core and leave the fluff out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gstharr]

Last semester, the then 5th grader did the writing class. We thought the class and material (Spilling Ink) pushed his skills.  He showed great improvement.  But, a writing class probably allows for a more individualized program than a science class would.

[Dmmetler]

The writing class is very individualized (and is limited on class size as a result). It also tends to have a slightly older group of kids taking it, and a lot of kids take it more than once. My DD is doing it now, as a matter of fact, just because she likes the community that develops and the feedback.

 

 

 

 

[Kathy G]

Did anyone find online G3 better?  She is also taking a simple history class there which seems a touch better thus far, although that might be because she can take the assignments in more depth herself.

[Dmmetler]

G3 also varies from class to class, but tends to have a slightly older audience (so more middle school kids taking classes with High school level content as opposed to elementary kids taking classes with middle school content). The classes that are "teen focus" or have prerequisites tend to be less fluffy than the entry level ones.

[Jackie]

Dmmetler (or others) - any guesses on average ages for some of the classes?

 

DD is loving her first Athena's class, and it seems to be a good fit for her. But the descriptions are sometimes so vague as to the expectations that I have no idea how to guide her on choosing classes. It doesn't help that it turns out I underestimate her nearly all the time, but I don't think anyone else can deal with that issue for me ;)

[Dmmetler]

SoTW 1/2 and Lit 5 and Mythology all seemed to be about 7-8 (Mythology does have a section for older kids-DD did the one for younger ones).

Lit 6 and SoTW 3/4 were more like 8-10

Etymology, vocab madness, writer's workshop and world geography were 9-12 or so, and the kids on the older end tended to be doing the class again as a TA or just plain repeating it (Writer's workshop, especially).

 

The History for Whovians seems to honestly mostly be middle school kids. I get the impression that most of those kids are doing it for the same reason DD is-a fun chance to discuss something they enjoy with friends and with Professor Kirsten. I get the impression that the Sociology class also may be skewing a little bit older and have a lot of the "hangers on" middle schoolers who don't quite want to leave yet, just based on the kids who have asked DD if she was taking it.

[chiguirre]

Dmmetler (or others) - any guesses on average ages for some of the classes?

 

DD is loving her first Athena's class, and it seems to be a good fit for her. But the descriptions are sometimes so vague as to the expectations that I have no idea how to guide her on choosing classes. It doesn't help that it turns out I underestimate her nearly all the time, but I don't think anyone else can deal with that issue for me ;)

I think it's mainly upper elementary students. T did classes there in 3rd through 5th grade then moved to WTMA middle school and Landry middle/high school classes in 6th.

[4KookieKids]

Can anyone tell me why you would or would not choose to do classes from AAA with a kid? I just don't know much about why you would choose to do this: Social interaction, want to outsource certain subjects, other pros? What are the cons (other than the aforementioned difficulty in finding the right "level")? How much parent interaction is helpful / needed / good? I have a kiddo who is very social and super big into  science and tech, and I don't always give him as much as he'd like due to the three younger kids, and was just thinking about if this might open up options for him.

[Dmmetler]

For us, it was to a) get DD's feet wet in outside classes and then b) for social reasons. The output tends to the light side, but that is easy to supplement. Parent Interaction varies. When DD did SOTW, I mostly did the same stuff with her that I would have done had we been doing it just at home. The class added a weekly discussion and a place to post her ideas. For lit, that was somewhat the case as well. Geography, the vocabulary/etymology, writing, and History for Whovians all have been supplements to what we are doing at home, not a core subject but one small piece of it, so they have involved little work on my part. (Having said that, I am the person who asked for ideas on how to afterschool a college class because it seemed too light to me, so maybe I'm not typical here...). I will say that I have quite enjoyed getting to be a fly on the wall for some of the discussions when DD is doing classes in the car on speakerphone.

 

It is the discussion with other kids her age who think in a similar way that has been invaluable. We never did science or math there because humanities were where DD benefitted most from the discussion, and she also really clicked with Kirsten and Suki as instructors. It also helps that when she goes to some of the summer (non-herp) stuff she does, she's run into a lot of kids who know her and she knows from AAA. The other online things she's done don't seem to encourage the social quite as much and lead to as many connections (although the AoPS WOOT and similar groups do seem to have some of the same vibe when the kids connect in person based on observations).

 

As she's gotten older, she's moved into more a leadership track-she's been a TA for a few classes and is a Junior Instructor this coming year.

Edited April 25, 2017 by dmmetler

[SeaConquest]

Can anyone tell me why you would or would not choose to do classes from AAA with a kid? I just don't know much about why you would choose to do this: Social interaction, want to outsource certain subjects, other pros? What are the cons (other than the aforementioned difficulty in finding the right "level")? How much parent interaction is helpful / needed / good? I have a kiddo who is very social and super big into science and tech, and I don't always give him as much as he'd like due to the three younger kids, and was just thinking about if this might open up options for him.

Sacha loves his Athena's classes. He likes the professors, the topics, and interacting with other kids. I've been more hands off than I probably should be; this week he read the wrong assignment for Lit, for example. But, he is learning how to take responsibility for his own work. For us, the social interaction has been awesome. He feels very connected to his classmates.

Edited April 26, 2017 by SeaConquest

[SoCal_Bear]

For us, the fit is good at 8. Actually, SeaConquest's son and mine are in the same Lit class. I've seen real progress in my son since his fall Lit class. He has grown from reluctantly contributing once to the discussion to contributing a lot. We just need to work a little on contributing thoughtfully now...not just everything that pops into your head is actually good for discussion. Actually, I was amazed this week when he summarized the reading for Sacha. Narration is something he and I have been struggling over all year. It was much better than anything he produced for me all year! I think talking to other kids his age about these sorts of things has been good for him.
 

For Chem (we were in the same class), it was enough for us this year at 8 because he loves Chemistry. I was paralleling this with the chemistry portion of K12's Physical Science course, and after I had already done Apologia's Elementary Chemistry and Physics. I don't think it would be good fit two years from now. He's doing the Periodic Table class right now during the Spring. He still loves it because he loves the subject. What has been great is he wants to do a element presentation every week that he can for the class. This has been nice for him to work on researching and putting together a short presentation. We started off with a lot of parental assistance to this past week, he did the research and typed up info in the Powerpoint slides. 

I spoke with the Wilson Hill science teachers, they have no problem with a younger students taking their middle or high school courses with the caveat of maturity to handle themselves and the material. They would caution not too young for Biology given the topics around reproduction.

ETA:

Like dmmetler, I don't use these as the "main" course. It is connected with something else I am doing at home. 

Edited April 26, 2017 by calbear

[Jackie]

Can anyone tell me why you would or would not choose to do classes from AAA with a kid? I just don't know much about why you would choose to do this: Social interaction, want to outsource certain subjects, other pros? What are the cons (other than the aforementioned difficulty in finding the right "level")? How much parent interaction is helpful / needed / good? I have a kiddo who is very social and super big into science and tech, and I don't always give him as much as he'd like due to the three younger kids, and was just thinking about if this might open up options for him.

DD is very social and, while she doesn't want to go to a "real" school because she knows it wouldn't fit her at all, she desperately wants more time with other kids. This was a way for her to get to be "in class" with other kids and she loved it? It was reasonably hands off for me - I monitored her assignments, scheduled time each day for her to work on class-related stuff, and did some editing of her writing (because it was doubling as composition for her, so I would have needed to do something like this anyway).

[eternalsummer]

In our experience, they are not rigorous but they are advanced; the kids are bright and engaged on the whole and the presentation is geared toward more depth than a standard 3rd-6th grade classroom but not necessarily more output.