My son is doing BC now, and it's definitely a LOT of work. He doesn't spend 2 hours every day, but it's not unusual for him to. AB covers maybe 60% of the material in the BC class, as I understand it. We had a good situation in that my husband teaches both AB and BC calculus at a public high school, so we were able to start DS out at the BC pace with the understanding that he could drop down and do AB if it was too much for him. So I'm not sure what we'd have done otherwise. I will say that there's nothing urgent about taking BC calc as a Junior. It's certainly a perfectly reasonable plan to do AB and then take Calc 2 and 3 DE next year. So I think I'd err on that side if you have any hesitation.

I think the "most schools use the FAFSA" is a huge disclaimer here. As far as I can tell, pretty much any school that meets 100% of demonstrated need uses CSS, too, and that makes a very big difference. SavingforCollege.com is a for profit site that makes money off of 529s, isn't it?

My son did the Jacobs + Jacobs + Foerster sequence and is now doing BC Calc (he's doing it at home, but my husband teaches BC calc in a public school, so he's following the same curriculum as that). He takes the SAT next month, so we'll see, but he's doing very well on his practice tests on Khan. My husband says that the older books won't prepare them for the statistics on the SAT, but I don't think it's anything that can't be covered easily with some basic SAT prep. We're big Jacobs fans here and wouldn't change it even if it means doing a little extra test prep. Just asked DS, and he says the statistics on the SAT is pretty easy and he's had no trouble picking it up doing Khan Academy prep.

John Green has Crash Course Literature episodes for both Romeo and Juliet and Gatsby. the NEA did a "big read" on Gatsby awhile back. there's a reading guide: https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/ReaderResources-GreatGatsby.pdf ...and there's also a podcast episode. Open Yale Courses has a Wai Chee Dimock course on Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway; I had my DS listen to a couple of the Gatsby lectures.

I'm planning to do AP World History at home next year with my 9th grader. This will be my first go round with World History, but I've successfully done AP Human Geography, US History, and Art History with my oldest. Your option 2 is closest to what we did. With AP HUG I actually taught a small class of 4 kids; we met once a week for 2 hours and they did the rest at home. The others he did a lot on his own and then we spent a couple of hours a week together for each class, mostly while my youngest was at preschool. I've got a masters in English and some experience teaching college level writing (albeit a LONG time ago now), but no particular expertise in any of the subjects we did. So I think it definitely can be done with a motivated student.

We've had really good luck with Zenni for all three of the glasses-wearers in our family.

I was afraid that would be the answer.

piggybacking on this: one of the schools my son might apply to requires the math subject test specifically for homeschoolers (which I think is silly, since he'll have a math SAT score, a BC calc score, and probably 2 semesters of DE math after calculus to show them by the time he graduates, but that's another topic)....should he spend time preparing for the math 2 test specifically, given that he's doing calculus at the same time, or can we assume he'll be prepared for it already?

My DS16 just said that Jacobs "makes Algebra 2 a big waste of time." :laugh: I think he means that as high praise.

Thanks, everyone--I hear such mixed things about GAVS everywhere I ask....but I guess that's kind of how it is taking classes most anywhere, online or otherwise. We'll give it a try and hope for good luck!

oh, great--thank you!

My first two that have made it that far both used Jacobs and have done really well with what's come after. My 14 yo is just doing Jacobs Geometry now, but my oldest did geometry after and then a compressed Algebra II/Pre-calc course with Foersters, and is now doing really well in BC Calc. DH is a calc teacher at a public high school, and he's very impressed with Jacobs and says it goes well beyond what a typical Algebra course teaches these days.

Perhaps a balance between trying too hard to sell himself and being completely self-deprecating would be good, though ;). I have no idea at this point if he's even going to want to apply anywhere like Harvard--I see him more at a small LAC, really--but we'll see. It's funny; my parents were totally hands off about college stuff, and pretty much just said, "go to UGA; it's cheap and close." So I did and had a great experience. But I always wonder what my life would have been like if I'd felt like there were all these CHOICES out there.

I fear getting him to sell himself will be the biggest obstacle. It definitely doesn't come naturally to him. He doesn't have any ECs that really leap out at you on the surface, but I think there's a lot he could say to tie everything together and make for an interesting, likable, impressive narrative if he were willing to do it. He's a good writer, but not the least bit confessional. At a certain point I guess I just need to hand him a book about doing college applications, offer to proofread essays, and back away...

Another thought....my son didn't realize he was interested in physics until he started taking it. Now he's really enjoying it and is considering continuing with it past his graduation requirements next year in DE. Sounds like your daughter will have all the requirements finished junior year, so she'll have time to take more science that fits her interests and goals senior year if she wants to (which could be calculus based physics if that makes sense or something else)

thanks! Is he doing the AB together? So the whole course in one semester? My son would love to get bio out of the way in a semester, but I do worry about the time commitment.

I messed up DS16's science sequence with the end result that we have to find him a biology class to take in 12th grade. It won't work to take it DE, so we're thinking of doing it through Georgia Virtual School. Anyone have experiences with it? Particularly with doing a lab science, but really anything....I'm also looking at Spanish for my younger boys.

I guess I'm thinking more in terms of how it looks on a transcript; AB Calc/1 and 2 physics are definitely less rigorous than BC/C, but they're all still AP classes, and there's nothing shameful about "only" taking the easier one, particularly if it's in an subject you have no special interest in.

It is! Science has been a major PITA for us....I was expecting DE to take care of it, but the prerequisites and sequence at his college messed up all our plans. He's mathy but not so much science-y, too, so I'm hoping it won't be a huge problem with colleges that his science is less robust than other stuff.

okay...I went here: https://blog.prepscholar.com/whats-the-difference-between-ap-physics-1-2-and-c ...and it seems that there's a level of AP physics that's algebra based and a different level that's calculus based (which you can take after or concurrent to calc)....so it sounds to me like taking algebra based DE physics is roughly equivalent to taking AB calc instead of BC.

ugh. well, I don't know, but now you have me worried that we should have waited until next year (after calc) for my son to take physics, so he could do calculus based. But I like to worry, so that doesn't mean much ;)

hmm...I'm interested in hearing the answers. My son is taking an algebra/trig based physics DE right now. My first thought is that most public high school physics classes must not be calculus based, because most kids don't take calculus until senior year (some do, of course, but it's not the norm). wouldn't you have to take calc as a junior to take a calculus based physics senior year?

Right, I understand that, and he definitely won't be applying to every Ivy because of some misplaced value placed on "prestige." I was using Ivies more as shorthand for "impossibly selective colleges he's interested in." Right now he's still in research mode and we're putting together a list to visit this summer. We've done a couple of college visits locally so far, and I think he's still trying to figure out what he wants. He's interested in Brown (open curriculum appeals to him), maybe Harvard (I think that's mostly about Boston and maybe some misplaced value on prestige after all ;)). Definitely not Dartmouth, he says, even though his grandfather just retired from the math department there; too much Greek life, reputation for conservatism turn him off. And not MIT because he's interested in pure math but not hard sciences or engineering so much. But it's early days. Although fall will sneak up on us quicker than we want it to, I'm sure!

Just came across this thread again and thought I'd update: we did use the Pandia Press US History and supplemented fairly heavily with AP prep materials (khan academy, test prep books, practice essay questions, crash course, a guy named Adam Norris who has a website with extensive videos and other resources)....and it worked really well. He was able to do the Pandia Press mostly independently and then we'd spend a couple of hours a week together on the supplemental stuff, and he got a 4 on the exam.

I'm fairly confident that my oldest (complete with summer b-day) will be fine in college at 18; kid has an impressive work ethic and is very self-motivated. He's really pushing himself in high school, though, so I definitely wouldn't object if he wanted a gap year to take a break from hard core academics (and save some money!) My next kid? Well, we'll see ;)