Students and teachers both have a "To Do" list, but it's not very sophisticated. They can either mark that they've completed the lesson or not. So, as long as he hasn't marked it as completed, he'll still see it on the list. There are different sections on it -- Missing, No Due Date, Due Today, Tomorrow, Date. It's very basic. One thing I hate is that it doesn't let me do repeating things. Say I wanted her to start reading a book on x day and just wanted to remind her to keep reading a bit every day until the due date...can't do that. The assignment is still accessible to the student and shows up in the "Missing" section at the top. When they complete those tasks, it reports that they submitted an item late. I suppose that matters to teachers. They can attach anything to their responses. One of the main reasons we decided to use Classroom was because my daughter liked using Google docs for her work. That stuff is all integrated really nicely with Classroom. But, they can also attach files, link to URLs, etc. So, if they had an audio or video file, it would just be uploaded to Google drive first and then can be attached to the assignment. I honestly wouldn't use this for long-term planning. It's not easy to move things around or change dates. It's very basic and works very well for weekly assignments, especially because it integrates well with other Google tools and Study.com, but I can't imagine keeping track of anything more than a week's worth of assignments here. I have my full-year plans documented elsewhere.

We're using it mostly because it integrates with Study.com, all the other Google tools. I maintain a master full-year schedule in Google docs and then every week I enter her weekly schedule into Google Classroom. It's how I've worked around the frustration of not being able to easily move things around. I have a list of things I'd like to change, but it's working well for DD so we're sticking with it. Let me know if you have specific questions because I feel like we're really using it to its fullest extent now.

I know you said you wanted to make it work, but we're really happy with Derek Owens geometry. He provides a lot of scaffolding for learning how to take notes in math, provides great videos, and there is a home grading option for 1/2 off the monthly cost that has worked great for us. He provides the answers to all the homework and tests he provides. He doesn't provide the answers to the in-book assignments so I just bought the solutions guide for that too to save my sanity. We switched from AoPS to DE for this course. My daughter is 14 and in 9th, just for comparison.

I teach Spanish 2 to my 9th-grade daughter using Español Santillana--full high school curriculum too. Daily, we spend about 30-45 minutes together daily and then she spends about that much time on the worksheets or reviewing material. We have weekly quizzes, and I grade homework and quizzes. Plus, she has 1-2 25 minute conversation classes with HSA for extra conversation practice. I honestly keep feeling like we could be spending more time on it, but we are aiming for fluency. But, 100 new words each week doesn't seem quite right to me in Spanish 1.

My experience was similar to OP. I graduated high school in 1987. By senior year, all our honors classes were called AP instead, but none of them taught to the test and most students didn't take any AP tests. I didn't really study for them at all, and I took the Bio, Spanish, English, and one more that I can't remember. I think I got 1 4 and the rest 5s. I placed out of several first year classes in college, but it was exactly 0 amount more work for me than just taking the classes. Just from what I've read and heard about nowadays, that doesn't seem normal. Perhaps it wasn't normal back then either, but that was my personal experience. For my high school student, we are more interested in creating classes that interest her than ones that align with the AP tests. Neither of us plan to consider them at all.

So far the only hs level one my DD took (she's just in 9th this year) was the expository/persuasive one with an instructor she had before, and we both loved it. (She had taken the 3 essay prep classes for middle school prior and we loved 2/3 of them.. I'm finding it very dependent on the instructor. There is one who we will absolutely never use again and her patterns are as you described.) Her classes have all been more like 15 kids in the class so now I feel like I am going to keep my eyes open on class size. We couldn't figure out where some kids just seemed to disappear to in the classes occasionally either. It seems too that different classes have different requirements for peer interaction. This last class didn't require any at all. But, teaching writing is the biggest challenge for me because I manage a group of professional writers at a high tech company, and I was a serious academic so my writing expectations are just so out of sync with high school level writing. BW has been really a boost to DD to see that her writing is good compared to same age and older peers (at 13, she was by the far the youngest in the hs one this summer). She never believed me! I did a few grading experiments where I wrote down what I would give her and compared to the grade she got. It was actually a lot of help for ME as a writing instructor and to also see how differently they provided feedback.

So funny because this is the exact reason why DD loves BW classes and is happy enough with Derek Owens (we switched from AoPS to DO for geometry this year). She's very introverted and doesn't want to have to talk to teacher without having time to think about her thoughts. Other students drive her crazy too. Even on BW when some don't follow the guidelines (for example, repeatedly commenting about the content of the writing of peers when explicitly being asked not to), she gets so frustrated. I've talked her into Homeschool Spanish Academy for conversation practice, but it's the same teacher every time and just 1:1. That's about as much as she'll do!

I think I'm really late in responding but will anyway: Writing - Completed Bravewriter Expository/Persuasive essay class over the summer for 1/4 credit. We're focusing on literary essays during the year and also some other writing projects using the high school They Say, I Say book. Literature - I created an LGBT+ interdisciplinary course that will cover a full credit of English plus additional partial credits in history, science, and psychology Science - Environmental Science using Oak Meadow + supplements Math - Algebra 2 using AoPS Geography - Oak Meadow + some Global Village Spanish 2 - I'm teaching using Español Santillana and Homeschool Spanish Academy for ongoing conversation practice Health - Completing OM Health that we started over the summer Electives - chorus, 2 dance classes, 1 aerial dance class, private lessons, outdoor program Plus, she'll continuing performing with her circus troupe and TA for 4 aerial classes (kids through adults)

Those 1-year programs I mentioned are designed specifically for people like your DD. I would really look into SANCA and Aloft. I've heard good things about both. However, I do know one graduate of Aloft, and she's not as advanced as I would have expected coming out of that program. (Oh I just looked at Aloft again and it looks like they've changed to a 2-year program so it's probably changed a fair bit since the person we knew went there several years ago.) I wish the Space in Atlanta offered a pre-professional program because they have an incredibly talented coaching staff. DD did the aerial conference there in April and learned so much. These really are great pathways, and, like I said, if my DD doesn't get into one of the 3+ year programs I will probably send her to one of them or just to Atlanta or NECCA to train intensively before applying again. I know how risky it is to think about not sending your capable, smart kid to college! It's still freaking me out fairly regularly! I'm also being realistic and keeping her in a rigorous high school experience in case she changes her mind. But, if nothing else, a gap period of 1-2 years of experimenting with circus could be a great thing.

Do you have any direct experience with the current contemporary circus industry to be able to make that judgement? My daughter is highly gifted 2e student who also happens to be a talented aerialist (among other circus skills). She's already a member of a professional circus troupe, and it's definitely a viable career path with many different opportunities. She could likely get into a competitive college, but it's not her dream. There is certainly a considerable amount of discussion these days about whether college is really the best choice for some kids, and, besides, kids can go to college whenever they want.

Yes, that's one of the ones I mentioned. It's one of the ones at the top of my DD's list (who is also a circus kid). It's just about to enter its second year so they haven't yet graduated a group of folks yet (it's a 3-year program), but I am very excited to see where it goes. She got to visit the new building last year before it opened and really loved the location.

So far we only have 2 on the list because international is probably not her top choice, but we're looking into options in Spain too because our favorite aerial rope person is based there. Ecole Nationale in Canada, but that's a far stretch. In the UK, this program has a great reputation and we follow several aerialists who teach and train here: https://www.nationalcircus.org.uk/education/foundation-degree

Oh, I'm so sorry she's still struggling! I haven't been online much lately. But, you know, there are actually a lot of pre-professional circus programs in the US. We just don't have a lot of professional and no degree programs. I know you said that you don't think she has the skills, experience, and connections yet. But, it's not just Ecole Nationale, Circadium, NECCA, etc. that offer programs. Look into Aloft, SANCA (Seattle), and others. Many of those programs are just 1 year rather than 3, and would be a perfect gap year opportunity. If my daughter doesn't get into one of the 3-year or international programs, we will absolutely be considering one of these options. It's a fabulous way to build up skills, conditioning, and networking.

At this point I wouldn't worry about how he's going to use those skills long term. Rather, I'd load him up with more complex strategy games because are SO MANY amazingly complicated strategic board games out there. I would just search boardgamegeek for themes he might like, and checking the complexity/difficulty of them and going from there. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/161226/builders-antiquity shows it at about a 1.9 rating which is lightweight for adults (max is 5), but definitely great aptitude at his age. But, there are just tons of excellent games from there on up. There are a couple of gameschooling groups on FB and also a bunch of groups for adults that give good suggestions for what games to try next. My own personal level of comfort maxes out around 3.5, but DH's favorite game is over 4.5, and he's definitely the type who likes to figure out all the strategy in a game. Our family owns and plays an extraordinary number of board games, but they're fabulous learning tools, especially if he's enjoying them that much. Seriously, don't dismiss how much you can learn from board games!

You totally saved me a lot of typing! We have to do yearly testing in our state, and it's never enlightening or useful. Just a checkbox.

I love reading about everyone’s accomplishments. I don’t post as much as most folks (I work full time too!) but I have followed your kids for years and learned so much. Thank you! DD (13) had a remarkable year. Many of her closest friends chose to go to school this year so I worried a bit. But, it turned out to be a fantastic opportunity. She found a stronger group of friends and really came into her own. She started dating which has actually been very sweet and gentle so far. But, her social network is so rock solid and loving and she needed that. She’s also a professional aerialist and stilter in a great troupe. She’s had such diverse performance opportunities including at a TEDx Talk! She’s very well respected throughout the broader community and was the youngest allowed to participate in national training to become an instructor! She TAs for a couple of aerial classes and is a camp counselor at a couple of outdoor camps this summer. She volunteered for her 3rd year at a preschool. She’s amazing with younger kids and everyone keeps offering her positions! Huge growth in confidence with school. She is rocking AoPS on her own now. Has really solid writing skills. She’s come so far from her perfectionist years and has been more daring. She originally had a 2e diagnosis back around age 9 and I often wonder if it would still manifest in testing if we retested. I feel like all the efforts we’ve made over the years have finally started to yield benefits we had hoped. I feel like this has been one of our best years—she’s just grown so much as a person and academically. She is now planning on Circus school rather than college, and I’ve come to terms with it! College can always come later but she’s still getting the rigorous academic experience for high school! We just have more freedom to do it the way we’d prefer...

As usual, I’m nodding along with you Farrar, and I have to give a shoutout to my DD who is so incredibly perceptive about calling us out on curriculum that doesn’t make sense. We used the neuroscience one and it was ok but odd in many ways (I am ABD in neuro so I filled holes and skipped). I bought several others and DD just flat out told me she didn’t like them. She thought the fingerprint guys were sketchy. She told me that some of the info didn’t make sense with too much detail and then didn’t know why they suddenly had a craft. We never made it through another, and I just added them to the pile of failed science “curricula.” We were much happier once we just started doing our own thing instead of trying find anything that worked before high school. I’ll stop now before I say anything else.

We used the kid version in 5th or 6th so I wouldn't use it in high school.

We've used a lot of programs, and I manage a group of technology writers for a big high tech company after having been in academia...just sharing because I have a fairly strong and varied writing background. I train professional writers daily, and I still found it challenging to teach my daughter. I finally discovered why...I'm just not very patient when teaching writing, probably because I spend my days giving feedback to professionals. When she would write, she created fabulous content. Really impressive with a strong voice, etc. But, I got tired of pushing her so we signed up for 3 Bravewriter classes this year in their new series for preparing for essay writing. I can emphatically state that we'll be using at least one of their classes per semester from this point on. The teachers gave excellent, actionable feedback. DD got to see writing of her peers and finally believed me when I told her she was a strong writer. But, most of all, those teachers are SO KIND. Like, seriously, I don't know how they have the patience to respond so genuinely and thoughtfully to every kid on every assignment. DD would sometimes point out how some of the kids didn't follow instructions, and she would be slightly appalled. But, the teachers would give feedback that was directed yet gentle. It was amazing. She worked SO hard for them too--nothing like she would do for me and grew so much more confident and skilled. I do recommend trying different teachers because we really won't sign up for classes again with 1 of them. It had more to do some of the administrative side of things than her feedback, though. They're $$ and I never had great success with the Bravewriter lifestyle, but we had great success with their classes.

Their curriculum isn't quite what you're looking for, but OM English 8 includes these novels. Just mentioning because some of the books or authors are on your potential list. It wasn't a good fit for us so we stopped, but lots of folks seem to like it. Giver Hitchhiker's Guide The Hobbit Lord of the Flies Wrinkle in Time Call of the Wild Tom Sawyer

Thanks!

Your blog post made me cry! I'm clearly still adjusting, but it was so, so right. DD has blossomed into this amazing young woman, and I'm just kinda sad that she only has 4 more years at home now!

I just purchased a few of their curriculum-only courses. I've been through one of them in great detail, and I'm not very impressed. The reading list for one was not as good as the one I had already gathered, and I bought two different literature classes -- diversity and LBGT. (I haven't gone through the diversity one in detail yet). The questions and activity ideas are basically the same and not specific to the topic. They basically are just a booklist with recommendations of how many books and activities to do per book. I was really hoping for some interesting book pairing recommendations with some deeply guided questions, but that's not what I got. They're very much the typical general lit style questions that I don't like. I guess they're probably fine if you want to get a reading list started and are happy using more generalized questions. I really want to support them because I love the topics they cover, but I know they're not going to work as written for us. I also got the Coming of Age course, and that use two specific books with what seem to be more guided questions. I've ordered the books but haven't had time to go through the questions to see if they're up to my standards yet. Finally, I got the Cultural Geography, but I'm going to just pick and choose from it because I'm combining it with Oak Meadow.

I can't see anyone's signatures... is there a setting on my side I have to tweak? I'm signed in on my Mac.

OK, you're the coolest. What a fabulous opportunity! Where all have you guys gone?? China's a big one!