The whole college finance game makes my head hurt. We sent the oldest off this year. She got offers of large scholarships at various places, but the tuition is so much larger, that even with the GI Bill in play, many just were not do-able. Her program is not offered in-state, unfortunately. That would have been the almost-free option. So, she's at a large out-of-state university, in the cheapest dorm, and it's still tough to scrape together the funds. Number two is coming up in two years. She's a National Merit contender, and we are taking test prep seriously. Not so much for the scholarship itself, which is quite small, but for the schools that offer decent aid to NM Finalists.

Waiting on AP scores for my sophomore too. She did the Chemistry and World History SAT tests, and got 740 and 750. She had planned to do the AP World History exam, and we realized in the spring that there wasn't a local test location! The high schools here apparently do some sort of rotation...AP World History one year, US History the other year. She uses the AP/SATs as a sort of validation of the "mom grades", so the SAT test worked just fine for that purpose. She used the Apologia curric for chemistry, and supplemented with a test prep book closer to exam time. She likes doing these sorts of tests, but don't think we will do any more subject tests, now that she has four on the record. Probably more APs though, since those can possibly translate into college credit.

I missed your other thread, so not sure what the original plan was. This is certainly not lacking in any way. Personally, I'd give her a full credit (0.5 per semester) for the dance, if it's 5 hours/week (and probably additional for performances/comps, I assume?) I don't think you need to apologize for the music credits! I fully believe in giving the kids credit for what they are doing, and music programs will probably want to see that on her transcript. I'm not sure that she requires two different language arts courses, but you may have addressed that in the other thread. I'd consider substituting one of those for a foreign language, so she could get four years of that. The math, science, and social studies are a solid plan.

I know you said no video teaching, but I do think Teaching Textbooks Alg 2 is a great product. Just do it from the book rather than on screen. My junior will be doing the PA Homeschoolers AP Bio. No experience with it, but it looked pretty good to me. :-)

Not Michelle, but my daughter took Derek Owen's precalc class (following Teaching Textbooks through Alg 2). It was great, and she continued with him the following year for Calc AB. She is in a university Calc 2 class right now (having just finished DO's course), and has the highest average in the class by far. DO prepared her well!

I've got one in Maya Inspektor's English Lang too! Also PA homeschoolers AP Music Theory and AP Biology

Prep can definitely be helpful for those borderline students. My oldest daughter took an SAT prep course here locally. It went over a few weeks and time was spent identifying trouble areas. Her score went up a couple hundred points, and she even got an 800 on the Verbal section.

Derek Owens Calc AB. He is wonderful, and very responsive to the students if help is needed. We used Teaching Textbooks through Alg 2, then DO for Precalc and Calc AB. Daughter has had great test scores, and seems to have moved seamlessly into a university Calc 2 course.

My 16 yo completed Calc AB this year, and is doing Calc 2 at the local university now. We did Teaching Textbooks through Algebra 2, then switched to Derek Owens for precalc. Teaching Textbooks worked very well for us, but since it stopped at precalc, I thought it would be helpful to do precalc and Calc with the same "system"/instructor.

I think it is fine. It does not go far enough for us to be able to use it all through high school, but my daughters were very successful with it for the times they did use it (through Alg 2 for both.) Ended up with great test scores. One is not doing math in college, but the other one certainly will.

I'm pretty convinced that one needs live instruction in the language. We tried all sorts of currics, but in the end tutoring, immersion, and actual classes seems to be the way to go. My rising junior has been very successful with Mandarin (first place in a statewide language declamation comp), and my college age daughter is studying Turkish and linguistics currently at her university. I could not work out the tutoring for Spanish for the ten year old this year, and she's definitely lost some ground.

Derek Owens is great! We did not do geometry through him, but did precalculus and Calc AB. Not sure how you could cheat on that one, unless he paid someone to do his work, lol

We used the dreaded Teaching Textbooks geometry. :-) My then-ninth grader got a 76 on her PSAT math score, and a 750 on her Math 2 SAT subject test score.

My current sophomore did the PA AP English Lit class this year with Ruth Green. We did Rod and Staff English throughout elementary school and into 7th grade. For 8-9th grade she did the Write at Home composition courses (high school Comp 1, then 2). She did very well in the AP course, with 100% average each semester. Don't have AP score back yet, but she felt confident.

Update: she decided to do a "Calculus 2" intensive 5 week summer course at the local university. The prof was very helpful in determining whether placement would be appropriate. It's expensive and will require being available at that specific time for the five weeks, but hopefully it will work out.

FWIW, my daughter took the SAT physics test as a freshman last year after completing the Apologia physics course and Derek Owens precalc course. She did fine, scored a 730. Seems to me that a good time to take it is when the physics is fresh :-)

I'm just making it back here after a full morning and am thrilled to see so many replies! Thank you all, there's definitely some food for thought here. And I actually enjoyed the description of the options available at Tech, being a former Atlantan myself :-)

(Accelerated only in the sense that her math study is a bit ahead of the curve. Her grade placement is age appropriate.) My 16 year old sophomore just completed Calculus AB. She has used Derek Owens curriculum the last two years, and was using Teaching Textbooks prior to that. Her mastery of the content is good. She finished the DO course with a solid A, though we don't know the AP exam score yet. Her SAT Mathematics 2 score taken at the end of her freshman year was a 750, and her freshman year math PSAT score was 76. She will probably going into a STEM course of study in college. Coursework that can be done without regard to a specific daily meeting time works the best for her busy schedule. Thus, local university courses and online courses that mandate meeting on a given day are not the first choice, though not an impossibility. So, how what math would you do in these last two years of high school? A full year of Calculus BC? Stats? Any curricula that you consider a good follow up to Derek Owens? I am searching online like mad for information to answer these questions, but appreciate any specific thoughts people here may have. :-)

Ha, Tammi, I see you there now that I am reading replies, lol! I haven't been on this forum in several months...well, you know the daughter that I'm talking about! :-) I ended up here because I came over to check out concussion recovery strategies with homeschooling and did a search!

My 16 yo has skated since she was 2, and has passed her USFSA Junior level tests and ISI Freestyle 9 test. Was hoping to do her Senior tests this year, but unfortunately she got a concussion on the ice this week. Not sure what will happen now.

Was the article online? I'd be interested in reading. My 16 yo received a concussion on Tues (hard hit on the ice while skating, seizures afterward, amnesia, ack! But she's been headache free since the first few hours, amazingly) I've been reading quite a number of articles on the topic since. You might want to Google "cognitive rest". I'm still trying to determine the progression of my daughter's return to activity, and hoping to get her into the "mild traumatic brain injury" clinic on base. It does sound like the child should be symptom free before resuming cognitive activity, like schoolwork or even TV/computer activities. This is going to be extremely tough for my child! She has two major sports going, was slated to compete in divisional championships for rock climbing next week, and a full academic load that includes three AP classes. She's very stressed out with the idea of falling behind.

My oldest got an 800. She's a huge reader. However, I think the prep course she took made a difference too. Her pre-course test scores, including the PSAT, were not nearly as high.

Because TT didn't have Calculus, and I wanted her to be able to do precalc and calc in the same program. In retrospect, I'm not sure it mattered.

TT Alg 2 apologist checking in ;-) My kids have not used the new version of TT Alg 2, but I've had two kids use the old one. We found the content to be fine. Most recently, my ninth grader took the PSAT with no additional prep after four years of TT, pre-alg to Alg 2, and got a 76 on the math portion. The Accuplacer at the local university placed her in calculus (did not choose to do that though.) Took the SAT Math 2 subject test that spring and got a 750 (of course, she had completed Derek Owens precalc by then, and did some additional prep, but still, had a fine foundation.) Also, no difficulty transitioning to Derek Owens precalc. With or without additional topics, I think TT is okay.

We only used Teaching Textbooks through Algebra 2, because I was looking for a precalculus program that had a follow-up calculus option. HOWEVER, I will say that Teaching Textbooks served my daughter very well. She took the PSAT as a ninth grader with no additional prep in the fall following her completion of TT Alg 2, and got a 76 on the math portion. Also had zero trouble transitioning to Derek Owens precalc (which is the program we chose, so that she could do his calc AB following.) Her SAT subect test score for Math 2 this spring was a 750. Not so shabby. I always speak up when the topic is Teaching Textbooks, because there seems to be a consensus that this is not a program for math-y kids. I really think, as with most programs, your mileage may vary, and it can be fine, great even, for all sorts of kids, and can provide a good foundation for follow-up math study.