Most people are recommending against one single course, just as you yourself did. As I said in my original post, I think Descriptive Astronomy would be the best option, potentially followed by Psych. She can take that advice or leave it. When somebody gives advice based on experiences or asking people who would know (ie college-aged students), though, and all they get is frustrated arguing about why they're wrong/it's unfair, well, it makes people like me wonder what exactly she wanted to hear. Anyway, I'm done with this discussion because it's clearly going nowhere good.

Your son is entitled to take dual enrollment courses if that's legal where you are and if he's academically capable. Nobody is debating that. In fact, nobody has said that he shouldn't. However, you asked for recommendations regarding which course would be the best option for a first dual enrollment course, and people have offered suggestions along with their reasoning. You've argued with several people regarding their "why." Yes, it must be frustrating to not hear what you want. But please understand that nobody is giving advice to hurt your son. It's quite the opposite; nobody wants him to have an avoidably bad experience, especially if it's his first college experience. With regards to your last question, I live in a rural area without public transportation, so my response my be a little different than if I lived in the city. Try something like Über or Lyft or a taxi if that's available. Ask if a project member could pick you up. If the internet is good enough, try a video call with closed captioning. Etc. Basically, I would expect an adult to work the problem.

In AP Psychology, we spent a decent amount of time on sex, drugs, abuse, etc. One of my classmates did a research project that basically consisted of her asking boys in the school if they preferred breasts or butts, etc. Our district ended up putting a rule in place limiting it only to juniors and seniors because of the content. Our district limits English 111 and 112 (Composition 1 and 2) to seniors. The material is often controversial (abortion, voter ID laws) and/or mature/sexual because the professor thinks they inspire enough of a feeling that students care to learn how to properly support their opinion. With regards to Spanish, a lot of courses use more slang/vulgarity. Locally, the community college's intermediate courses covered cartels - including videos/pictures of mutilated bodies. If you personally don't think you have any issues with exposure to most content, that's great! However, it might still be worth considering that even if you are okay with your ds being exposed to that kind of material, he might not be ready to have an adult conversation about it.

I think that what @BusyMom5meant is that they may be unwilling to work with him on group projects. Very rarely do professors assign the groups in college. Also, even if the professor does force a group to accept your ds for a project, they can still not fully include him in the process - either intentionally or unintentionally - or they can simply have relevant/semi-relevant conversations that are inappropriate for a teen, especially a younger one. In other words, yes, your son has a right to be there, but that doesn't mean the other students - or even the professors - will make any sort of accommodations due to his age/maturity. In your situation, it might be best to ask around and see which courses are most-populated by high schoolers because those courses would still give your ds an introduction to college in a slightly more controlled environment. Of the courses you suggested, General Psychology or Descriptive Astronomy seem the best fit, with the latter being slightly more preferable simply because Psych can easily get into age-inappropriate topics.

GPB Educational Resources | Georgia Public Broadcasting Here's a link to the world languages page from Georgia PBS. They have courses in Spanish, French, and Japanese.

I'm not sure what CVA is. We have Virtual Virginia and the Linwood Holton's Governor's School. The latter is free online dual enrollment courses; my school only permitted juniors and seniors to take classes through it, but I'm not sure that's anybody's policy except the guidance counselors. The former is a mixed bag. They actually offer a full 6-12 program through it now, but students can take just one course. They offer a lot of advanced courses, including many APs. The problems there are that students don't get a lot of support in-house (and may not have any support available to them if they're taking something like Latin), and many people have bad experiences. I.e., I had a friend who got thrown out of his VVA class for talking to classmates in the built-in chatbox because it wasn't school related. The teachers are also very NOVA/Richmond centered, and they don't really make much of an effort to accommodate those in rural areas. We had a snowstorm where we lost power for about 12 days; my guidance counselor had to spend a week fighting a teacher to get my zeros erased and to allow me to do the work I missed because he just didn't understand that I couldn't just run down to a Starbucks. Sorry for the rant. I just have a lot of feelings about VA schools and the differences between us and their precious NOVA.

No, that's still the norm. It's prealgebra in 8th grade, then algebra in ninth grade. The larger high school in our district does offer an advanced algebra course that covers algebra 1 in the fall and algebra 2 in the spring, but none of the other high schools do so. ETA the advanced algebra course is only available to those who get either a perfect score or an advanced score on the prealgebra SOL. And, yes, I'm sure. I asked two relatives and my pastor's wife, all of whom are teachers, about it.

Is the principal an ass, does the district policy suck, or is it a combination of both?

I'm from rural VA. We didn't even offer Algebra 1 until ninth grade, so I think she's fine.

It's interesting to find that out about CA. I'm in rural VA, so it might be different in the cities. It also might have changed since I graduated. I wouldn't consider that light, though I would still try to get some form of recognition somewhere for the CTY courses.

That's interesting. None of the schools in my district had free periods. My dh says that his didn't have them either. It might be a state thing? Since they are "honoring" your son's math course enough to give him an "extra" free period, it might be worth it to go to the principal or school board. It's very hard for them to have it both ways. That's really neat that they allow outside DE courses in other districts. Ours had to be done in-house or through the online Governor's School. Sorry, my intrigue does nothing to help you.

I had to look up CTY because I had never heard of it. It does look interesting and challenging. I'm going to be honest, and it's not what you want to hear, but it's not really surprising to me that a school wouldn't accept outside courses. I'm not sure how they would go about doing that. Does your state offer a virtual program? That might be a good way to avoid certain teachers but still get good courses. I'm also going to ask if your school would allow a student take that few credits? In my county, they have "nothing" classes, such as art (*cough*coloring*cough*) or photojournalism (yearbook), for those who didn't want a "real" class, but each time slot had to be filled. I'm sorry. It's definitely not what you want to hear.

Nope. We had a couple of in-person dual enrollment classes, but mostly those were also online through the Linwood Holton's Governor's School. In VA, I think homeschoolers can take classes through Virtual Virginia, but I'm about 80% certain that there's a tuition fee for them. It's been almost a decade since I graduated, so I'm a bit out of the loop.

I'm not OP, but I'm not sure I understand your question. When I was in high school in VA, those of us who took classes through Virtual Virginia took the AP Exams at our high school, the same as with any other AP Exam.

Thank you so much!

Thank you; that's really helpful! Part of the reason we're working ahead is to get a feel for how to teach it (*cough*see if we need to buy the videos *cough*). My dh would like us to learn it, so we don't need to use a workbook for the kids and can create lessons that would interest the kids more, especially in the later years; I'm being a pessimist/realist and saying that we'll need to pick a curriculum and use it.

Has anyone worked through the progymnasmata themselves? My dh and I have recently ordered Fable from Memoria Press with the intention of working through the series ahead of our dc. Does anyone have any advice (or warnings)?

Hi yall! I'm new to homeschooling, and one thing I've noticed while researching curricula is that "the why" matters so much with regards to whether or not a curriculum is a good fit. It got me thinking, and I thought it might be fun to discuss. Our whys are: 1.) Christ-centered 2.) Culture - My dh and I was our dc to be knowledgeable about our history, to have read the Great Books, and to have been exposed to the great artists and composers. 3.) Nutrition - Food in public schools is absolutely atrocious at breakfast and lunch, but the food at recess is awful (they only sell pop, candy, and chips). 4.) Time with the kids - I work Friday-Sunday, a combination of two 14s and a 16; if my dd started school this coming year, I would rarely see her. What's yall's why?

I know this thread is old, but I'm really not certain of the etiquette about this sort of thing. Anyway, here's my two cents: Four year degrees are usually a waste of money if someone doesn't know what they want to do with it. Right now, I've got two cousins who work at the public library. One has almost $200,000 in student loans for a degree in philosophy. He makes $12.69 an hour, the same as the one who got the job straight out of high school and has no such debt. The former is what my dad calls a "college-educated fool." He doesn't say anything of the sort about the ones who have actually benefited financially from their degrees. Now, of course, that's not to say I think a college degree is useless. We need people in healthcare, education, etc. However, we need to balance the "follow your passions" encouragements with financially sound advice.

We're using Ambleside Online for most of our curriculum, but there are a few "gaps." Reading and Writing McGuffey's Primer (+ "word-building"/phonics work) Getty-Dubay A (and maybe B, depending on dd's speed) Math The Eclectic Manual of Methods Paper Sloyd for the Primary Grades Handwork and Life Skills We're using Ursa Minor Learning's schedule, but we haven't quite settled on the resources yet. Music Instead of Ambleside Online's composer rotation, we'll be using Wildwood Curriculum's Form 1B schedule, "Children's Classics." We're also choosing a kind of DIY schedule of more basic hymns and patriotic folksongs for this year instead of Ambleside's rotations. For piano, we will either use Curwen's Pianoforte method or Suzuki; my dh and I need to review both. Spanish Salsa De Colores by Jose Luis Orozco Art What to Draw and How to Draw It by Lutz Brushwork by Hudson Science Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding Vol. 1 (added to Ambleside's Nature Study work)