Yes, one paper per week for history and one paper per week for literature. The history papers in particular do have the student synthesizing multiple resources. But, the resources have all been provided. Generally, the student has three or so separate readings per week. The weekly paper has the student discussing a key point from all of the sources. It also asks the students to use information from previous weeks. But rarely would the student have to research information beyond what was provided in the lesson. The same is true for literature. The papers discuss different key points and differing viewpoints from different characters, etc. But, generally no research beyond the lessons themselves. I do require my students to include information from additional sources we use such as Teaching Company videos and outside readings as I prefer not to have our history and literature all coming from one perspective. I've also been known to change the weekly paper topic to cover something I consider more relevant. :)

I would consider a high school level short paper to be 1-2 pages typed. We use Kolbe, and they expect a 1-2 page (typed and double spaced) paper each week for an honors student. I think it is two papers per semester for a regular student. In any online classes my kids have taken at the high school level or any dual enrollment classes, the teachers have provided a word count or word range for each paper. The word count gets longer throughout the year, generally starting at around 500 words and working up to a final paper of around 2000-2500 words for honors high school classes and starting at around 500 and finishing up around 3500-5000 for college level history and literature classes.

History Odyssey Connect the Thoughts

Todd Godwin - Classical Learning Resource Center for French I haven't actually taken his high school level French class before, but my 5th grade daughter tried his Young French class this past fall. It was much more rigorous than what we were looking for. The instructor was friendly and wanted to help his students. He requires proper pronunciation and has students repeat mispronounced words often, which I like. But, I think he is used to teaching students older than 3rd-8th grade and was looking for a more rigorous group than the children he was given. :)

I used Galore Park French 1, 2, and 3 in combination with Memoria Press First Start French Levels 1 and 2 for my older two girls and it worked well. But, I think it only works well because I took several years of French in high school. I really like Galore Park materials in general and had both Galore Park Spanish and Galore Park Latin, but neither of those worked well for us, as I didn't know either of those two languages. I think the language materials assume a teacher with at least some knowledge of the language. I don't really know what level my older girls were at after finishing the three Galore Park books. My eldest chose to only move forward with Latin once she reached high school and the second has chosen not to take any foreign language during her 9th and 10th grade years and most likely dual enroll in ASL for 11th and 12th.

Oh sorry, I didn't realize the students in the article were part of an actual program. Around here a student with the permission of parents and guidance counselor can apply to attend university early - without actually graduating from high school first and it is called early entrance. I thought that was what the article was referencing. The student becomes a full time college student. Other options, such as dual enrollment have the student attending university, but remaining a high school student. So the article is referring to programs such as Jenny in Florida's daughter attended where groups of underage students attend together. I don't think we have anything like that around here either. I was hoping those stats were for students that entered the general university population at a young age. Overall, they were quite positive. FWIW, my dd started at the university very young and she has no regrets thus far. :)

I don't think I have anything especially inspiring, but we are currently working on what we will be doing for 6th grade this fall. Having to register for online classes so early forces me to get my act together! Saxon Algebra 1/2 (Prealgebra) Beast Academy 5 Florida Virtual School Comprehensive Science 7 Local co-op - Chemistry (Ellen McHenry materials) History Odyssey Middles Ages VP self-paced Middle Ages Galore Park SYRWTL History 1 Ellen McHenry Mapping the World with Art Classical Writing Homer B OR WTM Academy Expository Writing I MCT Grammar Town/Practice Town Spelling Power Galore Park SYRWTL English 1 Memoria Press Medieval Literature pack Omnibus II Secondary self-paced course Memoria Press First Form Latin FLVS Middle School Spanish Memoria Press First Start French Galore Park SYRWTL French 1 FLVS Creative Photography Extras: 4-H Piano maybe join cross country and track teams maybe tryout for volleyball team

What is early entrance at the colleges around you? Here early entrance is starting directly at the university (leaving high school and becoming a full time college student before the typical four years) rather than going through a program such as dual enrollment.

This seems silly. How do you know whether or not the professor canceled class that day or switched classrooms. Maybe they are on a field trip or studying outdoors. Maybe the professor has deemed it a study day and attendance is optional. Maybe the students are meeting in the library for group work. In fact, in one of my dd's classes this semester, her Tuesday class is optional, but the Thursday class is required. It doesn't state that anywhere on her class schedule. There are way too many variables in a college setting - it isn't high school.

There is also New College in Sarasota. Their campus is on the water and they have a marine biology program. I don't know how it ranks, nationally. The program tends to appeal to homeschoolers around here because they are a grade-free campus. All students enter into contracts at the beginning of a semester and the professors prepare written evaluations at the end rather than grades. They are an honors college so a student does need very solid test scores, a compelling essay, etc. to get admitted.

I'm so sorry your son is having a hard time at Eckerd. There is a lot of alcohol consumption there. When I attended, there was a pub on campus and honestly any age student could unofficially hang out (i.e. drink) there. I don't know if that is still true. Did he do a winter term this past year? Every really good friend I made at Eckerd was first met during winter terms. It is a time when kids with similar interests really come together for an intense month of study and fun. If he does decide to stay, I would encourage him to start early looking at winter term options, especially options that involve travel. Choose a study that will draw people he would be interested in knowing better. After my first winter term, my friends and I actually talked about how odd it was that we had spent the whole first semester just walking past each other without really noticing one another.

9th English 9 Earth Science Civics Honors Geometry French I PE / Typing 10th English 10 Biology World Geography Algebra II / Trig French 2 German 1 changed schools 11th Honors British Literature Honors Chemistry AP US History Precalculus French 3 German 2 12th Honors American Literature Physics (first semester only) Study Hall (took Government over the summer in order to have a study hall) AP Biology (this was a two period class) German 3 Dual enrollment - Sociology (2nd semester) * opted out of Calculus (Algebra I credit from 8th grade was on my high school transcript as 4th math class)

Is there a book-based (not online or video based) Algebra I program for non-math students? Life of Fred doesn't offer much in the way of explanation and sometimes makes math leaps that the author assumes the students will catch or rationalize on their own - my student does not. :)

I've never heard of them before, but they do offer Calculus under their printed book classes - just not their online classes. And they offer AP Statistics under online. Are you allowed to switch between the online and printed courses? A few things that would worry me - Why don't they list the price on the website? Will 21 credits be sufficient for future goals? Can you take additional credits and pay per class? How many classes can you take at a time? Why does it have to be completed in three years? What happens if you haven't finished in three years? If college is in your student's future, I would call admissions at potential colleges first and make sure that their diploma would be accepted.

My dd started DE as a 9th grader, so she will have all college classes on her high school transcript. She took high school level classes during junior high, but I will leave them off the transcript since they were taken before 9th grade and she doesn't need the credits. As far as how much credit she will get for each college class - our state has preset credit determinations for every college class. We abide by the list so that our transcript will match all the other DE transcripts in the state. I have her transcript classes listed by subject and by course number, for example: Foreign Language LAT 1120 Latin 1 1 (grade) LAT 1121 Latin 2 1 (grade) Social Sciences AMH 2010 US History 1 .5 (grade) AMH 2020 US History 2 .5 (grade) Most foreign language, math and science with labs are worth 1 credit each. While most English, humanities, science without lab and electives classes are worth .5 credit each.

I find it hard to believe First Form Latin is worth a high school credit. Fourth Form Latin certainly isn't Latin IV material. I could maybe see First and Second Form being 1 credit and Third and Fourth Form being a second credit. Personally, I would only award a Latin I credit for the completion of Fourth Form Latin and consider First through Third Form to be junior high level Latin.

Yes, 7th and 8th grade English were primarily focused on writing and oral presentation skills. 7th grade was paragraph focused and 8th was essay focused.

Elise, Thanks so much for the information! Dd has applied to the summer program at SCAD. They will give 5 quarter hours of college credit. But, she will need at least a partial scholarship to attend. We will hear about that in March. I'm glad to hear SCAD accepted dual enrollment credits, that will also be very important to us. RCAD is in-state for us, so they will accept at least some of dd's DE credits. Thankfully, both SCAD and RCAD will also accept the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship. That almost brings both schools into the realm of affordable for us. Best of luck to your daughter! I would love to hear where she finally choses to attend.

Elise, If I could ask, how did the merit aid at SCAD compare to the merit aid at RCAD? Both colleges are on my daughter's (very short) list. We are attending National Portfolio Day at Ringling this Sunday and hope to get more information about Ringling and perhaps some other colleges at that point, but SCAD won't be there as they are not a member. My daughter really needs a decent amount of merit aid to attend either college. ETA: And Congratulations to your daughter!!!

I voted $300-$400. ETA - that is the average in the high-use season (for us that would be summer.) If I averaged it out over the year it would probably be around $250. Also, I just remembered that our electric bill is a joint electric/water bill. I don't know how much of that is water - probably a lot, as there are six of us and two of those six take long showers!

I set the core classes, basically the same as you have. And I let my kids choose all of their electives. For my eldest, that means a whole bunch of poetry classes though she has no intention of going into any sort of English or creative writing field. She just enjoys writing poetry in her free time. For my second, it is all theater type classes, though she does plan to pursue that in college. I have asked her to please double major in something a bit more practical. She agrees and is leaning toward education, as that will still leave open her evenings, weekends and summers for theatrical work, even if it isn't her paying profession. I will add, I have absolutely no interest in poetry or theater so they didn't get their passions from me. I had envisioned high school as being a deep study of Latin, Greek and great literature. Of course, my girls couldn't imagine anything more dull. <_< ETA: I consider one science class to fall under core classes and if my child was ready for a high school level science in 8th grade - that is what I would do. My eldest did high school level science from 7th grade up. My current 9th grader is squeaking by with Physical Science this year. I know there are some who would consider that more of a junior high science, but that happens to be her math and science level at this time.

We meet at a city-owned community center. They provide free afterschool care, tutoring, art classes etc. from 2-6 or so. But, it basically sits empty during the morning hours. They've tried to run pre-school type programs in the mornings, without much attendance. There are classrooms, a playroom and a playground. It is free so long as we clean up after ourselves and donate some basics every few months - paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies.

You can find out which schools follow the best practice of using a standardized assessment to measure student learning gains in core collegiate skills. Above quoted from the link in the original post. Why would my kids want to attend a college that sounds exactly like high school? The link grades the schools as if they should all require every student to take classes in every field. AND expects the colleges to give a standardized multiple-choice type test at the end of each class. Then what was the point of high school?? We are already one of the only nations in the world that require students to study multiple core fields - mathematics, science, history, English for 13 years. It sounds like a continuation of common core. I didn't realize there was even a movement to have common core reach all the way to the college level. I would think one of the joys of college is being able to finally specialize in areas that interest you.

My high schoolers are about finished up - it's the younger ones taking me so much time to plan these days. Dd 17 will be a senior next year. She has 3 more semesters of dual enrollment left (summer, fall, spring.) She must take Statistics, Pre-calculus, Calculus Survey, two science classes (one with lab) and two social studies classes. These classes will complete my requirements for her to graduate high school. Anything else she takes is up to her. Dd15 will be a sophomore next year, but plans to dual enroll in a full time program to earn her Theatre AA her junior and senior year. This is a fairly lock-step program, so next year is the only year left for me to plan out. Math - currently still in prealgebra, she will move directly into Algebra 1 and then Algebra 2. We may use Saxon or we may use something else. She will also concurrently earn a credit of Geometry using Key to Geometry along with the partial credits from Saxon Algebra 1 and 2 or another book like Life of Fred Geometry if we don't use Saxon. This will definitely take us somewhere into her junior year. Science - currently taking Florida Virtual School Physical Science, she will move directly into FLVS Biology and then FLVS Chemistry. She will hopefully finish Chemistry up the summer before junior year. History - currently taking US & World History I using Kolbe and Teaching Company. We will follow that up with US & World History II next year, again using Kolbe and Teaching Company. She will take the US History I CLEP exam when we get to the right time period. Literature - currently taking Shakespearian Literature using Kolbe and Teaching Company, she will follow up next year with World Literature again using Kolbe and Teaching Company. English - Next month, when she finishes her online Theater credit she will take FLVS Honors English II followed by FLVS Honors English III. This a strong area for her and she will finish both before the end of her sophomore year. She will follow the classes up with the College Composition CLEP. Psychology - currently taking FLVS Psychology, next year she will take FLVS AP Psychology and probably follow that up with the Psychology CLEP instead of the AP exam. Theater electives - currently taking Acting I at a local high school, and will likely take one or two theater electives again next year at the same local high school. If we can't fit them into the schedule or policies change, etc. she will take a computer applications elective instead. Foreign Language - waiting for dual enrollment Any suggestions for a student that struggles in math? She would like a spiral program, similar to Saxon's incremental approach, but with a little less increment and a little less depth. Just the basics. She is working through Key to Algebra now, but that will count as the last part of her prealgebra credit.

I wonder if the university has a policy similar to our local university. Our local state university accepts less than half its freshman applicants. If a student with enough dual enrollment hours is rejected as a freshman applicant, the application is automatically sent to the transfer department. So some dual enrollment students are only accepted as transfer students. If a parent wasn't aware of this policy, he/she may just assume that it was because of the dual enrollment credits that the student was accepted as a transfer student though the student applied as a freshman.