This is definitely a long shot, but - any families on here in the Houston area who are involved with the Holy House program at Our Lady of Walsingham? Their website is currently being revamped, but it's at http://reclaimingculture.org/. I'm interested in learning more about the classes offered there, especially at the high school level. I do plan to contact the co-op but welcome any other information people can provide.

Europa Universalis is on sale again for 75% off - we just happened upon this sale. It's for Lunar New Year, but it only lasts another...13 hours. Posting this just in case someone else is interested! http://store.steampowered.com/app/236850/

I haven't checked out his materials myself, but I have seen them mentioned on Twitter, so just in case this may be helpful - Tom Richey does a lot of YouTube tutorial videos and provides various materials for AP European History and APUSH: http://www.tomrichey.net/ Edited to add: Raise your hand if you thought the OP was asking if there were review materials available for AP European, not whether anyone has reviewed the program... :blush:

I'm so glad you posted about this; my husband looked into it and we definitely plan to add these to our gaming collection. I personally am an adamant non-gamer (based, increasingly, on...nothing) but he and our older 2 kids will probably enjoy playing these. Is there some efficient way to keep an eye on when these go on sale?

Ah, good to know! I was going by my hazy memory from early-90s college applications.

I'm very impressed with Duke TIP! I submitted a plea via their contact form over the Thanksgiving break, and figured it would be a few days before I would hear back from them. I had a reply in my inbox this morning! They do keep the scores on file, and they'll be sending me a copy in the mail. Such a relief! Semi-related: my son has decided he wants to try to increase his math score so he can apply to the upper-level science classes at Summer Studies, so he is hopefully taking the SAT again this Saturday. Since this was a last-minute thing, he's on the waitlist - hoping he'll be able to actually take the test. Anyway, they clarified for me at TIP that they do *not* take the highest individual scores from each section, if the child takes the test in both 7th and 8th grade. The 8th grade scores are considered distinct from the 7th grade scores. So if he goes down in one area, they aren't going to say "oh, well, his CR was this higher score last time, so we'll count that." I'm pretty sure that when colleges look at the scores, they take the highest score from each section across however many times the test was taken. I may be misremembering, though - it's been a few aeons since I took the test myself!

Coming back to post a review, a few months down the road. Sending him to the Summer Studies program was one of the best things we've done for him. It allayed a great deal of his "how do I know I'm keeping up with the Joneses?" anxieties about his abilities and accomplishments compared to his peers.He was well-prepared for the class and received a positive review from his instructor. In the months since then, I have seen his confidence increase and his motivation is more mature in terms of - this is a goal I have, here is how I will accomplish it. He'd love to go again next year but I'm not sure we can swing it. I'm hoping my daughter will be eligible in 2017 and I'm not sure we want to set the precedent of "kids in this house who qualify get to go more than once," haha.

Trying to become less of a lurker here. :001_unsure: My son participated in the Duke TIP Summer Studies last year and it was a terrific experience. He's hoping to go again this year and I'm hoping to find a giant bag of money in our front yard. Here is the dumb thing I did (well, one of many dumb things): I've never given any of my kids standardized tests. We live in Texas and it is not required that we do so. Therefore, when my son took the SAT, he'd never taken a standardized test before. When he got his scores, I did not download them from the College Board site right away. I missed the part where they're deleted at the end of the school year. (I believe this is NOT the case for ACT scores, fwiw.) Now, he's interested in applying to a magnet program at one of the local high schools. We haven't made up our mind about high school yet - my current preference is that he continue to homeschool, but I want to provide him with options. And guess who has no evidence of her child's qualifications for said program? This gal. So I'm hoping that I can say, "look, he attended the summer studies program, so obviously he is intelligent," and that will somehow magically be accepted as proof of smarts. I don't want to be perceived as trying to waltz in there with my homeschooling self and saying "I don't need to conform to your requirements because my child is SPECIAL." We didn't realize the applications were due so soon - tomorrow is the deadline. So it all may be moot at this point. The lesson here is: download the SAT scores right away! Don't delay!

Oh, that site looks really good - thanks for the link!

Bumping this thread, as I just received an email from Kolbe that the course plans for the Macaw edition are supposed to be ready by August 1.

You can't really just pick up where you left off, but there is a workaround. Scroll down to "is there an option to renew.." on their FAQ page. Their system isn't going to give you a grade based on two different sessions of the class, but you can look at the progress reports from each one and assess your child accordingly. If you did the course every day, you could absolutely do all three in one year. My kids didn't love it but we will probably use it again in conjunction with other resources to make it more interesting. I am probably going to sign up for the Discovery Education Streaming Plus subscription to make it easier on myself to supplement. My son was annoyed that he didn't have a textbook to refer to as an additional resource so I'm thinking about purchasing the Miller/Levine Macaw edition and having him do the PLATO life science. Maybe. Still looking into this.

One course could be for an intense half-year or a more relaxed (still substantive, but allowing more time to supplement with other resources) year. Or you could purchase the course, kind of forget that you bought it, and cram the entire thing in four weeks before it expires. I mean, that's what I heard from...a friend...

When my son took the SAT for TIP, there were probably 200 other seventh graders testing, and it was held at a separate campus. I didn't work with him much at all. I borrowed a few test prep books for him to look through so that he'd have a rough idea of how the test is set up. He wants to take it again next year to try to improve his math score so he'll be eligible for the upper-tier TIP stuff (he scored high enough for the middle level - his CR was by far his strongest score). He'll be taking geometry by that point so he should have a better chance going into it. I used to teach SAT prep an aeon ago for one of the big test-prep providers and that pretty much soured me on the entire industry - seeing how a student's score could improve a few hundred points just from learning "tricks" for the test, not from learning any actual content. But I did want my son to be comfortable with the general format of the test and the different types of questions. He would have gotten way stressed out if I had made a bigger deal out of it. OTOH, when my daughter takes EXPLORE this year, and then when she does the SAT for TIP, I'll probably review with her a good bit so that she DOES take it seriously. I guess it's just a matter of what is going to work best for your child in terms of balancing stress levels with preparedness.

Definitely! So far, his only complaint is that his mean parents didn't let him take his laptop, and EVERYONE else has a laptop to play on during Free Time. EVERYONE, Mom. I told him to go down to their student lounge with a deck of cards and tape a sign to his shirt that says "Mean parents kidnapped laptop. Please talk to me." Surely that would get some kids to look up from their screens. :laugh: He's been really busy and is enjoying his class so far, along with the various Mandatory Fun activities. I think this is going to be a great experience for him.

I wasn't sure how much a textbook like this would change - in terms of revisions versus additions. Would the content be inaccurate or would the newer editions just have more content? Just kind of curious.