I agree with regentrude about picking and choosing rather than just going with ancients. I'd also take a look at the literature suggestions in the Well Educated Mind. You should be able to find a copy in you local library network. hth ~Moira

That's exciting. Good luck with it. ~Moira

Congratulations to your dd. ~Moira

Congratulations to you both. It is a wonderful book. It was my younger dd's (then in 7th grade) favorite read from Omnibus I and to think I almost didn't assign it for her. ~Moira

Thanks everyone. It is good to be able to share such news. ~Moira

My understanding is that most do Language and Composition first then follow up with Literature and Composition. jmho ~Moira

So Fed Ex arrives at our door this afternoon... Envelope is addressed to dd2 who is out for a walk... Is this a college 'stalker' with deep pockets? Nope! She is the state winner for the National Peace Essay contest! A small scholarship results but much more importantly there is also a trip to Washington DC! She'll get to meet as many as 6 of her class mates from AP English Language. Happy dance! She so struggled with that essay. Corruption is not an easy topic and she didn't enjoy the process...but she is enjoying the result! Please celebrate with me -- there were other homeschooled winners so I know you're out there. ~Moira

If you're looking for resources here's a couple of text suggestions: college level: M. T.Boatwright al., The Romans: From Village to Empire (dd1's prof at McGill recommended it to her) high school level: Paul A. Zoch, Ancient Rome: An Introductory History (used in Scholars Online Latin III course) Teaching Company courses are always a good option. HTH ~Moira

I'd strongly recommend that she talk to the prof and get a better understanding of where she stands before doing anything. If it does look like she'll get a poor grade, then will it follow her into college next year? I have no experience of community college but in the thread discussing AP versus cc credits a poster said that cc grades flow through into the student's GPA; that is something to consider. HTH ~Moira

I used this with my dds. As another poster mentioned, they did only the algebra II portion leaving the trig to his precalculus text. I got the syllabus from another WTMommy. If you pm me, I'll be happy to pass it along. ~Moira

Okay, let me say first that my younger dd is taking the class with Mrs Inspektor. She is really enjoying the class and getting lots out of it. ***BUT*** my elder daughter took the class with another teacher (no longer teaching) and really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. I'd strongly recommend that you and your student look at the comments from former students and the syllabus and decide which you think will work best for your student. jmho ~Moira

How about Darwin's Ghost by Steve Jones? I recently listened to him on (very old -- 1999!) Melvyn Bragg's BBC Radio 3 program 'In Our Time' and he has a lot to contribute. His book aims to make Darwin's Origin of Species accessible to modern readers. hth ~Moira

I agree. My eldest dd credits that course with teaching her how to write an academic essay. If you have time to do only one course, make it Language and Composition. ~Moira

Eliana has offered some wonderfully helpful insights... I'd like to add something else. When my dds and I read Inferno a couple of years ago we each used a different translation. I used the Longfellow version (he was the first American to translate the Comedy and I wanted to see how well it had aged), dd1 used Dorothy Sayers' version (she is a big fan of Lord Peter) and dd2 used Mark Musa's (she found it the easiest to read). We often compared passages and found this helpful -- we do this with many of the books we read in translation. HTH ~Moira

Thanks. I'll take a look at it for dd2 who is struggling through Walden right now. I had taken several runs at it myself in the past -- after all I live in Concord -- I finally managed to conquer it last year on audio. In that format the fact that he was saying all this about self-sufficiency and the simple life while eating at Emerson's house and taking his laundry home to his mom wasn't so hard to stomach. ~Moira

I, too, like Helen Ferris' Favorite Poems. But maybe its intended audience is more grade school than high school. I very much like The Rattle Bag as a pick up and go anthology. It is an collection of Seamus Heaney's and Ted Hughes' favorite poems. The poems are listed by title rather than chronologically so there are surprises all the time. The authors have also published a companion volume titled The School Bag but I haven't seen that one. dd1 loves W. H Auden's Oxford Book of English Verse because it includes a lot of older poems that have been dropped to make way for 20th century poetry -- she found a second copy to give to her sister this Christmas but dd2 seems to prefer the Philip Larkin edition that she purloined from my book case so I'm getting into the Norton Anthology of Poetry. HTH ~Moira HTH

I've had good results with Scholars Online. Latin I & II there use Wheelocks so your student should fit right into Latin III. ~Moira in MA

You are too old for jeans when you decide you are, not before. jmho ~Moira

Violet, you don't give any information about your student's age or situation both of which need to be considered in making a choice. But I'm going to disagree with Ester Maria. Both Henle and Wheelock are designed to teach the grammar of Latin. Wheelock's in 40 chapters and Henle in Latin First and Second Year (although there is some overlap between the latter part of First year and the beginning of Second to accommodate younger and/or faster students). They both teach the grammar but in a different order/manner. Barring problems/major dissatisfactions, if you have started with Henle, it makes sense to continue with it at least through the end of Second Year otherwise you will be covering the same material and delaying the real reason for learning Latin -- to read Latin authors. Both Henle and Wheelock's get the job done, but they are designed for different aged learners. Henle is a high school text that limits the amount of vocabulary (it is keyed to reading the adapted Ceasar in Second Year) in favor of a grammar focus. Wheelock's was designed as a college level text, with short pithy statements designed to draw in an older student, it lacks extended passages of reading although additional texts have been developed -- such at Groton and May -- to fill in the gap. Because it doesn't focus on a single author, the vocabulary introduced is necessarily wider, but often you'll be presented with a word in one chapter and not see it again. I used Wheelock's to relearn my high school Latin but taught my dds using Henle. They both started Henle at ~11-12 and completed Second Year by the end of 9th grade. At that point I put them into an online Latin III class that was fed from Latin I & II using Wheelock's. They both did well in that class and have continued their studies from there. Had they been older, I might well have used Wheelock's with them -- for an older high school student, it's a very good text. Younger students seem to need more time to absorb the material. I was amazed at how Father Henle brought back a concept just in time to prevent it slipping out of memory. hth ~Moira

dd1 was home for study break the 3rd week in Feb. It was lovely to have her home especially as she had work to do so it wasn't so hard for dd2 who doesn't get a real break as all her online courses have different schedules. We managed to fit in an appointment with the oral surgeon about removing her wisdom teeth -- guess what she has to look forward to after her exams at the end of April... We also took in a couple of plays and had some quality time. Looks like she'll only be home for a week in late April before heading off to spend her summer in Calgary. ~Moira

We used to attend a coop where a lot of the participants used a college planner. He had extensive experience with gifted and/or unschooled students and was of significant assistance to many. For us, not so much. We were looking outside his knowledge base (Canada rather than US) and dd was very clear about what she was looking for. We met with him once and decided we could handle it ourselves. For what it's worth I'm with regentrude as far as taxes, travel arrangements, etc. Dd made all of the contacts with schools and pulled together a significant portion of the dreaded course of study materials. It was a good experience for her and prepared her well for dealing with the college bureaucracy later. If dd had had a less clear idea of what she wanted, we might have pursued it somewhat further but that wasn't the case. HTH ~Moira

Jumping in, too. I'm 54. my eldest started college this year, youngest is a junior. My sister told me that I should have kids before I was 36 -- I followed her advice and had my first at 35 and 8 months. -- somehow I don't think that was quite what she meant but it's worked well for us. ~Moira

dd1 took both English APs -- she received elective credit for Literature (Scholars Online) but nothing for Language (PAH) -- McGill only gives credit on that to ESL students. She is a Classics and English double major and as such has had to take the introductory English lit courses since they want their students to have read a consistent body of material. She loved both her English APs and learned a lot in them. She credits them with helping her know how to organize her writing for all her other courses. They were among her favorite courses. ~Moira

We really liked the Bravewriter kidswrite intermediate (I did this only with my younger dd who needed more instruction), expository essay and research paper(both dds) courses for around 8th/9th grade. The courses are of short duration so enthusiasm doesn't have too much chance to evaporate. Instruction is online with a message board and the students get to see each other's writing and the comments of the instructor -- which are (imho) always affirming but pointing the way to improvement. Hth ~Moira

Nancy Pearl, author of of Book Lust series, has a great system for judging when you should abandon a book you're not enjoying but think you ought to read. It operates on the premise that starting a book is not a commitment to read it -- at that point you're just 'window shopping', you commit later. Nancy Pearl's rule of fifty: if you're fifty years old or younger, give every book 50 pages before you decide to commit to reading it, or give up. If you're over 50, subract your age from 100–the result is the number of pages your should read before deciding. She also adds that if you're over 80 you're entitled to judge a book by it's cover, since time is so short and there are so many books.