It depends so much on cirucmstances and peronality but I stopped at one in part because so many moms told me they really enjoyed parenthood until they added a second and then their lives became stressful and chaotic. It also depends on how much help you have. My husband deployed a lot in the first 6 years of my son's life and we lived far from family so adding more children would have been much, much harder. I like getting out and about and one child was very easy to take along. I remember taking my 4 year-old on a tandom bike ride at that time and thinking "If I had another one I'd be stuck at home right now."

Our History Human Languages is based around the Great Course led by John McWhorter with lots of supplemental readings. Our Evolution of English course was designed and led by DH and including reading Beowulf, several Shakespeare plays, poetry and other works. Plus a little bit of Old and Middle English study. I believe they also used the book _Inventing English_ by Seth Lehrer.

I have a very mathy kid - Beast Academy, MathPath camp, and local math circles when younger. Just finished AP Calc BC in 10th grade with a 5 on the exam, plus multiple AIME qualifications, USAMTS honors, etc. He's doing WOOT and linear algebra this year as a junior. I did all AOPS at home but intentionally slowed down with things like number theory and probability - I saw no reason to rush to calculus. If you had asked me when he was 12, I would say he was definitely headed for a STEM major in career. Nope! At 16 his interests have completely shifted to languages, linguistics and creative writing. Those interests were always there but have moved to the front. He hasn't slowed down in math ability, but other passions have moved to the fore. The lesson I've learned with gifted kids is just to support passions and make sure they have the capability to shift to different strengths when the mood strikes.

This seems pretty heavy, but I agree that it depends on the student's background and temperment. We hate APs because the pressure to work towards the test (DS did AP Calc BC and AP Stat last year, AP Chem 9th grade) but some students love them. Linear algebra is great because it looks impressive but usually isn't that hard. AP Chem isn't bad if they already had the background, and I imagine the same with foreign languages. My rising junior is high-performing but does not like to be overloaded so he would absolutely balk at a schedule like this. He also wants to spend his junior year focused on his special interests (contest math, linguistics, and creative writing) and ditch the APs. Here's his junior year: Honors BioChem (Clover Valley) Olympiad Math (AoPS WOOT plus proof writing) Spanish 2 (after 4 years of Lukeion Ancient Greek) Creative Writing Integrated 20th century US History/Literature Data science programming/linguistics project

Just to add to the chorus, my DS's music teacher told us that most undergrad music programs require piano proficiency.

DS got a 5 on AP Calc BC and a 4 on AP Stat. I taught both at home myself so I'm thrilled! But it was a lot of material to cover in 9 months so I'm also a little burned out on math. Next year he's taking WOOT and focusing on Olympiad math so I will glad for the break.

I'm curious about this as well. I have a close friend who is only 31 and absolutely slaying it in the corporate world as a graphic designer/creative director and she has an Art History degree from a mid-level state school. No family connections but she definitely hustles. She attributes part of her success to being raised by a single father who had a career in the arts so she knew exactly what it took to make it in that world. She changes jobs frequently and always negotiates upward. I have another friend who is doing well for a wall street firm who has no degree at all. He got his foot in the door through a friend, starting with project management and has climbed the ladder up to Business Intelligence. Spanish speaking immigrant, no family connections at all and not a ton of hustle, just smart and lucky and hardworking.

I think recommendations serve different purposes. One is to give insight into the student, but another one is verify accomplishments. My DS had to have an outside math recommendation for a summer program recently and it was tough because I'm his only math teacher(I teach professionally online) and we live in a rural area with no access to dual enrollment. We managed to get the college professor who proctored his AMC 12 and AIME exams to write one. It would have been better to have someone who knew DS personally but at least this professor was able to a) verify his high AIME score and b) speak to the fact that we live in an extremely rural farming community and had to drive 3 hours to take the AMC and AIME at his college. DS sent him a brief brag sheet to help him get a better idea of his interests and talents. Again, not ideal, but we felt it was a better option than getting a recommendation from say his piano teacher who knows him personally but can't speak to his academic talents. We are thinking ahead though - part of the reason he's applying to math camps is to make connections and get a real recommendation for college.

I'm sure others will chime in but I would just list your grading standards clearly on the transcript (ex. A = 90-100 or mastery of the material) and don't overthink it. I personally think adding a bunches of plusses and minuses looks messy and creating such narrow bands of success doesn't fit with my homeschooling philosophy. It seems unlikely that a DE administrator is going to think you're misrepresenting things, especially when the difference is between an A and an A-. ETA: One of the reasons I don't take grades too seriously is that I work with schooled students and the standards are all over the place. I had a student get an A+ in "Honors Algebra" at a highly regarded private school where they barely learned how to factor quadratics by the end of the course, and another student getting a B in an Honors Algebra class in a high performing district where they were doing composition of functions in the second week of class.

I think we're going to go this route. I took linear algebra and linear optimization in college so I can help DS, but it was a long time ago so don't feel I can teach it from scratch. But I don't love any of the other options so it might just be textbook + coursera + mom next year. We live in a very rural area and the nearest major college isn't that great and over an hour away so DE is not an option. I wish ASU Universal Learner had math options beyond Calculus. The affordability + grade protection is ideal but their STEM options look weak. DS is also planning to do WOOT through AoPS so maybe something homegrown and self-paced is better anyway so he can focus on contest math. However, I'm also eager to try and find him some outside recommendations in math for college. I'm a professional math tutor so have been his only teacher. Ugh.

Totally concur with everything said here. We did her self-paced Advanced Honors class for much the same reason - we loved the flexibility over a live class since we travel a lot and DS spends a lot of time on competition math. Plus he already has one live class (Lukeion Greek) that was a lot of work and with regular due dates. We didn't want to box ourselves in with more deadlines. The self-paced version of Connie's class is great and DS scored a 4 on AP Chemistry with minimal extra study.

Wow. Following! I feel like I could have written this post. We have the exact same issue - my 10th grader is finishing up AP Calc BC and AP Stat this year. He also is a contest kid and did well on the AMC 12 and got an 8 on the AIME this year so is thinking about WOOT. He also did well on the USAMTS and is applying to math camps for this summer. In a twist though - DS is mostly a foreign language guy and wants to major in linguistics. He's not interested in hard STEM careers but loves math just for fun. So I don't want it to become a grind for him and there's no need for him to race ahead. All of the options you've listed are ones we're looking at. I was wondering how something like WOOT is perceived on a transcript?

We plan to world school next year so I'm still struggling to figure everything out. Some of it will depend on our budget and where we end up going. DS is certain he wants to major in linguistics so we have that to focus around. English: Creative writing maybe? DH has an MFA so he would teach. Math: Self-paced linear algebra or multivariable calculus or AOPS intermediate number theory or WOOT. No idea yet. It depends on if he wants to keep going with math contests. He did very well on the AIME this year. Science: Clover Valley Chemistry Honors Biochem Languages: Immersion Spanish somewhere. We did 3 weeks in Guatemala with one-on-one tutors and he loved how fast he was able to progress even with no prior exposure. Maybe Lukeion Greek 5 if he wants to continue that, but honestly I think it will be too much. US History: No idea yet, but we would like to focus on the 20th century. Art History: The Great Course on Understanding Great Art. We would love to fold in museum visits during our travels and we also live in a small town that has a very impressive collection. Some kind of project based around our local museum would be ideal.

My son did the Advanced Clover Valley Chemistry course (self-paced) and got a 4 on the AP Chemistry test as a freshman. Definitely a great course. -Michelle

We live in a small rural town that is slightly hostile to homeschoolers, but fortunately had no problems with APs. The AP coordinator is letting us take two AP tests that they don't even offer.