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.

Don't let life get in the way of homeschool. Life is filled with doctor's appointments, family visits, trips, moves, health issues, etc. and if you let every little thing derail homeschooling then it can really set you back. As a military family we had to deal with frequent moves and deployments as well. This piece of advice got me to work around life, make school a priority, and provide some consistency (even if it was just math and reading) in the midst of change and chaos.

Numerous posters here have gotten their kids into extremely selective schools (MIT, Stanford, etc.), full-ride scholarships to other schools, and into college as young as 14, it might be wise to have a dose of humility in the face of the many, many successful homeschoolers on this board. I didn't see anything offensive other than no one recognizing the provider. I've found the advice here absolutely outstanding and it gave me the confidence to homeschool high school and still shoot for selective colleges. I have a rising 10th grade student, who is extremely academically talented - AP Calc, AIME qualifier, multiple languages, academic camps, CTY, Davidson, blah, blah, blah, but I make no assumptions about colleges automatically recognizing the value of any of it. I'm here to learn from the people who have been there and done that and been successful.

Just reporting back that my son received a 4 on his AP Chem test! He is very pleased since this was his first AP Exam and he's a 9th grader with no previous formal science. Just to recap: he self-studied for the AP Chemistry exam after taking the parent-graded version of Connie's honors advanced Chem class.

The only reason I would consider early graduation is for social reasons - as DS has no like minded peers at his intellectual level. However I mostly agree with @8filltheheart. I think there are significant advantages to developing at home and to trying to attend a college that might be an overall better fit and have opportunities for scholarships. I also think its a gift to have a prolonged young adulthood and to get to explore without having to worry about college grades/finances/career/etc yet. I also have a few friends that graduated college at 20 and they felt like it put them at a disadvantage in the work force and for graduate school/internships because people didn't want to take a chance on a "kid." My DS is also rather "pointy" being highly accelerated in math and gifted in foreign languages but needing work on his writing skills in particular. Since he wants to major in linguistics/cog sci - I feel like he needs to be able to know how to do a basic research paper without support and also handle short well written essays under time pressure - and it might take us another 3 years to get there. Definitely every kid and family situation is different though.

Following! My DS is on a similar trajectory - he finished Connie's Advanced Honors Chem as a 9th grader after starting it in 8th (we did the parent graded, self-paced option) and self-studied for the AP Exam this year. He's also planning to do Connie's Biochem next year in 10th and is on track to finish Calculus midway through 10th grade after already being slowed down with all of the AoPS number theory and counting stuff. Like you, we wanted to avoid the high pressure local public schools, and then ended up moving to a rural area so its moot anyway. We are open to early college but not sure because we are aiming for a competitive school and I also just think there's few times in your life when you get the freedom to explore. One science class I'm hoping to squeeze in is an anatomy course with dissection labs. It's just one of those things that has been on my homeschool to-do list since elementary but we never got around to it. I would also love to do something like environmental science since we live in a rural area near the Adirondacks (lots of farms/mountains/streams/etc.) Trying to figure out if I need to make it look super rigorous to match the rest of the transcript or if we can just have fun with it. I'm really taking Farrar's advice to heart since burnout is exactly what we want to avoid. As an example of how we're doing that - next year DS is going to audit Lukeion Greek 4 rather than take the graded version so he will do the translations with support but without worrying about the tests, then jump into Greek 5 in 11th which is basically self-paced independent study with Mr. Barr.

We just finished AoPS pre-calc and found it very time consuming - I would say 1.5 hours a day of not very fun work. In fact we cut some of the matrix stuff short because it was such a slog. Also a lot of grunt work with those trig functions. DS decided to start Calculus right away and we are absolutely *flying* through it comparatively and having a lot more fun.

DS did his first - AP Chem on Monday. He said it was easier than he expected. He did Connie's Advanced Honors Chem over 1.5 years and then self-studied for the AP Exam. Fingers crossed.

Still figuring some things out but we've settled on for 10th grade: Calculus (AoPS books but taught by me) Clover Valley Organic and BioChem (self-paced) Maybe: Lukeion Greek 4 DS is a potential linguistics/cog-sci major who has also studied Mandarin and Mohawk. He's unsure if he wants to keep Greek going or spend more time on a modern language. He picked Greek because it was linguistically complex, not because he was particularly interested in Classics. We also plan to spend some time in Guatemala this summer and take a few weeks of Spanish, so that's another possibility. History/English are still up in the air. Also not sure if I want to plan on DS taking the AP Calc test. I guess I should investigate. He was an AIME qualifier this year and wants to spend time on beefing up his contest math so want to make sure he has time for that. Also, we're studying for AP Chem right now and I've discovered that I absolutely hate the time devoted to test prep and having to work to a deadline.

We are doing the self-graded Advanced Honors Chem and DS enjoys working at his own pace. We don't like being too tied to a schedule and DS already has one demanding class with strict deadlines (Lukeion Greek 3) so its worked out great for us. As with 8Fill my student mostly gets things right so needing support hasn't been an issue and I am able to help some.

We did an all board game Christmas exchange and so far the new things we've played: Scythe Wingspan Cryo Valley of the Kings: Last Rites Quacks of Quedlinburg The last one is by far our favorite. Really fun push your luck game. Scythe is probably our second favorite - we've been ready for some meatier games in our family.