This is very helpful, thank you! Dd has the scientific notation and conversion factors down, but hasn't done much with balancing chemical equations. Looks like we should hold off a year to better prepare. I want to make sure she's not overwhelmed, and has all the tools to succeed.

Resurrecting this thread to get a feel for the AP Bio class offered by Pennsylvania Homeschoolers. My 12.5 yr old is advanced, and wants to start high school courses next year. She is thinking of doing AP Bio, but the PA Homeschoolers mentions the class is for 11th & 12th graders. Does anyone have experience with putting a younger student in the class (or if it's even allowed)?

Thanks, everyone. I just keep thinking that not everyone who works at NASA had the chance to go to Tahiti to work with Virgin Galactic, you know?

Some background: I have a 12 year old advanced learner with a passion for astronomy and who wants to be an astronautical engineer. She volunteers with the local astronomical society and is working on some independent projects for 4H sharing her love of astronomy & engineering. We were at an astronomy event this last weekend and there was a speaker from a private school in a big city talking about his students' experiences at the school. The school itself has a private observatory, and has connections with Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and NASA. This speaker showed photos of his students in Tahiti and the North Pole working with Virgin & NASA doing really neat things. After the session, I went to speak with him to see how someone without funds like his (ie, homeschoolers) could participate in something like this. I was told that Virgin Galactic is no longer accepting any outside organizations to work with them, and basically that they are not going to share any info on how they made these connections. I decided to research the school he teaches at, and found tuition is $42,000 per year for high school. Now, we thought these experiences were so amazing, and my daughter would love to participate in something like them. But how, as homeschoolers with limited funds, can we take advantage of programs that are so exclusive? I don't have $42,000 to give to a school for the next four years so that my child can do things like the kids from this school did. I guess I'm feeling a little deflated and wondering how can we even compete with kids who have experiences like this and unlimited financial resources. It seems a bit disheartening.

Wow, great feedback, thank you! I'm not familiar with schmoop so I checked it out. Looks like you have to pay for each literary guide, which might turn out to be more than I'd want to spend. I'll have to investigate further. Thanks for the suggestion! Yes! ^^ This! Thank you for that, that's exactly what I needed.

Thanks, I was worried they might try to up-sell me. Guess it's worth a call though.

I was looking for a literature program for my 12 year old - she reads Moby Dick, Nicholas Nickelby, and other classics, but I want to be able to discuss with her without reading the books myself as I work nearly full-time. I found the Excellence in Literature program, which seems like it might be a good fit. Then I realized that there are several "optional pre-requisites" like TWSS, The Elegant Essay Writing Lessons, Teaching the Classics: A Socratic Method for Literary Education and Windows to the World. My 12 yr old is pretty advanced for her age, and is finishing up WWS. But now I feel inadequate and am overwhelmed with all these choices and wondering what I need to do. I started looking at the IEW Teaching Writing packages, and was thinking maybe I should go that route? But then what about Elegant Essay, Teaching Classics, etc? I'm overwhelmed right now and feel like my child is facing essay-writing and literary analysis failure :) Would love suggestions, input, support, criticism, whatever. Some general guidance in any direction is much appreciated. Thank you!

Thanks, Hunter. I checked it out, and I think it's going to require too much work of me. I'm hoping for something that has the discussion questions & answers all done for me.

My 12 year old is interested in doing a Great Books course this year, and I'm not sure where to start. She's read some classics on her own, but I feel like I need more structure to what she's doing - discussion questions, etc. I don't want to kill her love of classics, but at the same time, I'm working nearly full-time and don't have time to read the books along with her and discuss as we go along. I was looking at Connections Academy, and it sounded interesting. Has anyone used it before? Or does anyone have any suggestions, resources or other programs (either online or not) that would help implement a great books program for this next year? Thank you!

I am intrigued by this. We've been looking for something for our daughter (who is only 12, but we figure it's never too early to start researching). Not to hijack, but if you have any info, I'd love to hear how you did this.

Good resources, thank you! You both made my daughter's day - she is so excited she'll be able to do this. Off to research more now!

My 12 year old daughter is very interested in competing in a math contest. She did the AOPS math contest prep course and LOVED it. But, I'm having a hard time finding a contest that accepts homeschoolers. She's the only one that would be competing, as we don't know many "mathy" kids, and that we don't have a team seems to limit us, as well. I looked at AMC, and it seemed like we couldn't get approved. The closest test at a public university would be in another state, about 1.5 hours away. Is it possible for her to compete on her own? And what contests would allow that? Thank you!

Thanks for all the feedback! There's a lot to think about, and I'm going to try some of the samples with dd to see what she thinks.

My 11.5 yr old is nearing the end of Chalkdust's pre-algebra course, and I'm struggling with where to put her for algebra. I've heard great things about AoPS & Thinkwell, but I'm not sure what the best fit is. Since math is the one subject we spend a considerable portion of our hs budget on, I hate to make the wrong decision. Dd has done well with Chalkdust, but she often gets bored of exercise after exercise being the same. We also supplement with LOF and Challenging Word Problems. She'd likes the idea of entering a math competition, so we might do AoPS Mathcounts class, too. Her previous math was all RightStart. We have some friends who use Ask Dr. Callahan, and love it, and I've looked at the dvds. They seem great, but I'm not sure how it compares with the other programs we're considering. She's really interested in physics right now, and she'd like to eventually get to AP-physics, fwiw. Any feedback to help with this (expensive) decision? Thanks!

My 11.5 yr old is nearing the end of Chalkdust's pre-algebra course, and I'm struggling with where to put her for algebra. I've heard great things about AoPS & Thinkwell, but I'm not sure what the best fit is. Since math is the one subject we spend a considerable portion of our hs budget on, I hate to make the wrong decision. Dd has done well with Chalkdust, but she often gets bored of exercise after exercise being the same. We also supplement with LOF and Challenging Word Problems. She'd likes the idea of entering a math competition, so we might do AoPS Mathcounts class, too. Her previous math was all RightStart. We have some friends who use Ask Dr. Callahan, and love it, and I've looked at the dvds. They seem great, but I'm not sure how it compares with the other programs we're considering. She's really interested in physics right now, and she'd like to eventually get to AP-physics, fwiw. Any feedback to help with this (expensive) decision? Thanks!

Thanks, Elizabeth! It makes me feel better knowing she can go straight into AP with just an overview like Rainbow.

Thank you all so much for your helpful feedback & suggestions! Kathy, your response put my mind at ease. I want to make sure I don't let my daughter down, and give her the best chances possible. She's been involved in robotics, 4H and wants to volunteer at the local observatory, and I want to make sure she has time for these hands-on activities. There are times when I feel a little overwhelmed and not sure if we're doing all we need to be for her to reach her full potential. Thanks for talking me down from the ledge :) She's going to be finishing up pre-algebra and intro to geometry (very basic, no proofs or anything) in the next few months, and we were looking at AoPS for Algebra 1. I feel like that's the right choice for her right now after reading all these responses.

Posted on the K-8 board & posting here in case any veterans have any insight :) I have a very science-motivated 6th grade daughter and I'm trying to figure out sequencing of science so she can do AP bio, chem & physics in high school. Her goal is to be an astrophysicist and she wants to go to Harvard or MIT. I'm trying to come up with a way that makes sense to do the next few years of science, so she can take online AP classes in high school (or at a minimum, the AP tests). We're viewing the AP credits as validation of her knowledge, not something that will count as college credit. That said, I'm wondering if we should do a high school level bio or chem for 7th grade, to serve as a first layer in working towards the AP class. I'm not sure what order we should do things in, so any advice or guidance on that, as well as secular high school level curriculum would be greatly appreciated. This is all new to us, and I'm just trying to ensure the timing on everything works out :) Thank you!

Thank you, Lisa! Those links were invaluable, and I appreciate it. I know her interests could change, but we really drill that you can never have enough math & science and it will help her no matter what she decides to do. Thank you!

I have a very science-motivated 6th grade daughter and I'm trying to figure out sequencing of science so she can do AP bio, chem & physics in high school. Her goal is to be an astrophysicist and she wants to go to Harvard or MIT. I'm trying to come up with a way that makes sense to do the next few years of science, so she can take online AP classes in high school (or at a minimum, the AP tests). We're viewing the AP credits as validation of her knowledge, not something that will count as college credit. That said, I'm wondering if we should do a high school level bio or chem for 7th grade, to serve as a first layer in working towards the AP class. I'm not sure what order we should do things in, so any advice or guidance on that, as well as secular high school level curriculum would be greatly appreciated. This is all new to us, and I'm just trying to ensure the timing on everything works out :) Thank you!

Thank you! I checked out the site, and it is exactly what I was looking for :)

My 11.5 year old daughter has a huge interest in radio astronomy right now, and I was wondering if anyone has any books, videos, etc. that might be beneficial. I did a search on Amazon, and our library doesn't have a single book that came up on Amazon. Thank you!

Thanks! I was looking at the FLL robots since we're going to need one anyway, but I wasn't sure about the options for adding features on, or if it'd be able to do everything she wanted it to.

My 11 year old daughter is very interested in a programmable robot. She wants to use it to create program that will solve issues for people with disabilities, and since this is something I am not at all familiar with, I could really use some guidance :) I don't even know where to begin to look for such a thing, and I'm not sure how it works. Does anyone have any suggestions on something we could get that would allow her to program it to do specific tasks? Also, is it possible to add on parts to it (like a part that would allow it to "read" a line and follow it around the house)? Thank you for any help - I'm completely in the dark and not even sure where to start!

Thanks!