Kareni, sorry that I missed your thread. My response to this thread was written while my dd dictated the items over my shoulder. Ovid was simply not on my "radar." :o In response to your question, dd says: "I highly recommend the Charles Martin translation because it's easy to understand and the stories are fabulous! It's written in contemporary English, but it's not as annoyingly colloquial as the language in Stanley Lombardo's translation of the Iliad." HTH.

FloridaLisa, I'm excited about the American Government class for next year, too (although dd won't be doing the AP level). Every evening our home becomes "election central" as we surf cable news channels. Dh and kids are American-born, but I became a US citizen fairly recently, and I'm looking forward to learning alongside dd (I crammed the day before the citizenship test and immediately forgot most of the material! :sad:). Dd, almost 14yo, is excited about foreign language work. Latin II with Scholars Online, Spanish with Instituto Cervantes AVE classes, and Swedish with Rosetta Stone. At this moment she's listening to the Aristocats movie in Hebrew. Some days I feel that I should just chuck the rest of the curriculum and let her focus solely on languages. Hmmm... perhaps Geometry would be more appealing in Swahili? :001_smile:

Sophia, thank you very much for the response. I just finished emailing Mr. Owens. The more we look at his courses, the more we like what we see. If his courses can be used to meet NCAA eligibility requirements, I think we may have a winner! :hurray:

I stumbled upon these this morning as I was trawling the web. The online classes look pretty appealing (Mr. Owens uses texts well-loved by our group-- Dolciani, Jacobs, etc.). Has anyone here used these (or even heard of them)? http://www.derekowens.com/0809/index.php Thanks.

Dd completed 8th grade this year, so I'll list only the "high school level" curriculum and reading material: Winners: Wheelock's Latin I online class with Sasha Decker Jacobs Algebra (a fabulous and unexpected hit in our house :) done in combination with a CD of whiteboard lectures from http://www.kingdomtutors.com) Mythology Alpha and Beta classes from Lukeion.org EPGY writing courses SAT Question of the Day from the College Board site NaNoWriMo month-long writing contest Anything to do with the national election (books, websites, cable news channels, volunteering etc.) The Iliad Ovid's Metamorphoses Oedipus Rex The Crucible Bless Me, Ultima Shakespeare: A Winter's Tale, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet Losers: Analytical Grammar (dd didn't find it particularly helpful. She feels the Latin course gave better training on grammar concepts) A local creative writing co-op class (two thumbs down!) The Odyssey (lacked novelty. Dd had heard the story too often before she sat down to read it herself) The Aeneid (too long, too dull, dd didn't "get" it. Perhaps we should have waited on this one! :tongue_smilie:) Hesiod (not read in a modern translation. Dd found it to be both dull and dense)

Have you looked at Spain's Instituto Cervantes AVE classes ( http://ave.cervantes.es/ing.htm --don't forget to click on the "English" language option :) )? I believe one signs up for classes through Instituto Cervantes centers in New York or Chicago. The classes are multimedia and seem to me to be fairly rigorous. The diagnostic test is a bear! One can sign up for pure distance classes (no tutor, no classmates) or for a hybrid online class with a tutor, etc. I haven't researched it thoroughly yet, but it looks good to me. HTH.

Dd hasn't taken any classes with Keystone yet, but we're planning to sign her up for four (English 9, Honors Biology, Geometry, and American Gov't) next school year, her 9th grade year. In order to graduate with a Keystone high school diploma, a student has to have at least one course in each major academic area (the remaining courses can be taken from other sources and then approved by Keystone for inclusion in the transcript), so dd's going to try to qualify for the diploma right off the bat. In addition, Dd will be also take foreign language courses (one online course and two homeschooled courses), and EPGY writing courses. Why are we considering Keystone? Well, the main reason is that dd wants NCAA eligibility, and Keystone is one of the providers approved by the NCAA. We're treading warily and I'm sure dd's going to miss the freedom of choosing her own curriculum next year, but we're willing to give it a try. We've been told that it's pretty easy to get a homechooled course approved for inclusion in the transcript. We'll find out if this is true, I guess :001_unsure:. Laura K is right-- there aren't too many people on this board who have used Keystone. The Keystone Yahoo group (KNHS-homeschool) can probably answer many of your questions, though. It's populated by Keystone parents who are seemingly not afraid of speaking honestly about the strengths and weaknesses of the program. The group was started by parents and, as far as I can tell, isn't moderated by Keystone. HTH.

Here's our current plan for next year (the plan seems to change every week or so-- at some point we'll have to stop trawling the internet and commit :D): The following four courses from Keystone National High School (we decided to try Keystone next year because dd anticipates needing NCAA eligibiltiy and this is an easy way to do it): Geometry English 9 American Government Biology, Honors Additional writing classes (EPGY W11 Series) Latin II (Scholars Online) Spanish II (So You Really Want to Learn Spanish 2 textbook combined with Instituto Cervantes online courses, http://ave.cervantes.es/ ) Swedish I (Rosetta Stone-- this one's just for fun :)) Music: Piano lessons Drama: Shakespeare with a local homeschool troupe PE: Competititve Olympic-Style Riflery and weight-training/cardio-vascular workouts at the Y ACT prep Extra: dd is determined to write a novel next year. She's looking forward to November (NaNoWriMo month!)

Gwen, Congratulations on your ds's fabulous choice! I'm sure that he'll love W&L. And how lucky he is to have an older sibling there to show him the ropes! Yes, enjoy that relaxing cup of coffee and nibble on a premium bar of chocolate-- you certainly deserve it. I've been away from the computer for a week or two and see that you've had an "interesting" time recently. It must have been very scary but I'm very delighted to hear that your dd2's diabetes is now under control. Best, Begona

Whoot! Yippee! And Hooray! An Echols Scholar, I am MOST impressed! Congrats to you and to super-ds! Let's see... Yes, it's big, but he'll be in the Echols dorm, and that's a very good thing. I've heard from dd that the Echols Scholars really bond with each other and that the partying in that dorm is minimal. I'll ask dd the latest word when I next speak with her and I'll send you a report via private message. Dd hadn't heard about the Echols program when she applied to UVA-- she went to a New England high school and the college counselor didn't know much about southern colleges. We asked dd to apply to UVa because it's in-state for us. Yes, there is a lot of partying in general. Last year dd had to do such unsavory things as babysit drunk roommates, and clean up after messy late night parties that she didn't attend, and she resented every single minute (as would I in that situation). She also complained that on weekends she was shouted down every time she tried to initiate a conversation about what they'd been learning in class during the week. Everyone wanted to "veg." But don't fret, I'm sure that the atmosphere in the ES dorm is much different. This year things are much better for dd. She's with four girls in an apartment and everyone is serious about studying and getting on with their academics. Labs and study sessions are held by grad students of varying abilities, but the professors have been truly wonderful. One of her profs left his home and cell numbers with his students in case they ever needed him. Two others recommended her for scholarships within the computing department. One invited the kids to his home for dinner. As I mentioned, she's taking Computer Science (UVa started a B.A. program in CompSci last year and it's been a fabulous opportunity for dd, who didn't enter through the Engineering School). Mostly she hangs out with the geeky E-School kids and they help each other with homework, watch movies, or play Wii during their down time. It took her a while to find her niche and she thought about transferring to W&M last year, but the CompSci B.A. changed her mind. She's happy now, so I think she made the right decision. Good luck to your ds. I hope that he takes the time to savour his acceptances before he gets down to the difficult work of making a final choice.

My older dd, now a second-year student at UVA, was convinced all through her high school years that she wanted a Classics degree in Latin. She took all the Latin courses and APs. She spent time in Italy and took box-loads of photos of Roman ruins. She KNEW she wanted to become a Latin teacher in a New England boarding school. Well, yesterday she filled the paperwork for her major-- Computer Science and Linguistics double major, with a minor in Greek (she's also studying Arabic). Now she dreams about working for a security agency in DC. She still enjoys languages (ancient, modern, and programming), but her goals have changed. Kids often change while they're at school. The best schools open their minds and their hearts and expose them to new academic experiences. We looked at lots of small LACs with dd and are thrilled that she finally wound up at a relatively large school where there is depth in many different departments. It's risky, I think, to specialize too early. If I were you I would look for schools that have fabulous Econ departments, but that are also large enough and vibrant enough to let him grow in another direction should he find a new passion.

Each lesson in the textbook contains four sets of problems. Set I is review problems from previous lessons. Sets II and III contain problems from the current lesson and are essentially identical. Set IV is a challenge problem. Answers (not worked-out solutions) for Set II are contained in the back of the textbook. The Teacher's Guide contains answers (again, not worked-out solutions) to Sets I, III, and IV.

My dd took EPGY Math 6 and 7. While she loved her tutor and enjoyed the program overall, I felt that dd's retention of the material was poor, so we switched to Jacobs Algebra this year. We both LOVE Jacobs (dd's using it alongside a dvd from http://www.KingdomTutors.com ). Although dd has always been strong in math, she never felt self-confident in it until we started using Jacobs. For her the textbook approach was a better fit than the online EPGY material (where it's simple to get a "wrong" answer by mistyping the response). I've heard that it's not difficult to receive a financial break from EPGY. HTH.

Gwen, I feel your pain! ;) At our house we're now scrambling to find NCAA-approved courses for next year for our 8th grade dd. This is not the way I envisioned homeschooling high school! It limits our choices and it's going to be much more expensive than we originally thought. I seem to remember that your kids have taken courses through places such as PA Homeschoolers, Keystone, and Scholars Online. The NCAA website lists many PAH and Keystone courses, but it came as a surprise to me that Scholars Online isn't on the NCAA list at all. Surely SO Wheelocks Latin classes are more rigorous than many other Latin classes out there. Our plan (as of now) for next year is to cherry-pick from Keystone and PAH and to throw in the Scholars Online Latin just because dd loves it so. I've heard about other homeschooled Div I athletes in dd's sport (riflery) who have successfully taken cc and university classes during their high school years, so I'm investigating that option, too. Someone mentioned that the NCAA doesn't accept cc credits, but I'm not sure that's right. I have heard that it's a very bad idea for an athlete to become a matriculated student at a college during high school. I think there's also a limit to the number of college credit hours allowed on the high school transcript. Are you a member of the hs2coll (Homeschool to College) yahoo group? They have a wealth of info in their archives-- including threads relating to NCAA eligibility. Good luck!

Dd's finishing up Jacobs Algrebra this year (8th grade), but I had resigned myself (because of NCAA rules) to not listing it on the high school transcript. Do you think that if we allow our dc to stretch the last couple of chapters into next fall, we could call that 9th Grade Algebra? ;)

We met a biathlete once. She was a former marathoner, in her late thirties, looking for a sport that wouldn't be quite as hard on her body. As a shooter, she was pretty poor, but she had an incredibly low heart-rate and the national coaches were hoping that if they could raise her rifle scores a little, she would qualify for the Olympic team. In the end, she didn't. But meeting her gave us a deep respect for the physical and mental training that goes into biathlons. Not a sport for weaklings! Dd has friends, former teammates, and acquaintances on the following teams: U. Alaska, Fairbanks (Div I) U. Mississippi (Div I, women) MIT (Div III) U. Nebraska (Div I, women) Princeton (club) At the moment, Alaska is the top dog. The service academies are also highly competitive. Dd's high school-aged team has beaten the JV team at the U.S. Naval Academy during scrimmages the past couple of years, much to the chagrin of the USNA coach. :D Nebraska had a superb women's team but recently their coach took a position elsewhere and it's not clear yet how the team will cope with the change. The other teams listed above each have one or more Olympic hopeful among their ranks.

Here, I'll share the only other thing I know about NCAA rules: the NCAA places a tight muzzle on coaches. Perhaps you knew this, but I was surprised when I found out. My dd has had lovely, informative, and light-hearted conversations over the years with several college riflery coaches. A couple of them have asked her to choose their schools when the time comes. But I've been told that the only reason they can initiate conversations with her is because they know that she's under 14yo and that the NCAA bans coaches from approaching high school athletes and places restrictions on what the coaches can say. I had often wondered why college coaches tended to keep to themselves and seemed so stand-offish at college/high school matches. Now I know. Weird, huh?

Nancy, all of your recommendations are fabulous; thank you for posting. I especially appreciate your counsel regarding picking the school first, then the program. My dd's sport is target-shooting-- it's not exactly easy to turn that sport into a lucrative career after college!

Georgia, I looked at the Clonlara, American School, and Keystone websites today. I agree with you that Clonlara looks expensive for high school. I had hoped, in my naive way, that I could submit home documentation for most of our courses and that a place like Clonlara would somehow, magically, give the courses the official seal of approval and gather them into an awe-inspiring transcript, but, alas, that doesn't seem to be the case. :001_smile: My impression is that students from Clonlara graduate having taken mostly Clonlara online classes. Linda-- please correct me if I'm wrong. I still think that at our house we'll wind up cobbling things together almost entirely from the "NCAA-approved" list-- for next year perhaps an AP social studies class from PA Homeschoolers, Biology (plus lab) from Keystone, Geometry from American School, etc. Dd does not want to give up Scholars Online Latin, even if it doesn't qualify for NCAA approval-- she's planning to take one of the Latin AP exams in a couple of years. If that doesn't please the NCAA, then in addition I'll have her take a pre-approved Spanish class or two. If we dig deep enough into the NCAA course offerings (and also into our pocketbooks :001_rolleyes:) we might be able to come up with something approaching the education we were hoping for when we first started homeschooling our dc. If you find any juicy courses out there-- please let me know!

Thank you everyone for your words of wisdom. I've been feeling like Linda Blair in The Exorcist, my head spinning around in fast motion and unmentionables spewing out of my mouth. But now I'm slowly coming to grips with the fact that I won't be able to homeschool high school the way we had originally planned. I detest the idea of handing over any responsibility for my dd's education to a faceless oversight agency, umbrella school, or whatever, just for the sake of pleasing the mysterious NCAA. But if that's what it takes, I suppose we'll make the best of it-- one year at a time. :001_smile: On the bright side, thanks to you lovely and generous ladies, we are now prepared and forewarned. I would have been heartbroken had we found all this out after starting 9th grade this September. You've given us such a blessing by sharing your stories. Thank you.

I totally agree. It hit us like a bombshell yesterday when we realized that all the planning we had been doing for high school may come to naught. All the agonizing about whether to choose Jacobs Geometry or Chalkdust Geometry, for example, seems worthless at this point if we have to stick dd in an online class that uses a traditional ps textbook. I'm appalled that I may have to lower our academic standards if we go 100% with NCAA-approved online classes. Linda has pointed us to a way to keep some of our beloved homeschool classes while appeasing the NCAA. I'm going to look into Clonlara so that we can keep our math, Latin, and English curriculum without selling all of our integrity to the all-mighty NCAA. Best of luck to your swimmer. If I find any useful info during my research, I'll keep you all posted.

Margaret, you're obviously a pro at doing this. I'm sorry that your NARS transcript was rejected-- what a waste of your time and money. It must have been very frustrating to you at the time. But I really do appreciate that you've shared that info with us. I'm hoping that if we stick to pre-approved classes from the list of NCAA approved online high schools (Keystone, Penn Homeschoolers, etc.) my dd would be more likely to sail through the approval process. Did your homeschool transcript contain any classes that were not on their official list? If so, did that slow down the approval process? Apart from the different number of approved core courses for Divs I and II (16 for Div I and 14 for Div II), did you find any other differences between these two? Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

Linda, thank you for posting. I'm beginning to understand now why homeschool athletes feel the need for some extra insurance when it comes to facing the NCAA clearinghouse monster. :eek: It's great to hear about your hard-working, dedicated ds and I can empathize with the sacrifices that he's had to make at such a young age for his sport. It seems to me that you're wisely planning well-ahead of time and that your son will benefit as a result. I've only recently come to terms with the fact that my dd wants to target-shoot in college. It was a huge blow today when I realized that I'll have to drastically change our academic plan right now based on that possibility. The fact that her tough Scholars Online Latin classes can't count as "approved core classes" has me floored (Scholars Online doesn't seem to be on the list of NCAA-approved high schools). :ohmy: I think I'm going to pore over the Keystone Academy website and see if I can squeeze my expectations into their courses.

Nancy, thank you very much for the detailed response. It gives me a lot to think about. If I've understood correctly, the NCAA expects all of its 16 core classes to come from its "list of approved core courses (form 48H)". One doesn't need to join an umbrella group, but one does have to cherry-pick from the "approved" list unless one wants to run the risk of not being approved in time for the freshman sports season to start. If that's the case, dh and I are going to have to sit down with dd and have a very serious chat about whether or not it's worth sacrificing her favorite "non-approved" courses (e.g., Scholars Online Latin, Jacobs math, Mythology through Lukeion Project, and Spanish with a textbook at home) for the sake of eventually becoming a member of a Div I sports team. She's a target shooter-- two-time Jr. Olympian and a national record holder. She knows three former teammates who shoot on NCAA teams. It'll hurt when she realizes that if she wants to follow in their footsteps, she's going to have to make some tough educational sacrifices. :crying:

I agree. I've read through the NCAA homeschool page and can't find any mention of umbrella schools myself. But then why do most homeschoolers seem to go this route? HSLDA has some interesting information on http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/hslda/200112120.asp I think I may bite the bullet and get myself a HSLDA membership as extra insurance. And unless I hear that it's suicidal to go it alone, without NARS or Clonlara, we'll stick to our original plan of providing a homemade transcript. It would be reassuring to hear the opinions of those whose homeschooled dc have successfully made it through the NCAA clearinghouse, though. Best of luck to you and to your athlete(s).