This is another of the difficulties/unintended consequences of CC. CC _does_ provide a ready-made social group and this works out really well in K-6. You can easily do it as a side thing one day a week and still have time to get some solid academics in on the other days. However, once you hit junior high and high, you no longer have the time to do both--your own solid academics and CC as a supplementary, one-day-a-week, primarily social group. But, if you've started out with CC in the elementary years, you've heavily invested in that social group. What do you do when your kids hit junior high and you want real teachers who know & love their subject? It's hard to start over from scratch, making new friends with similar academic goals, establishing and nurturing a new social group. If CC's 7th + up programs don't fit your academic goals, you may find yourself in a difficult spot.... drop CC (and lose that social group) to pursue the academics you want or compromise on your academic goals in order to maintain the social network you and your kids have built up over the years. It's a hard spot to be in, but maybe it's worth it. There's a lot to be said for the peer group interaction and friendships kids form in Foundations & Essentials.

A local friend's daughter successfully used Wheelock's independently, using Kolbe syllabus. They aren't Christian, so she just ignored any Christian comments in the syllabus. If your dd has a good grammar foundation, it is very doable.

I was reading this blog by an admissions person, posted in another thread, and the idea of "fronting" in a counselor letter (and app) jumped out at me. By "fronting," he simply means putting the most important point/s first, which is probably standard, except for those of us who tend to build from least to most important when we write. But then, he also talks about bullet pointing, bolding, or italicizing your main points as desirable & helpful for app readers. Has anyone done a counselor letter where they perhaps bullet point their main points at the beginning and then explain each further in paragraphs below? Or bolded the main points where they appeared in the paragraphs? As a primarily pragmatic person, I know _I_ would appreciate that if I had to read hundreds of apps in 8-10 mins. It makes sense to me, but maybe it would be too odd?

Did you follow standard business letter format for the counselor letter? I don't have a pretty letterhead graphic. Please tell me I don't need one. Sender's address (my CA registered school "name" & address?) (Sender's telephone?) Date Dear sir or madam: (Or did you use some other salutation?) Body (Paragraphs not indented. Skip a line between paragraphs.) Sincerely, (Or another closing?) my name

duplicate post

My dd also had Mrs. Salmon, but it was a few years ago for LfC A. She was a very organized, structured teacher. We were very happy with the class. Regarding completing LfC C before LA1.... Don't bother, especially for a 7th grader. As the pp mentioned, LA1 really does start from the very beginning and a 7th grader could definitely do it, even without any prior Latin background.

Oops. Forgot about that. :( Scratch that idea!

It sounds like you are at the point where you just have to bite the bullet and either do physics with her or pay for someone else to do it with her. She cannot do physics on her own. No matter what videos you set in front of her, no matter how basic a text you find, no matter how much effort and time she puts into it on her own, .... physics is a stretch. I know I never could have done it on my own. Not only is it flat out hard for me to understand, but I also have almost zero personal interest in it. It sounds like she's in a similar spot. Since she cannot do it on her own, someone needs to do it with her or at the very least be available to talk it through with her. I would not throw more money at different curricula, different texts, different videos, etc. I would put the money into getting an actual person to help her. The most economical option would be for you to sit with her, watch the physics videos, read the physics text, do the physics problems, take notes, and work through it with her. The other option is to "pay" for outside help.... cash, barter to do something for someone who could help, something. Do you know anyone at all who likes physics and might be willing to volunteer to help her? (I volunteer to help a couple friends a couple hours a day with subjects I am good at and that I enjoy teaching. I bet there are others out there who would love to do the same. Maybe an older, retired person at church? Maybe someone who used to be some sort of engineer or a former high school teacher?) Can you barter with another family to babysit their kids or help with housework or ?? in exchange for them helping your daughter with physics? Maybe another homeschooling family with a child doing physics would be willing to include her with their child in studying physics? At $58/month, Derek Owens is probably the lowest cost, highest level of support you'll be able to find out there. Maybe there's some way to free up her schedule so she could focus on getting physics done in five months instead of ten, which would halve the cost? Maybe she has one class she could drop this semester in order to work double time on physics and then pick up the dropped subject and work on that double time next semester when she's done w/ physics? Could she take physics at a community college? Some people give their home schooled student a full year's credit for only one semester of a community college class. A one semester CC class might be more economical than five months of Derek Owens?

Self-paced. Start any time you want. Only pay for as long as it takes the student to complete the class. Very structured.

Do you have to do all classes there, or do they have an a la carte option? My children have done, and are doing, a couple of lab science classes at our local hybrid. We've been very happy with those. For us, a hybrid is like any other resource out there.... We pick and choose the best teachers and classes we can find, regardless of where they are. We chose the specific science classes expressly because they had highly qualified, excellent teachers. A side benefit of the hybrid is the class/peer environment, but we would not use the hybrid only for a peer environment. No one organization/institution is going to have the best teachers and the best classes for every single subject. If we had to take all classes at the hybrid, we would not use it.

:hurray: :party: :party: :party:

Do what is best for your daughter. Since your dd would be able to do the class work at home, on her own, without requiring any additional/extra effort/time from the teacher, it sounds like the primary issue is the bio teacher's feelings about your dd missing class. There's nothing you can do about her feelings. It's commendable that you take the co-op class seriously enough that you're torn about missing class, but those opportunities (JCL & translation contest) are too great to miss. That happens & the co-op teacher, if she's been doing this for a while and/or if she's been through the college app process, must know that you need to prioritize your dd's needs and goals.

Yes, my oldest took Eng 3:Lit Survey in 9th, AP Eng Lit last year in 11th, and are TPS’s Eng 6: College Brit Lit this year in 12th. I’m not as on top of it this year bec of college apps, so I can’t say w certainty that there’s as much writing or feedback on writing as in their first class. Will find out and update when I have time. Sorry, thought someone upthread was looking for any high school level Eng class w writing!

I did this, too— included course descriptions of the courses they’re taking this fall (of senior year.)

Hands-down best, most extensive, most useful, most formative writing feedback we've gotten in high school English courses was with TPS. Of Linnea Geno's Eng 3: Lit Survey course I still sing the praises. :) I know TPS will not work for everyone because it is Christian. Just putting it out there for those for whom it might work. (Cindy Lange provided similar writing feedback when my students were in her middle school classes. We haven't been able, schedule-wise, to use her high school classes yet.)

If you're already doing solid, rigorous English courses with writing, you might be able to do the English courses you really want to do and still take the AP Language exam w/out having to take a specific," AP Eng Lang" course. At least three of the high end private schools in our area do not offer AP Eng Lang courses. However, they encourage their students to take the AP Lang exam in 11th because by then, with the Eng courses the students have already taken in 9th-11th, they're also prepared enough to do well on the AP Eng Lang exam. (These schools do, however, offer specific "AP Eng LIT" courses. Just a thought.

The Omnibus text itself is only optional, not required, for the WHA Great Books/Conversations courses.

Yes, the Solutions Manual has more complete answers & proofs. I could probably scan & send a sample if you want. We couldn't do Jurgensen w/ just the TEd.

The OP already said straight out that they did not want to study science. She also already said straight out that this was an elective, not a "science" course. I'm sure you were only trying to be helpful, but I don't think she was looking to have someone define the types of courses she wants. ("Religion" vs "Science") It's pretty clear what she's looking for. It's pretty clear that you don't approve of what she's looking for. You didn't really offer an answer to her specific question (resources on creation science), just made your point about science & religion. I've always loved the education boards because they are relatively free of the unpleasantness that seems frequent on the Chat board. It's dismaying to see a hint of it showing up here. The Chat board might be a better place to discuss the benefits, differences, ... of a "religion" course and a "science" course.

Katilac- Did you include electives (PE, "instrumental music", etc) in your GPA calculations? Either unweighted or weighted? On the Common App, I'm planning to list the unweighted, but on my transcript, I'll have an extra 12 characters lol giving the weighted gpa, at the top, just under the unweighted. Is that what you did? Or did you list the weighted on the CommonApp form? Thank you!

Thank you so much, RootAnn! It seems pretty straightforward to me, (once one decides on amount of weighting & for what) but an irl friend thought I was off. Thank you!

If she has a passport, you could use that as an ID. That's what my kids do & we haven't had any issues.

Thanks, Regentrude! Didn't know if I was missing something that would come back to bite me. I didn't realize that the CommApp created one huge pdf of the school portion. Sounds like everything will be kept together no matter where I upload the course descriptions. Thank you!

Totally agree w/ the subjectivity & squishiness factor of "honors" vs anything else. That's why I cannot write "honors" without putting it in quotes! It's completely subjective. If a provider labels something "honors," I'll take it. Or, if a standard college text is used, I'll also call it "honors," as with Lukeion's Greek 1 & 2 which use the Athenaze text. But, yes, that is a subjective decision. In fact, I think grades overall are completely squishy, outside the context of a single teacher with a group of students. All they're good for is comparing one student to another within the same body of students. They are not an absolute, objective metric because they are not at all standardized, even between teachers at the same school sometimes, let alone between different schools across a state or across the nation. However, grades, "honors" vs "regular" vs "AP" classes... all of it is a system we have to do our best to work within. There is no absolute, objective answer. Mostly I was just looking for confirmation of how to calculate weighted GPA, assuming a weight of +0.5 for some classes and +1.0 for some classes (and no additional weighting for some classes.)

We may not even qualify for a scholarship, but I definitely don't want to miss any opportunity if there is one! If PE is an A, that would not pull down a 4.0 GPA, right? It would only pull down a weighted GPA, right? Hm. Maybe I should take the graded electives out of the GPA.