Roadrunner & Loesje, My rising 9th grade daughter could also use a good, small group French conversation+ class for the fall. I want to use a native of France French speaker, though, so as to be as efficient as possible. Not really interested in "dabbling." Maybe we should talk offline about pulling something together if our students are at a common level? Don't see a PM for you, Loesje, but feel free to PM me if you're interested. yvonne

When my boys wanted to try debate, I came across this online option. I don't have any other information or experience with it. I did not end up following up on it because we found a local debate club that has been wonderful. I hope you find something. This is my boys' first year doing debate and they love it! They want to continue next year and add some competitive speech events.

My boys took Geometry with Leslie Smith at Wilson Hill. We were all very happy with it, and I plan to have my daughter take geometry there as well. (She's currently taking Algebra I with Mrs. Smith.) We opted for Wilson Hill because we've had very good experiences with their teachers and online classes and because they use the Jurgensen geometry text. You might want to take a look at the text used by the providers you're considering. Derek Owens uses Jacobs, which many folks here have used and like. My sons and I saw both the Jacobs text and the Jurgensen text and preferred the Jurgensen.

Two gold on Latin Prose and one gold on Level 2! My children are happy!

Thanks for the links, Hornblower! Helps to have a starting point.

I don't have a real reason for an electronic index cards. We didn't have computers when I was in college, so I was wondering if there was some new, better, miraculously efficient way to manage notes now that computers are ubiquitous. My handwriting is terrible, as is my children's, so I was thinking electronic might be better than handwritten. I've heard of OneNote & Evernote. I'll have to try working with them to see what they can do. New apps are always kind of a steep learning curve for me. Thanks for the ideas! ETA: Is either of those (OneNote or Evernote) any easier or more straightforward to use than the other?

Thanks! Have you seen/tried any electronic index card apps?

My oldest have an 8-10 page history paper to write. I'm having such a hard time helping them find a system of taking notes that works and is efficient for them. How does your student take notes for a research paper today? Most of my friends took notes on index cards. I never used index cards, just took notes on notebook paper and color coded the info for different topics with colored pencils. This worked great for me, but I'm sure most of my friends would think I was crazy. I thought they were crazy trying to manage those monster stacks of index cards. I know it is purely personal preference, but I don't know how to help my students figure out what works best for each of them & they're in crunch mode. (Yep! Should have done this in junior high! Working with my daughter on it now.) Does anyone's student use an app for making electronic index cards? Does anyone or anyone's student just take notes on notebook paper? How do you/they organize the notes on notebook paper? Do you/your student find the paper index cards the easiest option?

So am I. The whole a-g thing is such a pain. It took me a full year to realize that trying to jump a-g hoops was only adding busy work hoops to the academic course work my students were already doing and that the exam route would get us to the same spot. I felt so free after dropping the charter and its a-g requirements! So, yes, that's my understanding..... 1) a-g courses from some provider who offers approved a-g courses (BYU, APEX, UC Scout,...), 2) satisfying a-g courses with subject exams (SAT subject, AP, IB exams) or "college course" (haven't seen "college course" defined, though, so I'm not sure if that means CC course/4 year college course/state U course/any of the former that have been officially designated as an "a-g" course/...) 3) admission by examination (scores on SAT/ACT), and 4) admission by exception.

There's also a third one, but it seems pretty subjective: admission by exception. 'Each year, a small number of students who have the ability and potential to succeed at UC — but don't meet our academic requirements — are admitted by exception. Sometimes even the most creative, focused and intellectually passionate students aren't able to fulfill our requirements for eligibility. Maybe they're home-schooled and don't have transcripts. Maybe their life circumstances have prevented them living up to their promise. The list is endless...."

You don't validate the course as an a-g course. If you get a certain minimum score on the SAT subject exam or on the AP exam, that score fulfills the a-g subject requirement. For example, UC's "a" requirement (of the a-g list) is "History/social studies.... two years o fhistory/social science including one year of world history... and one year of US history....." A score of 550 on the US History SAT Subject exam satisfies one year of the "a" requirement. A score of 540 on the World History SAT subject exam satisfies one year of the "a" requirement. (See the UC page for the necessary AP/IB exam scores or the "college courses" that also satisfy the "a" requirement.) So, you can study whatever and however you want, any course, any text,... and as long as your SAT subject score/AP exam score/IB exam score or "college course" grade meets the minimum listed, you fulfill the a-g requirement. Are you in CA, Quark?

This is what we'll be doing. Instead of using a-g approved courses, our students will need to fulfill the a-g requirements through qualifying scores on the necessary SAT subject tests or AP exams if they want to attend a UC. It isn't a matter of using a-g materials; you can't just use the text/s and syllabus used by some approved a-g course provider. It's a matter of taking a-g approved courses from some provider who offers a course that has been a-g approved. (I've asked before about a home schooler getting a course a-g approved, but the answer has always been that that's not possible.) In CA, one can use a public charter that offers a-g approved courses, as Carol mentioned. You teach the course at home, using the approved text, submitting the specific required assignments, and taking the required exams for the course. The charter's "Highly Qualified Teacher" "oversees" your student's work, meets live online for at least one hour/week with the students taking the same course, and gives your student the grade that will appear on his transcript. Alternatively, anyone can take an a-g approved course through different providers offering a-g approved courses... BYU has some, APEX has some, UC Scout,.... You can search for providers on UC's a-g course list here, but it's clunky. Someone on this list (Laura in CA?), who homeschooled without worrying about the a-g requirements, has a son who was admitted to UC Berkeley (one of the most difficult UC's to get into) on the basis of his test scores. The UCs have a lot of out of state students. I doubt many, if any, got in by taking a-g courses!

Was the Commended cutoff 209, then?

You have to step in! Send the email today. Ask the instructor to call you within 24 hours. Really. That is just not right.

I'd step in, especially if this is a high school class with grades that will go on his transcript and especially if your son had been trying to get the problem resolved. I would get the email trail, paste them into one email to the teacher so the whole sequence is laid out, and ask him to call you to resolve this. You need to stand up for your son! ETA: You'll be modeling for your son how to handle a sticky situation with an instructor that may come up when he's on his own in college. I would take it up with the teacher directly, not with the administration. If the teacher understands that the situation is his fault, and he probably will even if he doesn't come out and say so, he is more likely fight to get the grade changed, assuming your son hands in the missing assignments. I hope you can work it out for your son. I just do not get teachers who, when they've made a mistake, can't simply say, "I messed up. I'm so sorry. Here's what we can do to get this back on track."

:grouphug: (((OnMyOwn))) :grouphug: I so know how hard it is helping a child make and foster friendships, especially when you're both introverts. Yes, I would do it! Life is so much more than whatever finite bit of content our children learn in one academic subject in one school year. I would think the benefits to him of having the human connection, the friends!!!, far outweigh accumulating ten months of additional math knowledge. If taking this class will allow him to maintain/foster/nurture friendships that he's already started making, however tenuously, I'd sacrifice a lot more than just postponing Calculus until freshman year of college to let him take it. You can find a thousand solutions for helping him with Calculus in college. Finding opportunities to make a new friend can be the hardest thing of all. AND, it's not like it would be a loss to make a second pass through something like Algebra II! Maybe it will make Calculus a little easier when he does get to it. He'll have a more solid algebra foundation, and, if nothing else, he'll be another year older/more mature when he gets to it. I'd trust Mark and Kai's take on Lial's and the new text. And since your son thinks it's a good idea, there's just no reason _not_ to take advantage of an opportunity for him to be with friends next year. One good friend can make all the difference in a person's quality of life. (I don't know if calculus a year earlier is going to add that much to anyone's quality of life. LOL)

How much writing does he do for the world history and lit class? If you don't feel it's enough, each semester you could add writing assignments for two or three of the lit books he reads for the class. There are services that will grade them/provide feedback on his essays/papers, if you want outside evaluation.

One of my sons wanted to study ancient Greek when he was in 6th grade. And 7th grade. I finally realized he was serious and registered him for Lukeion's Greek I course in 8th grade. The instructor, Regan Barr, is fantastic. They use the Athenaze text, so it is a serious, high school level course requiring a commitment of time and effort. My son really enjoys it. In fact, it was the one class he most wanted to continue in 9th grade and again in 10th grade, where he is now in Greek III. He will be continuing with Greek IV next year. I wish I had let him start in 6th or 7th! And I'm glad he started with a truly excellent teacher who ignited my son's interest in and love for the subject. I don't know what exactly one does with that much ancient Greek, but one of the reasons we home schooled was to allow our children to find/follow their own interests and I'm glad my son has found something he is so into.

My 8th grade daughter is taking The Potter's School US History for Middle School with Mr. Crosby this year. We've been very happy with it. I especially liked the fact that the instructor incorporates some primary sources. Instead of using a textbook, students read a number of books and the instructor's weekly lectures act as the spine. Students do two or three "book reports" each semester on the books read for the course, as well as one research paper per semester. ETA link

Wheelock's is very straightforward, parts-to-whole text. Lukeion uses Wheelock's first half, Chapters 1-20, for its Latin I course and the second half, Chapters 21-40, for its Latin II course. After that, you'd move to Latin readings using Wheelock's Latin Reader or some other reading text. It's completely secular. A solid, grammar-based text like Wheelock's would give you a solid foundation and an efficient path to Latin readings and the AP Latin exam, if those are your goals.

Sebastian, Did the colleges want to see all his SAT subject scores? Or did they just ask for "two SAT subject scores," leaving it up to him to decide which to send? Thanks, Yvonne

I'm sure it depends on the college, too. It's interesting looking at what some colleges require. Given all UC's talk about a-g (subject) requirements, I was surprised at the subject exam scores needed to satisfy the University of California's requirements..... 560 in Lit to satisfy 3 of the 4 years of required English, 570 on Math Level 1 to satisfy two of the 3 required years of math, 540 on Biology, etc. I'm pretty sure we can choose to only send specific SAT subject exam scores, so my students will take the subject exams for courses they're taking during the year and then decide which, if any, to send.

Your state home school organization could probably tell you what the legal options are for opting out. In our state, we cannot take advantage of classes at the local public schools, but we can homeschool under a public charter. If we do, we have to take state tests, also, but there are some ways to opt out. Thinking of state tests as a cost of doing business with the public charter makes it more palatable to us. When we have a child with a public charter, we do have them do the state testing. State tests are of no direct benefit whatsoever to us. However, the public school or charter is required to do it. As AZ Homeschool Mom points out below, there are consequences to the charter/school if enough students opt out.

Do you know if both the regular and the PreAp/Honors Chem class will be using Novare?

That's a good point about the difference in the texts. You might want to look at both the Jurgensen and the Jacobs texts, and/or have your student look at both. Both my boys (and I) definitely preferred the Jurgensen text over Jacobs. And another data point.... While l found several private, college prep schools that used the Jurgensen text, I found none that used Jacobs. (I looked up schools listed in Barron's article "America's Best Prep Schools" and three of the "best" local private prep schools.) I assume that's because, as a pp pointed out, Jacobs seems to be written more for home schoolers and Jurgensen is more of a traditional school text, not necessarily because one is better than the other. We opted for Jurgensen because I was already familiar with it, I knew it was proof-heavy, and it seemed more straightforward/less wordy than Jacobs.