We don't have any experience with MP's high school classes, so this may not help, but my daughter took the Middle School Composition I class with Mrs. Roemer two years ago, in 6th grade. We were both happy with it. I thought Mrs. Roemer did a great job using the technology. She would create an individual "whiteboard" space for each student and have them all show up on screen. She'd ask the students to write an example of something or an introductory paragraph for an essay, and the students would all see each person's example. Reminded me of Andrew Pudewa's approach of brainstorming/sharing ideas. Sometimes, Mrs. Roemer would have students start working on the essay assignment for that week on their "whiteboards," and she would "go around the room" helping individual students as the rest were working. It was a very good use of technology to get the best aspects of a brick & mortar classroom situation (instructor being able to help individual students, while others continue working) and the best aspects of an online class (all students being able to participate in parallel rather than having to wait to participate serially.) Haven't seen any other online class use individual whiteboards like that. OTOH, maybe that was what made the screen too busy for the pp, so YMMV.) My daughter took the Narnia class at TPS the following year because she really likes the Narnia books, but we might have continued with MP's class otherwise.

My nephew did a creative writing workshop at Sarah Lawrence College the summer after his junior year. He loved it. SL is now his top choice for college. I have no idea what it costs, though.

What else would it be?

Complete tangent, but if you're interested in developing a strong online French program, I have the perfect, native French instructor for you!

Melissa and Dawn, Thank you so much for posting about your experience! It's always a little worrisome when I can't find any feedback on a class or organization, so I'm glad to hear good things about CLRC. OnMyOwn, thanks for the suggestion. I'll email Anne and see what I can find out about their Great Books class. Any other advice or experience with CLRC, please post or PM me! Thank you! yvonne

Anyone have any experience at all with any CLRC classes? Please pm, if that's easier.... Thanks!

Thank you so much, everyone! I picked up some Nerds and tic tacs today. One of these ideas has got to work!

We've tried the straw tactic and that hasn't worked, yet, either. I tried putting the whole capsule in the applesauce, but that didn't work. Now I'm back to emptying the capsule onto the applesauce. We'll try the big swallow w/ no pill and the m&m idea, too. When I learned, it was because I realized that I was swallowing pieces of food that were bigger than pills. But that hasn't helped, either. Anyone tried this cup? ETA: Nerds are tiny! Maybe we'll start there. Peas, too, are smaller than the capsules and my dd likes frozen peas, so there wouldn't be that initial psychological block against nasty tasting pills going on.

Read this to my daughter so she wouldn't feel as bad. She says, "High five through the internet!" LOL

Any suggestions would be appreciated! I've been opening the capsules and emptying them onto a little dish of applesauce, but you can't do that with everything.

My niece, who was at a brick & mortar, applied to Penn. Although she'd taken five of the harder AP exams and had scored four 5s and one 4, the admissions office at Penn contacted her and the GC at the school, requesting two (maybe it was three?) SAT subject exam scores. Unfortunately, she hadn't taken any SAT subject exams; she had thought AP's would suffice for college apps. Doesn't make any sense at all to me, but now I plan to have my students take at least 3 SAT subject exams whether or not they also take an AP exam in the subject.

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Does anyone have any experience with CLRC's Great Books courses taught by Sue Ellen Turscak? I'd appreciate any feedback/thoughts/information! Thanks, Yvonne

WTMA registration hasn't opened yet. It was supposed to open for current families this week, but has been delayed for tech reasons, it seems. Not sure when regular enrollment for new families opens. From an email update this am: "Early next week, we'll email an announcement to each family when registration is officially open. *Early registration discounts have been extended, and will now be available through the end of March."

My daughter's had more trouble this semester, too. But her last two quizzes and last two homeworks have not been graded, yet. Are you sure your son is looking at the final grades on his translations? As Mrs. Barr always says, the grade is not final until she goes over them. Until then, the grade can be scarily low.

I've found the WHA instructors to be very helpful and second ValRN's suggestion to contact them directly. I wouldn't feel comfortable passing on information like that from a class we've done. It seems a little... unethical or something. Maybe one or two weeks of assignments to see what the workload is like, but definitely not the entire class. Instructors probably put a lot of time and effort into deciding which chapters to cover and which problems to assign, so it seems almost like intellectual property. Sometimes you can find information like that online from some public schools, though. If you're looking to put together your own course for your student, maybe try that? ETA--Another thought: The TEds of the Algebra I & II books have a chart that spells out exactly which problems to assign for each lesson. If you have a student who needs more practice, there's a column of assignments for a "maximum course." If the student needs less practice, you could use the list of assignments for a "minimum course." There's also a list for an "average course." Perhaps the TEd of the PreCalc text has the same feature.

Bumping

Hi, Does anyone have a student in any of the WTMA literature classes? I would so appreciate any thoughts or feedback on the class. A local friend's son is taking the Rhetoric I class and has been nothing but positive about it. I'm wondering if taking Rhetoric 1 and a literature class (ancients) would be a reasonable load? It looks like the lit courses are mostly reading & class discussion, with two papers per semester and "weekly summaries." What do the "weekly summaries" entail? Simple reporting of what happens? What is the work load like? How much reading does your student do each week? How much writing? Are the class meetings mostly lecture? Is there much student-teacher and/or student-student interaction? Does the class require discussion board posts? Will your student, or another of your children, be taking another WTMA lit class next year? Please feel free to PM me if that's easier! Thank you so much! yvonne

I've had very good experiences with BookDepository.com for books published in Europe, like Latin Prep & SYRWtL Latin/French, etc. Free shipping!

WHA is unabashedly Christian, and the teachers teach from that world view. One of the things I like about the WHA science courses is that they do not limit themselves to certain texts just because they are specifically Christian texts, like Apologia, Science Shepherd, BJU,... I am a committed Christian, but I don’t think that Christians need to, or should, avoid secular science texts. Whether one is a young earth creationist or not, one should understand the theory of evolution because it's a big part of "science." A YEC will consider it a flawed or incorrect theory, but s/he should still have an understanding of the theory. If I recall correctly, the students in the WHA biology class read & discussed the evolution unit of the ML text and took a unit test on it. Obviously, that would require having some understanding of evolution, regardless of personal beliefs about it. I think the WHA instructors try to be very respectful of different families' beliefs. Even among Christians, there are YEC, OEC, theistic evolutionists, etc. I'm pretty sure the Biology instructor presented the theory of evolution simply as something to be understood, but left it to the families to interpret as correct or not, according to their beliefs. I know she never spoke of it derisively, as I've sometimes heard Christian speakers do. I'm not sure that was much help! If you have questions or concerns, definitely contact Marie Owens, the Biology instructor. She is so helpful and responsive.

Does the syllabus for the 1+4 class list the texts that they'll be reading, by any chance? Thanks!

I think Kathy in Richmond's daughter prepared for AP Latin on her own. Hopefully, she'll stop in here. If not, you might try pm'ing her about what they used.

Sorry, I thought I'd already answered this, but looks like it didn't post! I don't think _extensive_ knowledge of the Bible is necessary. It helps to have some familiarity with at least the more common Bible stories. You could easily get that by reading through a book of Bible stories, like this or this. Like any other subject, the more pieces you have beforehand, the more you get out of it. If you have a framework, it's easier to build on that framework. That probably doesn't help much. My daughter did have background knowledge of Bible stories, people, and themes going into the class. I imagine that that did contribute to her enjoying the class so much. It's always fun to pick up on allusions and allegories. It's hard to say whether a student with little to no background would like the class as much. Sorry I can't help more with that!

Class schedule (to be posted 2/22/16) and reg info is on their site under the "Calendar" tab. From their site: "2016-17 Enrollment Opening Dates Class Schedules posted: 6:00 pm US ET February 22, 2016 Overseas Enrollment opens: 6:00 pm US ET February 22, 2016 (Note 1) Multiple Course Enrollment opens: 6:00 pm US ET February 25, 2016 (Note 2) Returning Family Enrollment opens: 6:00 pm US ET March 1, 2016 (Note 3) New Family Enrollment opens: 6:00 pm US ET March 8, 2016"

Is there any advantage to taking a foreign language SAT subject exam "with listening"? We're specifically looking at French. The only French with Listening SAT is in November. It would be great to get it over with in May, but, if there is some advantage to taking the one w/ listening, we'll wait until November. Thanks!