When you register, you'll be asked when you want to start the class. They'll give you access and bill based on that date. It's worth registering at least a couple weeks ahead of when you want to start so they can get you set up for access. Definitely order the text so you have it when the class starts. It took two weeks, I think, for us to get the Physics texts from Lulu.

So it was specifically PSAT prep? Not SAT prep that had the spillover effect of helping w/ her PSAT score? Did your daughter think there was much difference between the PSAT and the SAT? Or between prep for the PSAT and prep for the SAT? And were her scores on the practice PSAT (or practice SAT) pretty similar to her scores on the real tests? Thanks!

Did your student prep at all for taking the PSAT in 10th grade? If they did prep, how much/long? What did they find to be the best test prep resource? I know the PSAT & SAT are different, but it seems like it would be more time effective to just prep for the regular SAT, since that one matters more unless one were specifically targeting NM finalist status. Wouldn't SAT prep also help PSAT performance? Do we need to bother with specific PSAT test prep? (Having taken the SAT in the era of no prep, just showing up w/ a #2 pencil, it's hard to fathom all this test prep, but I know it's a different world...) It looks like there is a "PSAT 10," starting in spring 2016, but that does not count toward the NMSQT. The PSAT10 is targeted toward 10th graders while the PSAT/NMSQT is targeted at 11th graders, but why bother w/ the PSAT 10? Why not just use the real thing for 10th?

I'm thinking about that one for my rising 8th grader. What I like about it is that it doesn't look like there's a bunch of busywork. From the syllabus, it looks like they hand in a weekly log about what they've done/are doing for their actual core subjects. Study skills directly & immediately applied to the courses they're actually doing! No abstract, "If you're studying this type of subject, use this list of skills/strategies" to be used, maybe, in some future course/s. So, I'm hoping that, instead of being yet another bunch of assignments she has to do, it will simply spell out and support her in effectively studying for the classes she's taking. It will at least force her to plan and think about how she's studying instead of her current wait-until-an-hour-before-class-to-do-the-assignment approach.

Does she have her basic +/-/x/division facts down cold? Once my daughter had the basic facts down, math went much more smoothly for her (and me :) .) When she didn't, math was such a slog for her. Also, there was a period when I let her check each answer with me as she went. She did well with the immediate feedback, especially because it was almost always positive. There was nothing more demoralizing for her than getting through an entire section and finding out she had to go back and correct a bunch of problems. She still hates corrections more than doing the lesson itself. Anyhow, at some point she kind of grew out of needing that constant reinforcement and started doing the whole lesson herself because she found it went faster and she was able to do well on her own. I'd check it at the end. However, when _I_ know there's the potential for a lesson to be problematic for her, I stay close and try to unobtrusively, without having her stop work, check sections over her shoulder or across the table so she doesn't end up in a black hole of corrections. I star off each section after I check it, so she gets some positive reinforcement as she goes. A better, more positive attitude based on having had some success as she goes has made math a manageable period for us. She works an hour to an hour and a half on math/day. Good luck finding what works best to keep your daughter focused and motivated! yvonne

With this wording, I would assume that there was some issue with the Algebra 2 taken in the first semester that prompted a switch to the DE course. Even if that's the case, I wouldn't point it out. There's no reason to. I would go with Melissa's suggestion of listing the Algebra 2 as a 0.5 credit in the fall and the Intermediate Algebra as a 0.5 credit through DE in the spring. It can't be that unusual for students to switch to DE at whatever point they're able to.

Sounds like it will have to be real wood. I'll have to look into costs.... Thanks so much everyone! Any other thoughts/experiences, please post!

Our house is 60 years old. When we pulled up all the carpet, we found hardwood everywhere but in the kitchen, bathrooms, and a back room. Hm. So I think we'd be looking at the Pergo type flooring rather than true hardwood for the kitchen. My husband put in something like Pergo but supposedly a slightly higher quality. (Maybe it had something to do with the finish? I'm not sure.) If we can't swing real hardwood, would Pergo like flooring work? Thanks for mentioning the floor carpet tiles, momacacia. That might be good for under the snack/work table we have on one side of the kitchen. Our dining room has a real wood floor and we have the large, heavy table on a rug to protect the floor from chairs, etc. That type of rug wouldn't work in the kitchen, but those Flor tiles might.

We need to replace our kitchen floor, and I was wondering if hardwood would work or if it's no match for water spills/drops, etc.. We have it in most of the rest of the house, and I love it. If you have hardwood in your kitchen, would you do it again? How do you clean it?

Cal Newport's books, How to be a High School Superstar, How to Win at College (useful strategies one can use in high school, too), and How to Become a Straight A Student, have some down to earth, practical, immediately usable ideas. The books are also an easy read. I'd start with the Straight A Student one.

LOL They're definitely "regular," but they are very diligent in their work and very self-directed/self-disciplined. They figure out a routine that works for each class and stick to it.

My "regular" boys have taken Derek's Algebra I and Physical Science courses. They just started his Physics course. The boys have done well with them. We're happy with them. One thing to understand about the classes is that they are asynchronous, meaning that there are no "live" class meetings, so they take a little more self-discipline than live online classes. Students watch recorded lessons online while completing the notes in the accompanying text. They pause the lessons to work through sample problems and then continue the lesson to see how Derek works them out. After the lesson, they complete some independent practice problems and check their answers against the posted answers. They complete "homework" assignments which they email to Derek to be graded. At the end of each unit, there's a test which they also email to be graded. Normally, my children prefer live online classes. However, a self-paced async class is perfect when they want/need to be able to work on their own schedule. They've found Derek's recorded lessons to be very clear, and, if they have questions, he is always available via email to help.

Totally agree that socratic discussion about books is the best! Teens are amazing when it comes to talking about literature. They love to puzzle things through and toss ideas back and forth. A live, face-to-face discussion group is ideal. A good online class that uses the available technology can be a second best. You don't need live video for a good socratic discussion. There are lots of online classes that foster good discussion, but part of the way they do that is by effectively using the chat box to encourage student/student interaction. By high school, students are very good at using a chat box appropriately.

Just listened to the high school level sample, and it seems like the very same criticism I had when we tried this a couple of years ago continues to exist. In the first three minutes, I think, he even mentions having received a number of criticisms about the class that perfectly articulate mine. I'd love a true Socratic discussion type of book club; this is not it. A lot of the "discussion" is between "Mrs. A" and "Mr. A," which is much more of a lecture. (Actually, it's a very irritating lecture because it feels more like you're just there overhearing a conversation between "Mr. A" and "Mrs. A." And, because there are two instructors, both wanting to talk, of course, there is even less time for students to be involved.) In truly interactive discussion, it is not simply teacher-student and occasional student-teacher interaction. There is also interaction between students. The Center for Lit classes, however, specifically tell students NOT to use the chat box, except for technical issues. Students are asked to raise their hands and wait to be called on. I'm sure "Mr. A" and "Mrs. A" are concerned about not being able to control the discussion or the class if students are talking in the chat box, but most other online instructors do use the chat box and do so very effectively. The chat box is one aspect of technology where online instruction can really shine. In a traditional classroom and in an online class where students have to raise their hands and wait to be called on, all comments/interaction are serial. In an online class, the chat box allows for comments/interaction to be done in parallel. Listen to the sample. Notice how many students participate and the level of input they contribute. Notice how often students say, "Well, I was going to say something else, but I can answer the question." Or "well, I was going to say something about what you said earlier...." They're encouraged to say whatever they had wanted to say, but it breaks up the flow. How much of the class time is dedicated to "discussion" between "Mr. A" and "Mrs. A"?! There is sooo much "Blah blah blah. What do you think, Mrs. A?" "Well, yes, I agree, Mr. A. Blah blah blah. What do you think, Mr. A?" Is there any student-student interaction where a student says something and another student follows up on it and so on? It seemed to me that most of the time a student will be called on, say what s/he wanted to say, "Mr. A" and "Mrs. A" will expound on it between themselves. Move to the next question, next student. One question I would also ask before signing up for any online class, especially one like this where the more students there are, the less opportunity for each student to participate, is what is the maximum number of students in the class? The classes seem to work for many families, but my students and I found them very frustrating and tedious. It's a shame because I think the lectured content is very interesting and useful and classes could be very well done if better use were made of the technology, if class size were limited to a reasonable number of students, and if there were only one instructor.

TV5Monde has a 30 minute, weekly podcast/streaming/whatever it's called recapping the week's headlines. My boys watched it for a French class last year. I think I'm going to pick a segment to watch during lunch this coming year.

Didn't you mention in another post that your wife teaches the classes? 11 of your 12 posts have been to advertise/promote your family's classes. I think ads are against board rules.

The high school section of The Well-Trained Mind lays out how to implement a history/literature Great Books study. It isn't as detailed as Omnibus as far as specific assignments for each text, but it's probably the closest thing out there to a secular Omni course. For more specifics on how to read the different genres of books, it suggests referring to The Well-Educated Mind.

Love the wood floors some of you have! How do you clean them? I assume you can't really mop them?

My children did/are doing the first half of Wheelock's in 7th grade and the second half in 8th. We did not use MP's Forms, but we did use Latin for Children A & B in 4th and 5th, so they had some background in Latin. They also had a strong English grammar foundation going into Wheelock's because we had used Rod & Staff English 3-6. The transition to Wheelock's was seamless. I'd try to make the transition to Wheelock's (or similar program) in 7th. If it's too much, you could go back to FF 4 for a year, but I think the first half of Wheelock's is more than doable in 7th grade, especially with some Latin background and a strong English grammar foundation.

I was looking at that one, too. It's a newer GC offering, so people probably haven't used it, yet. It's a compilation of lectures from various other courses, but it does not include a course guidebook, which seems to be the reason for its low rating on the GC site. If I were doing a lit study using GC, I would select books to read for the year (possibly from this list) and then get the original lectures because they would come with guidebooks for the lectures (our library has many/most.) There is good information in the guidebooks, including an outline of each lecture, key points, and often thought-provoking questions that could be used as essay prompts. So, no, personally, I would not purchase this course if I were going to use it for lit study. (And my kids definitely would not be able to effectively study all those books in one year!) However, yes, I would use GC lectures to do lit study of books we'd chosen to read for a year.

I hadn't seen this provider until it was recently mentioned. Has anyone used Virtual High School? Was it worth doing? I'm especially interested in their AP French. The syllabus looks decent, and the summer prep work looks good, but it's always hard to know how well the actual implementation will go.

After looking at several standard high school French textbooks (Bon Voyage, Bien Dit, Discovering French, etc.) and typical home school French texts (Memoria Press, BJU, etc.) in search of the "perfect" solution, I found that French 1, 2, and 3 texts from different publishers are almost all the same. Kind of makes sense given that they have to start from the beginning. We decided to use Glencoe's Bon Voyage 1 & 2 since that was the series used at our local b&m high school, and, if the boys decided to go to a b&m school for high school, it would make for a smooth transition. It got the job done, and it was easy to implement because all the lessons had the same format..... First half of the lesson: read the two pages of vocabulary, do two pages of exercises on that vocab, read the two pages on grammar, do the two-four pages of grammar exercises. Second half of the lesson: exactly the same as the first half (another two pages of vocab....) At the end of each lesson, there was a two-four page section of reading about some aspect of French culture or a French-speaking country. It also had workbooks and a book of chapter tests to go along with each level. My daughter is taking French with TPS, using the BJU French 1 & 2 text. It's pretty standard, too, except it adds a fair amount of specifically Christian content. It's ok. I'm sure it will get the job done, too. Good luck with your search! yvonne ETA: I should add that I'm competent in French, although my spoken French is afflicted with a horribly heavy American accent. A background in French made it easy for me to teach French 1 & 2. It might be harder to do if you don't have some knowledge of French....

Are you looking at moving her into Lukeion Latin 1 or 3 after First & Second Form? My daughter did Latin For Children A&B in 4th & 5th, nothing in 6th, and Lukeion Latin 1 in 7th. She was very well-prepared by LFC A&B and probably spent 5 hours/week on Latin for Lukeion Latin 1. I expect that she will need to spend 6-8 hours on Latin 2 next year when all the material will be new. If you're thinking of trying to move your dd into Lukeion Latin 3, I think you should plan for 6-10 hours/week, regardless of how well prepared she is. My boys took Latin 3 last year, after LFC A&B in 4th/5th, Wheelock's/Latin 1 & 2 with another online academy in 7th & 8th. They spent 6-10 hours/week on Latin 3, even with a solid foundation. They'll be taking Lukeion Latin 4/AP this fall. Lukeion's super solid/thorough approach is working well for my kids, but it does require an investment of time. And that investment has affected the boys' choice of other courses in 9th & 10th grade; they need some less time intensive courses to balance their schedule. They're aiming for the Latin AP & SAT 2 exams and are willing to invest the time. If they hadn't wanted to make that investment but still wanted a solid Latin course, we would have looked at Wilson Hill, which uses Latin Alive 1-4 for their Latin 1-4/AP sequence. And, most importantly to me, they have an outstanding Latin teacher in Joanna Hensley. I didn't investigate it too far, since we were already committed to the Wheelock's path when WHA started, but I wonder if it might be a "kinder, gentler" road to the AP? I don't know. Hopefully, if your goal is the Latin SAT2 or the Latin AP, someone who's used the Latin Alive sequence to reach the Latin SAT2/Latin AP exam can comment. (We'd also have looked at online options that use Latin for the New Millenium, which, to me, seems similar to Latin Alive, but much more aesthetically interesting.)

Thanks! That's a great idea to limit what you're selling to two, easily accessible boxes. I keep thinking I'll list everything at once, but of course it would take so long to do that that I never start. Then another year's worth of stuff piles up.....

How do you store/track stuff that you have posted to sell? I have tons of stuff I'd like to post, but I'm not sure how I'd keep track of which box to retrieve it from if someone wants to buy it, esp. if I had it posted for a few months.