Does anyone have suggestions for Online Spanish that is accredited? We tried Apex and it was horribly written so had to drop it.

We went with Apex as that is what the school recommended. DAY 1 and it's horrible so far. Things wrong because accent mark is not there but no way to make accent. No syllabus of how things are graded, etc. No tech help. Review not helping for quiz at all. Not a good choice so far.

These courses have been approved by the school for my daughter to use for Spanish 2: Obridge Keystone Apex Learning Obridge is the cheapest option by half ($350). They also seem to be the most flexible with scheduling. However they only go to Spanish 2 so if she wants to go higher, she will need to switch. We have one friend doing this for French and she is pleased. Keystone has the most levels and is only slightly more ($400). It uses the same textbook her school used for Spanish I. It is also rather flexible. Online reviews seem mixed Apex is the most expensive ($700) and least flexible. It is the one the school recommends and supposedly students at the school have done well with this (Compared to NCPVS which has been a failure for most kids at the school). It has an honors option which is helpful and goes to Spanish 3. What is the hive's experiences with these companies?

I just went to see a student performance at my child's school. It was a collaboration between the dance, music, and theatre departments. I did not enjoy it because it was very artsy and I don't like to interpret my art/theatre/dance lol. I need a plot. I am also picky about talent. Anyways, my biggest issues are the appropriateness and the safety. The play was an adaption of Requiem for the Dead by Charles Mee. The script can be found online. and I could easily insert a link I would lol. It is basically about death and drying. I am really not sure it's point because as I said, I don't like to interpret my art. I just saw death, crows, war, slaves being beaten, girls burying themselves in the ground, and people dying. I am just not sure if the topic was age appropriate for freshman/sophomores (which is all the school has at this time). I find it especially disturbing because this school has a lot of depressed kids, cutters, suicidal kids, etc. Secondly, I found the safety measures questionable. It was held outside. There were random holes in the ground in which 3 of the dances buried themselves in during the show. One of the actors fell into the hole accidently. He seemed to be uninjured and kept going. A few of the dancers came close to falling in during their dances. They had a student walking on top of a ten foot wall. They had dancers hanging off railings about 4-5 feet off the ground (railings to stairs but they were on the outside hanging backwards over the audience). Another child tripped in the huge grating that was in the courtyard. I had been waiting all night for someone to trip on that because it was so obviously a hazard. I am not sure if I am just being over protective. I want to send an email to the administration but the administration does NOT take criticism well at all. They flip out. I sent in a criticism in the form of a suggestion a month ago and it was way overblown. Therefore, I don't want to be nit picky lol. I just feel they are not being responsible with the students' safety. Do you guys think these are valid concerns?

My daughter had to do a research paper on an artifact for history (and it got a 97 from one of the toughest teachers -thank you WWS!!!), Now she has to make a replica for museum night -it's almost done. Next week is the museum night and they get extra credit for making the display interactive. Any ideas -she wants to go above and beyond. Her artifact is the Narmer Palette.

So sad you went through this. However, it's not a public school vs homeschool thing. My aunt and uncle were burglarized by an affluent homeschool teen with no gang relations.

I can't vote because I know what it is BUT I don't expect everyone to know it -my son in 8th grade knows what it is but I will have to wait until my daughter comes home to know if she does.

NC uses the 7 point grading scale -don't like it but it is what is. My question is why is B level work given C's and C level work given D's. The grading rubric needs to be weighed for a percentage grade. If you get all 5's, you have 100 the best A available because you did all points at an A level. If you do all points at a B level (4 points), then your grade is 80 and that's a C on the 7 point scale and it's the lowest B on a 10 point scale. If you do all C level work, you get 60% which is failing on a 7 point scale and the lowest D on a 10 point scale. That is not a fair grade to students. If all 5's award you with the highest A then all 4's should give you the highest B (92 or 89 depending on your grading scale). I found this rubric converter: http://roobrix.com . It helps weigh the grades to be more appropriate. So whereas a child who has a mix of 4's and 5's had a grade of 86 (a very low B) now has a 93 or 94 depending on whether you set the failure rate at 60 or 65. (At 70% the grade is 95 but because 1 is not D but failure I adjusted failure percentage to reflect that).

If you have 7 areas being graded and the scale is 1-5 w/5 being exemplary, 3 being adequate, and 1 being inadequate. Grading Scale is 7 point (93-100 is an A. 85-92 a B, etc. Now I would assume that 3's are C level work but if you get a 3 in every category you fail because 21/35 is 60 and you need 70% to pass. I would assume that if All 5's is the highest A then all 4's should be the highest B and if you have mostly 4's and a few 5 then you are somewhere between 92 and a 100. I would say 94-95. however because the way rubric works, a student who has 2 categories at 5 and 5 at 4 =30 points and 30/35 =86 which is very low B. WHY??? Makes no sense to me.

Thanks Jenny Amazingly she just said she would try the free community musical theatre program and we found a Counselor in Training Spot at a camp put on by one of the big arts places here and she is going to apply for it. She is on the worship team for the children's ministry at church and does sing there and runs the tech booth (singing in front of little kids is apparently not so intimidating lol), She does that year around and then usually leads a group of kids in VBS in the summer. She was on the youth liturgical dance team at church but she was only one that showed up every week so it was disbanded. She already is an assistant teacher at her studio to help pay for dance classes (and barely covers gas to get there lol). That is the best she can do at that studio -it's more for the experience than the amount off tuition. She is not a "favorite" at the studio and never will be (they don't hate her either -I think it's because she's not loud and pushy). The other studios just are not the same quality or else too far away. It's a great tap school but it's ballet is very weak and the good ballet schools are weak at the other stuff. She is actually at an arts high school but the dance program ended up not being very good (more artsy than technique driven) and so she is switching to the much higher quality choral program. I think w/the theatre and CIT -she is well rounded for summer. She still got to start Spanish II and work on Math II w/her tutor so she can place into Math III. *** That dance intensive at a community college sounds great. I checked and none have any local. But thanks for recommending the community theatre. It jogged my mind that while our city is expensive, the smaller neighboring towns still have low cost/free things like community theatre.

Most of the "community" stuff here is camps and other costly endeavors. I found one thing that she might still be able to get into in a neighboring town but she's a dancer -she's timid about singing (even though she got into chorus at school next year) and not much into acting. I think she can do it because I saw the play last year and I am sure she could do some sort of supporting role (not star -her dear talented friend is the "star" anyway) but I think she will think she "can't"......

But what about kids who really do want to go to selective schools -but are not interested in science or STEM careers. My daughter loves dance but dance major came off because of her dislike of modern and our inability to afford ballet intensives/studios. She loves jazz but I can't afford these $2000-$6000 intensives especially when she most likely isn't going to major in dance (maybe dance education??) and there really doesn't seem to be a niche in colleges for jazz and tap dancers who are not classically ballet trained and hate modern dance..... She will likely major in business or communications. She really has no clue to what she wants to be now that dance is off the table. She does, however, want to get into a selective school or at least do what it takes to keep that as option. We are just in that income level -not rich enough to give the extras but not poor enough to get the scholarships for those extras...... So any ideas in NC RTP area?

Outstanding!!!!

Bumping this up This summer, my daughter will do 3 weeks of dance intensive, do a weekly conditioning classes, and possibly some other classes they have in her stronger dance areas if she gets in This is through her studio and and it's required to be in company. We can't afford to do the additional weeks nor do one of the recognized intensives. Dance is a passion but not what she wants to major in (because she's not a strong ballerina and hates, hates, hates modern dance with a passion and that seems to be what she would have to do). She is also taking driver's ed and she's taking an online Spanish II course for summer school -but it can be rolled into the school year. She needs to study for the PSAT and PLAN in the fall but not all day. She will probably help with VBS at church again as she does every year. Jobs are hard to find for teens-she is an assistant teacher in a pre-ballet class in the school year and babysits for a Hungarian immigrant family once a week. Internships in her areas of interest are not common in this area. Looking for ideas for her. My rising Freshman (13 yo) is thinking of getting street performer permit and doing yo-yo tricks at all the festivals lol -he's only got a 6 week summer though and one those weeks in boy scout camp.

Yes -she ended up drawing a boy who had been killed w/rapier and someone telling his mother "I'm sorry for your loss but thanks to the new law of 1562, your son was killed by a rapier that is less than a yard in length." She had to do three others One was about Elizabeth and the Acts of Treason laws where it was illegal to discuss who might be heir. She drew Elizabeth holding a piece of paper in each hand. One said Anne and one said James. The Caption was "Eeeny Meeny Miny Moe. Ask me again and you'll be my foe." One based on The Prince by Machiavelli and she chose the part about dealing with reality instead of ideals. She has Uncle Sam driving down the road with buildings and signs that say things like "War, Poverty, Crime," etc and he's singing "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood" while looking at a land of rainbows, peace signs, etc. Another was supposed to be a drawing to use as propaganda for a government pamphlet using Martin Luther's "Against Murderous, Thieving Hordes Peasants" as a primary source and she drew the Devil leading peasants on the revolts w/ the devil quoting something from the primary source." They were all extra credit but she always does every extra credit. It was quite a stretch to "apply" concepts in this manner.

Forgive me if this has been mentioned as I am cooking and not reading each post At this age, my daughter hit a wall and we watched Cyberchase for about a month. The website had games and printables

Http://www.bbc.co.uk./programmes/b01g65gz/features/transcript My daughter has to draw a political Cartoon based on the podcast transcript above. She and I are having trouble coming up w/a concept. It cannot be just an illustration but make a point, argument or tell a joke. Any ideas appreciated.

I took an approach similar to Correlano - you could chose your path and set goals but goals require that you work toward them or they become dreams. One of mine wanted a rigorous education that I planned out and that is what he got up until 8th grade when he wanted to "try" public school. He's so far ahead that school is mostly about learning organizational skills and socializing. He still pursues his interests at home and discovered via a class at school that he loves theatre. The other wanted to keep college an option so she worked on math and foreign language of her choice. Everything else was her pursuing her interests. She benefitted from having her sibling have the classical stuff around. She also went to high school by choice and is in the top 5% of students academically. She is also pursuing her interests. I called us unschoolers but definitely not radical. Both of my children are capable, lifelong learners who are able to take part in the Great Conversation. I know a lot of kids who were unschooled, classically homeschooled, school at home homeschooled, and kids in public school who are capable, enthusiastic, life long learners. I have seen unschoolers who have no interest in learning anything. I think it's not so much the educational style as genetics and environment beyond the school day.

I think she needs to spell out the rules that she wants -no food or toys. I personally don't think the behaviors are atypical for the age group. You cannot expect kids that are 4-6 to know how to behave in a classroom setting yet. If it were teens, it would a different story. Yet, I have still had to teach teens that we don't come in and disrupt the class, eat food, etc. and that is in both the homeschool and public school classes I teach (in some cases they know what is appropriate but they are testing their boundaries and sometimes they have no clue because they have never had boundaries)

I started off with Ambleside and my son flourished. My daughter didn't like it. Her personality is wired that she seems to detest whatever I like and it's been that way since birth. It's not that she hates me as we are extremely close and can stay up all hours talking or spend an entire day shopping and lunching, etc. However, she's had a need to be independent. So around middle school age, I gave up and said we would unschool. My son liked it for first month or so because he loved video games. However, he felt he wanted a challenging curriculum and he didn't know what he didn't know and said he needed me to tell him what he needs to know and he wants it to be challenging and he wanted to be pushed. So I went back to a rigorous curriculum with him. Now some days, he would do math all day long and some days he would read the history books we picked out all day long. Sometimes it was Latin all day long. For my daughter, I just sat down with her and asked her what she wanted to do and if she wanted to keep college as an option or not. I had her look up what she needed to get in to college and how to backtrack to where she is now. She pursued her interests (dance, video making, and creating dolls and dollhouse furniture) and she read some, wrote some and did a lot scout badges. She loved Percy Jackson and Greek Mythology so she read a lot of Greek Mythology, history and even did about half the Hey Andrew books. She would occasionally pick up MCT or look at Latin because my son was doing it. She did some math but was easily frustrated with it and I believe a lot of that was because her younger brother was so far ahead of her and she couldn't perceive the notion that it wasn't her, he was ahead of most people. We were in 2 different homeschool groups but she really never felt like she fit in. The Christian group at our church was her favorite because she had known everyone longer but she always felt judged. The secular group that mostly unschoolers was too uncivilized for her liking though she made one of her closest friends there. She did join a book club to hang out with that friend. Anyway, a new school opened up and a lot of her friends were thinking about going. We signed her up with the caveat that she try it until Christmas. Her friends ended up not going for various reasons and I gave her option not to before school opened (and even a few weeks into school because I was missing her). She apparently learned enough Latin to place into Latin 2 and get credit for Latin I. She apparently wrote well enough on placement test to get into Honors English -and she is rising sophomore this year to be allowed into a class that requires English 2. She did not place into Math 2 as she hoped though and is now sitting in Math 1 and not liking it (not as well behaved kids and her friends are in higher math) -she should have passed but her anxiety got the best of her. So she is working with a teacher and tutor after school to learn Math 2 so she can skip Math 2 and go to Math 3. The school is amazing. The teachers are amazing. Math has had a hiccup because the school can't afford books yet and the teacher quit midyear and the new teacher is not a math teacher but our only concern is passing the EOC. English hasn't been what I wanted as it 's more of a philosophy class than an English class but other teachers have made up some of the academic writing and she's worked around it. She still has a lot of control over her education by working to skip a level in math, deciding whether to take the highest levels or not, getting permission to take Spanish 2 next year online afterschool so she can take a more rigorous class in that time slot (small schools make schedules difficult). She's formed study groups, got a Spanish conversational partner (a very cute guy whose a native speaker lol), handles issues as they come up, and her teachers are really mentors to her. She loves all of them except one (always got to have that one! -and this is only a mild dislike because the of the subjective component of the class). She's learning a lot and loving it -even in classes like Honors Biology -the one class that she thought she was going to hate and was only taking it for that hoop. It's one of her favorite classes and she has a 100 in it on her report card yesterday. She makes straight A's, is top 5% student, student ambassador, Vice-President of the Student Government, founder of two student clubs (Film Critics and Fiber Arts) and is the freshman choreographer of the Dance Team. She is also on the Green Team that does recycling and school grounds beautification projects. She is trying to get a service club and photography club going for next year. She knows every student in the school and every teacher -even the ones that she doesn't have classes with (actually there was one who had not met her yet because the teacher is part time and that teacher subbed in one of her classes this week. The first thing that teacher did was say "Which student is _____. " My daughter raised her hand and the teacher said "I finally get to put a face to the name." She still pursues dance. She had to cut back on classes but that was because the studio had the classes scheduled so that she was dancing from 5:30-9:30 with only a 15 minute break and she dropped two classes because she was just plain worn out. She did join company though and is winning competitions and loving it. She has decided to not do dance at school next year and do chorus instead and auditioned into the middle level She still makes videos for her youtube channel though not as often and she's on the video announcement team at school and working on a video yearbook project and has done quite a few videos for group projects. She does a lot of nature photography and spends a lot of her free time learning how to use the camera, etc. She know longer is interested in creating her own line of Monster High Dolls but she is using those skills on the Costume team that is designing and making costumes for upcoming performance at school. She still reads the books she wants and it's still determined by what her friends are reading. She still writes in a journal, goes to museum, art galleries, and the zoo (actually now she WANTS to go and makes the arrangements herself). She still watches Once Upon a Time religiously and still runs a Disney blog. She still babysits and does ebay selling and does writing contests to make money (now saving for Europe instead of Disney). She also teaches dance to help offset her dance tuition. I would still consider her an unschooler because she wants to be at her school. We missed 16 days this year due to the weather and an incident where a pipe burst and boiler broke. She contacted the admins to see if she could come in and do some volunteer work and they let her! She goes to the PTSO meetings, the board of directors meetings, does every lick of extra credit that is offered. She can't get enough. She's even going in to help with the summer camps . I also think that it helps that her particular school is the perfect fit for her. The focus is on creativity and philosophy and it's almost like a bunch of unschoolers teaching a school at times. Even the classes that I don't think are up to snuff, I can't totally criticize because they excel in other areas so I have to tell myself to look at the good and balance out the bad and it will work out in the end. I also consider her an unschooler because she makes most of the choices in her life -where to take dance, who she is going to socialize with this week and how. She has no issues walking around downtown in our city or taking the city bus. I say most choices because I'm still a parent and think there needs to be boundaries -your boyfriend isn't going into your room for example. *** Where I differ from some factions of unschoolers is I sat her down and discussed goals. I then helped her figure out to break down goals into manageable bits. Then I reminded her of her goals. She is driven but she is also a child. She wants to be in Math 3 badly next year but she also likes to text her friends and waste time on Instagram (my view of time waste not hers lol). When I notice that she is slipping into the habits. I simply ask her if she still has "math 3" as a goal and how is her progress going? She sighs and usually either do her work or write into her schedule for the week. She also knows that I am fine if she stops the goal and stays in math 2. I also differ in that I took the viewpoint that I am not a maid or a short order cook. I don't hand out money just because you want something. You want it, you do chores for it. You don't want to do the chores, then you don't want the money. It's your choice. I am never going to stop what I am doing to make you a sandwich because you are on World of WarCraft (which is what I saw suggested on a unschooling yahoo group. That group felt that the mom was supposed to give up her life to cater to child. I didn't get it. Then "I" am not doing what I want and not modeling the way life works. I also felt that certain people on these groups seem to put video-addicted child ahead of the other children. For example, I remember a mom who wanted to go on a hike and her other kids wanted to go on a hike but the one kid wanted to play video games w/ her. It was all about putting this child first- she should take a wireless on a hike to continue playing the game with her son while hiking or not go on the hike, etc. I have not been impressed with the homeschoolers/unschoolers that I have met who are "hands off" or don't actively strew, suggest, and/or give consequences for behavior. This is where I draw the line between unschooling and Not educating. I am talking the ones who don't even help their child pursue their interests when they ask and the ones who only interest is video games to the point it is an addiction and they don't see it as an addiction. I also think that by high school age, you should be able to read, write coherently (including spelling), and do basic math and if you can't do that, then you were not even minimally educated. I will also those that don't help their child work through the hard stuff and just let them move on because "he's no longer interested in that and it's his choice." and never inquiring why he's no longer interested. To me these types of unschoolers (NOTE FOR THE READING IMPAIRED: NOT ALL UNSCHOOLERS) are the LEAST curious and least motivated and often the worst behaved children I know. I am sure there are exceptions out there but I am not seeing it. The kids I know who "graduated" from this style are not doing well at all -two are homeless, one can't even pass the remedial classes at Community College, none can get/keep a job. They are aimless.

I agree with this and this is why the statement "it's a parenting issue more than a homeschooling issue" drives me insane. When you homeschool, parenting and schooling are intertwined.

The school has no text books and no budget for text books. There is no curriculum, pacing guide, nothing. Each teacher makes it up as they go along and this teacher is not even a math teacher. It's the first year of the school. We were required to buy ipads so they could download textbooks since there are not lockers. Not one single class has a downloaded textbook. Not one. The music classes have a few aps but it's basically a $500 composition book. Anyway, the math chair thinks the greatest thing for students is to hear him lecture but won't video tape his lectures because he's wants to be open to randomness or something like that.. This is his first year teaching high school (college professor). Brilliant man. Sweetest man you will ever meet. Really good at explaining math. Cares deeply about the students -is there for tutoring daily even for students who not in his class but I don't think he quite gets the parental concerns or that some kids might need something at home. I'm not quite sure if he has even looked at the EOC or if he quite understands the importance of it? He didn't like the teacher who left mid year because she was too concerned with the test (and probably why she left as most of the kids are going to fail). My daughter knows all the math as she had Algebra 1 in homeschool so class is 85% review. For her, it's the level of questioning that the EOC has, her need of confidence in her readiness and practice seeing multiple types of problems -oh and how to use the scientific calculator. I don't believe the new teacher knows how to use them and I certainly don't. The only thing I can seem to find online is last year's released test which we've already gone over.

yes -NC looks like you can only buy 5 which would be $199

Do you have a link -what I am finding seems to be aligned with the traditional path of Algebra, Geometry and Algebra II. Our school does integrated

http://www.obridgeacademy.com My daughter can't fit Spanish II into her schedule next year unless she takes one of her core classes as non-honors. We have gotten permission to take it online (at our cost of course) -it has to be accredited/ NCPVS is what the school uses when it HAS to outsource and the results are rather horrible. Most kids are now just sitting in the classroom without a class because it didn't workout. Some kids use Apex and one of my daughters closer friends uses Obridge for French so those have already gone through approval. Has anyone used Obridge (or Apex) for Spanish?