I don't know about where you'd take the test, but I don't see any reason you couldn't teach AP classes at home. You probably couldn't call it AP on the transcript, but at my college it's just the test score that counts. When I took AP Bio in high school, we mostly just read the book and notes and answered the questions. Then the teacher would answer our questions. We only did a couple of labs, and they were nothing elaborate (observe osmosis in different conc. slns, flower dissection, etc.) This method didn't do me any harm...I got a 5 on the AP and got out of my first two semesters of college bio (very helpful, as I'm a biology major) This isn't really what you were asking, but perhaps you will find it encouraging if you try teaching an AP science at home :)

I was homeschooled with BJU biology in 10th grade (yes, I'm a college student who's nerdy enough to read homeschool boards even though it'll probably be 10 years before I have kids...LOL). I had the dvds. The teacher was excellent. I'm currently a biology major in college! As for scope and sequence, physical science is really just an introduction to chemistry and physics, so if you do both of those, you should be good. (I took physical science, biology, chemistry, and then AP Bio in high school, and no physics. College physics in a couple of years could prove interesting...but I did take Calc, so I'm not too worried :) ). The only thing I've heard (from my uncle, who is superintendent and former math and science teacher at the private school I graduated from) about not taking physical science is that if you don't get all the way through your physics book you may miss something. Also, I think it sometimes depends on what students are ready for; some may take it just so they don't have to deal with chem in eleventh grade, for example.

I like some poetry. I don't usually like long stuff. Sometimes I enjoy a poem more after I've read it a couple of times. Some that I like are: "O Captain, my Captain" by Walt Whitman (I hate his other works) various poems by Robert Frost "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe Dr. Seuss rhymes (!) Sonnet 73 by Shakespeare (that's one of the ones I had to read a couple times...read it for a lit. class this semester), etc. Most of these are pretty short and easy :)