While the ideal would be to have that child do accelerated work, being able to help tutor is better than my experience at high school. I had one math teacher (and I had her multiple years) who got mad if I moved about during class time and helped others. Once I was done my work, I had absolutely nothing to do. I was neither given more advanced work - nor allowed to tutor - nor do anything else. It is a pity that most teachers can't handle different levels in their classes. I teach at a co op and also have extra things for those students who finish their work quickly. But that takes more time to do as well ....

My boys also loved K'Nex. Though - it was their younger sister who LOVED Snap Circuits - and she didn't play with any of the things mentioned above.

I am about to start Lean Start Ups on Udacity. Last year my son did their Artificial Intelligence Course and he is signed up for a Coursera one starting next week on Computer Human Interaction (I think that is what he chose). Doing courses like these is a great way for high school students to show they can handle college level work. He was 11th grade last year and finished the course and all the assignments and has a certificate to prove it. I know some of the online places are prepared to email results to colleges. I did not use this as part of his school course work, but rather as an extra-curricular to show he enjoys challenging himself in his free time. EdX is another online site like Udacity and Coursera. It is Harvard , MIT and at least one other college.

Jans 101 Computer Literacy website - http://www.jegsworks.com/lessons/ - has great lessons on Powerpoint and also Excel etc. My kids all worked through the Excel ones. Everyone in our house just taught themselves Powerpoint using trial-and-error and the Help facility. The kids are all very good at Powerpoint now, me - not so much :)

I just posted on another thread about Netflix that the one thing I don't like is their poor search function. My solution is to go on Amazon and search there. Once you have found a few DVDs, plug those titles into Netflix. Although it involves an extra step, it is far quicker and more effective.

Now I have only 2 kids at home I just get one DVD and the online streaming. Usually I use the DVD for a date night at home movie with my husband as so much of the educational stuff is on Watch It Now. We have used Netflix for years and they have a huge selection. My only complaint is that it is not easy to find things using their search engine. I usually go on to Amazon, find ideas there, and then go back to Netflix knowing the exact title I am looking for.

I agree you need to finish up with Singapore. My dd is on 6B now and wants to just do LOF but I know she needs to finish Singapore. For Algebra and Geometry my older kids just used LOF. I think with my youngest I will add in Khan as a supplement. We do some AOPs too.

My boys both loved Thinkwell's Micro and Macro Economics courses and went on to get 4s in the AP exams. They are online videos with online questions. Not at all boring!!

My oldest daughter took both ACT an SAT just once in her junior year and did well enough not to need to retake either. My older son also took the ACT in his junior year - but didn't do as well as he needed to and ended up taking it a few more times (he improved each time) but it did put pressure on his senior year. As a result, I got my next son to take it for the first time as a sophomore. That gave us time to see where his weaknesses were and to work on them. The first time my kids take it they don't spend much time on prep - I just want to get an idea of where they are. Many colleges superscore for both ACT and SAT (ie take the highest score in each section) so it doesn't hurt to take the tests multiple times and it could actually be to their advantage.

I have used this website to teach my kids Excel - http://www.jegsworks.com/lessons/ It also has computer basics, powerpoint, word etc. I will use it this year with my 12 year old. It is free, my kids have worked through the lessons without my help and there are plenty of exercises so they can practice.

Gwen in VA just reminded me in her post above that getting out of Gen Ed courses is an excellent reason to take APs. My oldest told her siblings to do as many APs as possible so they could get out of all the boring Gen Ed classes. She also completed a double degree plus minor in 4 yrs because of all her AP credits. Another reason to get your kids to take APs is to see if they do know how to study and take reasonably hard exams before they get to college. If they fail at their APs (and two of mine did the first time round!) you can work with them and help them succeed before they get to college.

I agree with all the previous posters so won't repeat anything they have said. My oldest 3 have all taken a lot of AP exams and all ended up as AP scholars with distinction. None of them took an AP course either online or at a school. We just did the curriculum we were doing anyway (Sonlight, Thinkwell, Apologia etc) and 2 weeks before the exam they would go over Princeton Review books. I never 'taught to the test' and often the work my kids were doing was more rigorous than the work covered in AP classes at local schools. They only took an AP exam if the work we were already doing covered the AP topics for that subject. My older daughter got so many credits from her AP exams that she was classified as a sophomore when she arrived at college. My son ended up at Stanford, and they basically don't accept any APs so he couldn't use any as credit BUT the fact that he had done well on so many did validate the GPA he had. It is a way of showing colleges that a homeschooled student is capable of a certain level of academic work. As a previous poster said, not all CCs are equal academically whereas everyone who has achieved a 4 or 5 on an AP exam knows a decent amount about that subject. SAT subject tests are required by a few colleges and suggested by others and my kids do a few of those too. They are just an hour long and don't have any essays.

I have used the book The Brightest Heave of Invention (available on Amazon) for Shakespeare. It is written from a Christian perspective and I found it very insightful. Both the Shaekspeare's you are doing are covered. The book has questions in it that you can use for discussions or to set as homework.

LOF Algebra is sufficient for students - unless they are struggling and need some extra practice. If you are doing TT as well any more would be overkill. I used to use TT and then switched when I discovered LOF ... my guess is if you are doing both your daughter my find TT a bit unexciting and bland - unless LOF isn't her style.

I think my DD was your son's age when I tried GTG with her, and yes, she got bored very quickly. I used Trail Guides with my older kids, but they aren't extremely engaging imo. Here is another suggestion - Globalmania. It is free to download and teaches all the continents using online games. It is a while since I looked at it and I can't remember if there are suggestions for books to read. I had forgotten about it until I saw your question and now that I remember it think I will use it with my 12 year old this year. The link: http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/Globalmania.html

I am a humanities girl BUT I also love math and started a math and computer club for the middle schoolers in our homeschool group last year. And, even though I wasn't great at science at school, and did no science in college, I have somehow ended up as head coach of our homeschool group's science olympiad teams which all my kids have been on ... so I spend a lot of time helping not only my own kids, but other people's kids with science. As a results, I have learned to like it a bit more and I am better at it :)

My kids also found it hard to fit in a job around the activities (for us it is family vacation, 4-H and choir tours at minimum). As a result I encouraged them all to start their own businesses and all did from an early age. 3 have done tutoring (youngest started this year - she is 11 and teaches Scratch programming), one started a photography business, one made DVDs, one builds websites and makes Youtube videos (earns from Adsense) and all do affiliate marketing online. They do all pick up short jobs on occasions, but they would never manage to have enough time to work a regular summer job.

I used Sonlight all through high school and that was all for English (OK - it is actually a lot ,and tons of writing). Two weeks before my oldest two went through the Princeton Review book - and both scored 5s. They both said the test was easy - the easiest of the APs and felt very well prepared by doing Sonlight.

I coach our homeschool Science Olympiad team and the middle school kids all have to use high school or college texts to prepare for their events. They all manage - and most of the kids are not 'gifted'. They just work hard and parents come alongside them to help with anything they have trouble with. They seldom need to go through the whole textbook though for an event, though my own son did do an entire college level textbook for Meteorology.

We have done it! I highly recommend it. 4 of my kids have done it in the past and my youngest is doing it for the first time this year. 2 of my kids made it to Nationals - which looks good when applying for colleges and scholarships. And - my one son who is now at Stanford said History Day taught him to formulate a good thesis statement - and he is doing very well in his humanities classes. They learn to do research, and how to write a bibliography - and how to present the whole thing. Feel free to PM me if you want help. I would highly recommend it. My kids have done the paper, drama, documentary and website - so the only one I can't really help with is the poster board!

It will probably take time. There are lots of online Spanish games and Jumpstart has a Spanish CD Rom game too. What got my kids speaking, though, was taking a Spanish class. They do Spanish at our local co op and we supplement it at home with Rosetta Stone etc. If you don't want her to take a year long class, try a Spanish camp over the summer.

I think the most effective way is letting them do it for real. If you are driving around town to a place they don't know, give them the map and tell them to figure it out and direct you. Leave early to give them time to make mistakes. We also do this on car trips - let the kids plan which route to take and then navigate. Critical Thinking Company also has CD Roms called 'Get me out of here' that are fun and teach these skills. I just checked and they are pretty inexpensive if you buy on Amazon.

My daughter did Sonlight 100, my son did a course I made up using Teaching Company's US History lecture series as a 'spine'. I added in some extra books (eg Lies my Teacher Told Me) and used Critical Thinking through US History - which is good prep for the Document-based portion of the exam. Both used Princeton Review 2 weeks before the exam. And both scored 5s.

Under Academic awards my kids have put AP results and National Merit. Include those too if that applies. And I would definitely put in the ones you mentioned.

Glad to hear all the positive feedback! I run a math club for 4th-8th in our homeschool group and have just registered as a teacher on Alcumus and I asked the kids to sign up. I am hoping they will love it!