This isn't exactly what you are after but may be an option if you can't find that. Udacity has both free online class and also paid "nanodegrees" and they cover topics much broader than just coding. I started on the free one on Github but just haven't had time to work on it. But I think what they offer looks awesome. Here's the link: https://www.udacity.com/

Philosophy Slam - http://www.philosophyslam.org/ Patriot's Pen Essay contest - https://www.vfw.org/PatriotsPen/ Scholastic Arts and Writing Contest - http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/press-release/2016-scholastic-art-writing-awards-call-submissions-opens-new-scholarship-opportunitie

My daughter just recently realized that the Words with Friends App now has the ability to play in some foreign languages so she has been challenging her brothers in Spanish and I have played in German against my son who is learning that. Any other ideas of games that can be played in other languages? I know you can get Bananagrams and Scrabble in foreign language editions.

Great Courses: Games People Play - http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/games-people-play-game-theory-in-life-business-and-beyond.html It was Yale videos: http://oyc.yale.edu/economics/econ-159(I remembered :)) Books - Thinking Strategically by Dixit, Prisoner's Dilemma by Poundstone. There may have been others but I am away for the vacation and when I went on Amazon those were the 2 I recognized.

I have just been coerced into teaching it at our co op. Will add it as an online class too. My dd has gone to public high school and is doing AP Gov there and it is SO boring. She offered to help me create the class - doing it the way she would like to have been taught. One place to find resources is icivics.org. And there are Crash Course videos. I will come back and post about things she is finding online - I am paying her to do the research work for me as she has more idea than I do as to what needs to be covered.

You probably know about Life of Fred for math, but when I introduced them to my son he couldn't get enough of the wacky storyline! Otherwise letting him use the computer to learn digital skills might be fun - anything from graphic design to stop motion animation or programming. You can find loads of cheap or free resources. And then once he has those skills you can let him use them to do assignments eg a country report via google slides. Or creating a simple e-book.

My sons taught themselves a variety of computer skills and made a lot of money that way. The sort of things they did to make money: * fixed people's computers * built websites / made alterations to websites (at the start my one son was 10 or 11 and his first ones he charged very little and they were pretty simple. By the time he was a senior he was getting $1000 per website) * photo editing * graphic design There are lots of sites you can go to to look for work and you can always register on them if you feel he is too young and then contract out the work to him. Of course, this will depend on whether he can get good at a couple of online tasks. But if he can do that, this is the perfect way to work as much as you want, when you want.

Like some others have posted, the unusual courses I did with my kids where their ideas. My older son asked to do Game Theory after learning about it in Economics. I was a littel horrified as I had no clue what it was, but I found a Great Courses video series which I bought. I then emailed the lecturer and asked for book recommendations to supplement it and he responded and gave me some ideas. Then when my second son asked to do it I found a series of videos with some online interactive games (can't remember which college put them out - Stanford or Harvard or Yale I think) I added some movies that illustrate Game Theory (I found a website listing some - Princess Bride is one of them) and got him to finish up by selecting any topic to do a paper on (he chose Game Theory in Genesis if I remember correctly!) Other classes I had to "make up": Linguistics, Arthurian Legend in English Literature, Computer Graphic Design

My daughter is taking AP Gov at our local high school and is bored out of her mind. I suggested she make it more fun by playing the games on https://www.icivics.org/and for once she took my advice :) She told me she had spent a good deal of time playing the one on the first 10 amendments as it was a far more fun way to learn them than just reading the textbook. There are lots of games on the site - all related to Government and Civics and some are available as apps too. I must say I have played a number of them and they are fun as well as educational and I think your children may enjoy them too.

They definitely need to be very comfortable with doing slideshow presentations. My favorite tool is Haikudeck - it is free and available as an app and a website. The way it is laid out encourages them to stay away from too much text and too many bullets and many of the other problems poor slideshows suffer from. I teach Speech at our co op and one speech is with a slideshow as they need to know how to do that. My older 2 who have graduated from college had to do countless while they were there. They also had to make videos btw!

TT is not a very rigorous program. I love the way they have worked out solutions for every problem - but it is easy. My older son went through it quickly and got 100% on almost every test. That was for Algebra 1, 2 and Geometry. And then took the SAT and ACT - and did not do well on the math. Only then did I realize that it is a great program for students who struggle with math, but if students need good test scores for college / scholarships I would be careful about using it. I used Life of Fred with my next son - and switched my oldest over to that and that was so much better. I don't know the Glencoe book but I would probably choose that option (ie do the co op). Either way it is good to supplement with another program as kids all learn differently and each program has a different approach. Khan Academy is a good free option to use for extra practice.

I just created my own for my kids. We went "round the world" and I used tons of videos (I love Michael Palin in particular). Then we played online games, board games etc to learn some of the facts. Instead of tests I got them to create websites, make itineraries, create posters and flyers etc. They had fun and what they learned actually stuck.

Vocabulary.com is a fantastic site which you could use. Not only does it have lists for you - but it gamifies learning vocabulary. My 15 year old has spent hours on it (I do reward her for the points she earns by turning the points into cash) . And the difference in the vocabulary she uses now is noticeable.

I teach speech at our local co op and I use the Secrets of Great Communicators course by Jeff Myers. It is outstanding! I have listened to the lectures so many times now and still find something to learn. I alternate them with the Standard Deviant's DVD which is fun and light-hearted but actually says many of the same things Jeff Myers does. I use them both so that the students hear the message twice. Obviously my students have to prepare lots of speeches and you would need to find a way to do "live" speeches. My own kids got practice through 4-H (plenty of it!) - as well as I made them do the class. There are also oratorical contests like Optimist Club and Right to Life that give students a chance to practice their skills. My co op students get extra credit if they participate in contests.

On the whole we found the Princeton Review books did the best job (my kids got mainly 4s and 5s so I know they worked for us at least). That said, as someone has already mentioned, check reviews on Amazon for whatever is available. Sometimes one of the others is actually superior (I think Spanish was one we got Barrons for instead of Princeton). During the year we just studied the subject with whatever curriculum I thought was the best available - I didn't worry about how close to the AP exam it was. Then for the last 2 weeks we used the review book to "study for the test". That way my kids enjoyed the year, learned in a meaningful fashion - but still did well on the tests. I did not want to spend an entire year as a slave to an AP exam.

Are you playing the game? I forced myself to stop after a while - I was enjoying dominating the poor kids who got paired with me :)

I came across this site today - http://www.prepfactory.com/ It looks nice but obviously I haven't used it long enough to really know. It does let you make a teacher account and then add students so you can monitor their progress. I emailed and asked about which SAT they are prepping for and they said it is still the old one so just bear that in mind. Currently they have a fun vocabulary challenge where students can go head to head against a random student. That I did try and it was FUN.

Lol ... I just posted a link to your course - just read your blog post - we must have been doing it at the same time!

A blogger I follow just published a review on an online class her child took last year and it sounded really good if you have high schoolers interested in this topic. Here is the link to the post: https://friedclamsandsweettea.wordpress.com/2015/08/11/high-school-electives-aeroscholars-course-1-fundamentals-of-aviation-science/

None of the colleges my kids went to had computer skills assessment tests - actually I have never heard of that before from any of the students I have taught. Interesting. Always something new to learn about colleges! Of course the tools are all fairly similar so if you know one it is easy to pick up the others. Wordperfect was the one I started with years and years ago, then I transitioned to Word, and now I have a Mac I use Pages - but most of the time I actually use Google docs as I like all the features and so often I need to share the doc with others. As long as kids learn one of them they will likely be OK.

Thanks! Glad you liked it - but also glad you let your dd chose what she wanted. That is the beauty of homeschooling - you can tailor courses to fit your kids. I always let my kids choose too. At least then if they end up hating it they can't blame you :)

I second what dhudson said. None of the colleges my oldest 3 went to accepted all their APs (Stanford accepted none!). My niece went to Furman and they wouldn't even accept credits she had from two different 4 year universities (many won't take credits from community colleges). She literally got the line dhudson quoted - they all want students to learn "their" way. However - doing APs and dual enrollment in 4 year colleges looks really good on applications. That is why my kids continued to do them even when we knew they possibly wouldn't be taken as credit. They show a student is academically strong in a way a parent giving their kid an "A" does not. Also - many colleges don't take CLEP at all. So be sure to check into the colleges your children are thinking of before deciding what to do.

Luke Holzmann has a free online film course - http://blog.production-now.com/p/filmmaking-101.htmlI saw it a few years ago and thought it looked great but haven't tried it.

Btw - it is better to learn Google docs than Word - so many businesses are moving everything to the cloud these days. In fact, students should be very familiar with Google Drive and all it offers. As so much is done as "shared" work, both in college and in the work place, it is the online programs that should get the most attention today.

Well, I am teaching one online :) Other than that - if you google you can find pretty much anything you need. I have had 3 of my own kids already graduate, go to college and then enter the workplace so here are some of the skills I know kids need. You need a lot more than just spreadsheets, documents and slideshare knowledge these days: Bookmarking (Evernote) Video creation (also how to make GIFS) Graphic creation (to make flyers etc) (Canva, PicMonkey etc) Website creation (Strikingly, Wix, Weebly, Google sites etc) Project management systems (Trello) Photo editing (Pixlr) Infographic creation Online research / citations "Newer" ways to create slideshows (Prezi, Haikudeck) Form and Survey creations (Google Forms)