Thank you so much, Michelle. I really appreciate your thoughtful post!

I think he would really like a photography class. Thanks for the idea! The Literature classes are online classes; the first covers the secondary sources for Omnibus III (9th) and the second covers the secondary sources for VI (11th). I just assumed I'd still have to do a separate writing/grammar program ... maybe I don't? Ds is very strong in grammar concepts & regularly aces complex diagramming, however his writing does need a little work. The history classes are online classes. The first covers the primary sources for Omnibus III and the second covers the primary sources for Omnibus VI. I guess they could be called Modern History I and II, but since they're online classes, I thought I should call them on the transcript what they're called by the school. Maybe this is a mistake and I should go with "Modern History I" and "Modern History II"?

8Fill, I appreciate you answering so much!

Everyone says ‘start with the end in mind’ as you’re planning out high school, but I am struggling with the big picture as I plan for my first high school student. Ds is hoping to attend a service academy or an engineering school for college. Financially, we will need scholarships to make college a reality, so putting him into the running for that is a concern. He took Latin I & II, Algebra & Geometry, and Integrated Physics/Chemistry in middle school. His extracurriculars are/will be: Piano (taken since age 4), Boy Scouts (working on Eagle now), JV/Varsity Baseball, and possibly Civil Air Patrol (he is begging for us to let him try this out after baseball season is over). This is what I have outlined so far: 9th: History: American & British History I Literature: American & British Lit II English 9: Rod & Staff Grade 9 with the Lively Art of Writing Foreign Language: Latin III Math: Algebra II Science: Biology Elective: Computer Science (.5 credit) and Family Life Skills (.5 credit) 10th: History: ? (AP World History?) English 10: Rod & Staff 10 with Write for College Foreign Language: Russian I Math: Pre-Calculus Science: Chemistry (would integrated Physics/chemistry be enough intro for AP Chem.? – ds really likes chemistry) Elective: ? (AP Computer Science? Ds enjoys programming) Elective: ? (Any ideas? ) 11th: History: US, British, & Modern History II Literature: U.S., British & Modern Literature II Foreign Language: Russian II Math: Calculus (? Do strong math students go straight into AP Calculus? AB or BC?) Science: Physics (again, would integrated physics/chemistry be enough intro for AP Physics?) Elective ? (AP Stats?) Elective? (Economics .5 and US Gov’t .5?) 12th: History: ? (AP Comparative Government?) English: ? (some kind of research writing class?) Foreign Language: Russian III (can’t find this online anywhere … maybe dual enrolled?) Math: ? (what after calculus? BC after AB in 11th? I’m confused about math sequencing.) Science: ? (AP Chem or Physics if not possible in earlier grade? Or classes at the university? If so, what do you take?) Elective:? Elective? Added up, this comes to: History: 4 credits, English: 5 credits (include Lit here?), Foreign Language: 4 credits, Math: 4 credits, Science: 4 credits, Electives: 7 credits For 28 credits total. Does this sound about right for a student looking at competitive colleges? Too much? Not Enough? If you dual enroll classes, how do you know what to take at the university? I see people mention things like Discrete Math/Multivariable Calc/Linear Algebra & Diff. Equations as math options .... I don't even know what these things mean (even with Google-ing, LOL!) and/or how they fit into a strong math students sequence. How do you choose electives? Most electives that pop out at me are humanities oriented ... what electives are helpful for STEM oriented students? (Or, on the contrary, is it good to give them as many humanities electives knowing engineering students won't have time for these types of classes in college?) Help!

Bumping another old thread -- thanks Joan! I found this thread so helpful and plan on using this system as oldest ds starts 9th in the fall.

Elizabeth, my boys would love any suggestions he would have! Second ds dreams of going to WP. :-) Thank you!

I've never posted a brag before, but I'm really excited about this one! My oldest two boys made the semi-finalist round of the West Point Bridge Design Contest! The certificate they received says that they came in 25th out of 1,693 teams! It is our first year participating and I must confess, they don't really know what they're doing, so we don't expect them to place highly in the next round. Neither my husband or I are engineering oriented and the bridges they submitted were created by them doing the trial and error method. I wish there was a tutorial of some kind they could follow in the future as I'm sure there is a better method. :001_smile: Anyway, there's no one for me to tell in real life, but I thought it would be ok to share here. :-)

Bumping to thank you! This is very helpful as my oldest heads into 9th grade this fall! :-)

We used it for Algebra I as well. It worked very well for my son. :-)

I thought it was very moving. Thank you for posting.

I missed this thread the first time around. Thanks for bumping. My new word of the day is bildungsroman. I'm in the love Jane Eyre & strongly dislike Wuthering Heights camp. :lol: But, I love Jane Eyre for Jane. I can't stand Rochester! I do want to re-read it now with all Angelina's notes side-by side. I feel like there is an entire layer of symbolism that I missed.

It's not that old! It's for next year. :-) Editing to reflect changes:

Wow. This is really crazy!

We went ahead and signed up, too. Oldest ds (9th gr) is signed up with Bruce Etter for Great Conversation III and Anne Stueblen for Algebra II. Second ds (7th gr) is signed up with Mr. Etter for Great Conversation I. We're excited! For others that might be interested: oldest ds has taken classes from Mr. Lowery and Mr. Martin and loved them! I would give both teachers my highest recommendation.

Thank you! We're heading into 9th grade next year and this has been a concern.

I just stumbled across this article: The New SAT Doesn’t Come Close to the World’s Best Tests I know we've talked a lot about the Finnish education system, but I'd never heard that: Finland’s test is far more challenging than the SAT (and the ACT) in almost every other way — even in sheer duration. Finland is famous for having very few standardized tests (high school students take a lot of tests, but the tests are designed by their teachers—not a distant testing corporation). But during their senior year, Finnish kids do take one giant standardized test known as the Matura — the mother of all tests. This test lasts about 50 hours, stretched out over three long weeks. By contrast, the new SAT will last 3 hours and 50 minutes with the optional essay (or 3 hours without). And in Finland, the essay is not optional. To the contrary, students spend a day writing short essays in response to several texts over the course of six hours. The next day, they choose one topic out of 14 options and write one long essay — over the course of another six hours. One recent topic was, “Why is it difficult to achieve peace in the Middle East?†That’s 12 hours of writing — compared to 50 minutes (or zero, for those who choose not to do the essay) on the new SAT. Wow! Has anyone read the above author's book The Smartest Kids in the World—and How They Got That Way? I think it looks intriguing.

It absolutely helps in our case. :-)

I had never heard this before! Interesting! The link on the PBS page doesn't work anymore, but I just found The Original SAT posted online. I do wonder if all of this educational testing just goes in circles. Awhile back, we talked about the old Naval Academy Entrance Exams. Those tests were really hard! But, they were measuring attainment of certain knowledge. I would love to do a study that administers 1) the original SAT, 2) a Naval Academy Entrance test, and 3) a modern SAT/ACT test to a group and then follow the group for 10 years. (Sorry; I'm a research nerd!)

Oldest ds is my first ninth grader. He loves Sherlock, too. :-D He loves math and science and is working toward a competitive college and a STEM career (physics/math/programming/engineering). Some days I'm excited about next year, and some days I feel like I'm getting an ulcer! I just don't want to get to college app time and find out that he can't pursue his dreams because I screwed something up! This is what I have planned so far: Math: Algebra II with Wilson Hill Academy Science: Biology -- not sure what to use yet; maybe BJU Biology? Ds really is liking BJU Physical Science this year. History & Lit: The Great Conversation 3 with Wilson Hill Academy (basically Omnibus III) English: Rod & Staff English 9 and The Lively Art of Writing Foreign Language: Lukeion Latin 3 Elective: TeenCoder C# - Windows & Game Programming Extracurricular: Track, Baseball, Cross Country, Boy Scouts, Piano, and Chess

Bumping to update: I let ds choose which Latin program to go with next year after explaining the amount of work and level of difficulty involved in each one. He picked the Lukeion 3 class!! We just heard that he passed the entrance test. Yay! Thank you to everyone for your in-depth explanations! :-)

Rising 9th grade ds: - Great Conversation III and Algebra II with Wilson Hill Academy - Lukeion Latin III -Pre-AP Biology with The Potter's School Rising 7th grade ds: - Great Conversation I with Wilson Hill Academy - Latin I with VPSA ETA Pre-AP Bio. :-)

We love this documentary (and the sequels and the book!), too. We recommend to to friends all of the time! :-)

Wow! How wonderful! Congratulations!!!

I love Anna Karenina! It is my all time favorite novel. :-) It is so much more than Anna herself! For me, it was the stark contrast between Anna/Vronsky & Kitty/Levin; lust/love; selfishness/selflessness; self/family; profane/sacred; life/death; etc. I read it when I was in an unwittingly precarious position in life; I saw myself so much in young Kitty & early Anna. It was definitely a 'coming of age' point in my growing up and helped me to form who I wanted to be ... and not be!

I might have phrased that incorrectly; Our writing component in the past was through outlining and narrations (ala The Well-Trained Mind). Yes, I am thinking that we will add in more reading and writing to finish out this year. I think it is so odd that there are so many great books in the VP catalog and they schedule so few in the self-paced classes. Ds (11) has been scheduled one book a week in the past, where ds (8) was scheduled a chapter to a few chapters a day based on difficulty. I based it (generally) on time recommendations in TWTM, that is @30-60 min a day of silent reading. I don't have a master list in a file, but it's really easy to pull together. I generally tried to find a book a week on whatever the topic of the week was. Favorites in our house were Landmark books and Colonel Red Reeder books. We filled in around those with the Sonlight and VP books. Oldest ds has taken Omnibus I and II primary and secondary with VPSA. He spends on average an hour a day in reading/writing in addition to class time.