In this case, if he didn't take them, don't list them as being offered. As a homeschooler, his hypothetical options probably included enrolling as a non-degree-seeking student at a local college or two, right? But you wouldn't include their catalogs in the list of available courses either. IMO, the question about course offerings isn't really applicable to homeschoolers. For school kids, it allows admissions committees to judge how challenging a course load a student chose to take. That makes no sense for homeschoolers. The course of study pursued by a homeschooler was the most challenging course of study available to that student.

Our local high school is an IB school, so I have to search out of district. One school we used in the past won't even respond to my emails this year. The other says they aren't allowing outside students anymore. College Board no longer gives out AP Coordinator contact info, and I'm getting stonewalled by front office staff at other schools in the region. I generally feel favorable toward public schools; I advocate for them and contribute to their fundraisers because I believe it is the right thing to do. But the pettiness of refusing AP exam seats to homeschoolers disheartens me. And I resent that College Board puts us in this position.

Yes! She had a great time, although she did spend a week in isolation after coming down with COVID. The program had a fairly large outbreak, which we figured was inevitable. Masks were encouraged but not required, and from pics I'd say fewer than 5% of people wore masks. She was very happy with the difficulty level of her morning academic classes. Sainte-Anne's immersion programs offer 8 levels of classes, and she says her placement in the 7th level was perfect. During the school year the prof she had is a lecturer at University of Louisiana. Her afternoon conversation workshop was taught by a graduate student (a mom who brought her own teenager along) from the University of Veracruz in Mexico. Housing (mostly doubles) was assigned by age, so she was on a floor of 15 and 16 year olds. Her RA was from Mauritius. Food wasn't anything special, but it was edible. There were plentiful afternoon, evening, and weekend activities on campus, including sports, game nights, and themed evening parties (Western night, 80's night, pirate night, etc.). There were also opportunities to leave the campus on the program's bus to visit nearby towns, a regional park, a farmer's market, a grocery store, etc. They even have local bands come play in the campus bar a few times during the session, which was a highlight of the summer for my kid! The recommended amount of spending money ($250 CAD) was too little. We should have sent twice as much. She had some USD, but couldn't exchange them locally. The vendors at the Acadian Festival toward the end of the session were happy to accept her USD at a very steep effective exchange rate, LOL. I wish we'd sent her with an ATM card, but at least we had the foresight to get her a card on one of our credit card accounts (a Visa with no foreign transaction fees). My kid was really impressed with how rapidly the novice and intermediate students progressed. She felt her own class didn't cover a lot of new topics, but she realizes that when you are an advanced student, most stuff is going to be review or gap-filling anyway. She does say her speaking ability and vocab improved a TON because of the immersion. Students in her class researched and wrote a 1500 word term paper and gave a 10 minute oral presentation. Mid-session I ended up signing up for a free trial of Canadian Amazon Prime in order to ship her a 10" Kindle Fire with a Bluetooth keyboard. The campus computer lab wasn't convenient for her preferred late night study sessions! The lower level classes don't do that kind of writing, so the program hadn't recommended bringing computers. However, given that COVID will likely be an issue for a while longer, I'd definitely suggest sending a largish device (tablet with keyboard or laptop) with attendees. While in isolation she had only a tiny iPhone SE to work with -- not ideal, although she did manage to virtually attend her AM classes on it. She was allowed to speak English when calling home in the evenings from a designated phone room, so we usually chatted via FaceTime (audio only, internet was iffy) a couple times a week. Other times we texted in French. On the last evening they were allowed to break the language pledge, which she said felt weird. She and her immersion bestie decided to just keep speaking in French to each other. They're keeping in touch via FaceTime, and since her former French conversation partner is off to college now, she hopes they'll be able to set up regular French conversation sessions this year. Feel free to PM me with other questions!

My daughter loves her iTalki Russian tutor. I suspect she could use some more students! https://www.italki.com/teacher/4903764

The pronunciation you mentioned is legit and completely appropriate in Latin America. It is true that in some places ll is very soft, like a y. But in other places it is much harder, more like a j. In some regions, it even has more of a sh sound. It doesn't really matter which of those a student learns. It is easy to adjust your ear and pronunciation if necessary. My older daughter took high school Spanish 1-3 from Dale Gamache. His classes are reasonably priced and the same text is used all three years. I thought it was a good value, and my daughter did very well with the language.

The free Coursera course Introduction to Genetics and Evolution taught by Duke professor Mohamed Noor provides an excellent foundation. There may be a tiny bit of math your son hasn't seen before, but using a scientific calculator makes that a non-issue. When we used it, you could access the quizzes without buying a certificate. If that is no longer the case, you might seriously consider purchasing the certificate. (And that's not something I would normally say about a MOOC!) But definitely start the course before making a decision. We ignored the course discussion boards. https://www.coursera.org/learn/genetics-evolution

If French is a real interest of your daughter’s, you might also carefully consider whether she could stretch herself and take a French 3 class. It might require a bit of self-study over the summer, but if she’s changing textbooks, it might be good to plan for that anyway. In your shoes I’d look at CLRC’s French classes. My daughter has done Spanish and Russian with them. She is very picky about language instruction, but she’s been happy with CLRC. The only reason we didn’t look at them for French was that she was already beyond French 3 when she decided to take an online group class. BTW, my daughter has been impressed with the French skills of her classmates in WTMA French 4/5. Maybe ask about their waitlists? Even if the waitlist is full, let them know of your interest. They do try to add new sections over the summer if there is enough interest.

I’d suggest looking for a current AP Spanish classroom teacher who is willing to provide tutoring. iTalki tutors are going to be of little to no use for AP Spanish Language exam prep, given that the exam tasks are somewhat quirky. Native speakers of Spanish who go in cold often don’t do very well on the test, and it is very unlikely there are many tutors on iTalki that have actual experience with the AP Spanish exam. If anyone claims to be an AP Spanish tutor, you really need to check out their experience with the test. If they haven’t taught the class in a classroom, I’d be skeptical. My older kid took an online AP Spanish class, but she did need to do a lot of outside preparation, because the class focused on advancing language skills rather than the specific exam tasks. The AP exam workbook published by Vista Higher Learning with its accompanying online material was very helpful, but I think there are other prep books that are also quite good, and probably cheaper. Another option for AP Spanish Language exam prep is https://www.albert.io/ap-spanish-language. I think their main customers are schools, but they do offer subscriptions of varying lengths to individuals.

Yes, the fees are listed in Canadian dollars. So the cost for the 5 week program (before adding transportation, travel/health insurance, and spending money) will be under $3400 USD. Our Amazon credit card has no fees for foreign transactions, so that’s the one I’m using. I’ll definitely report back after her return!

Unless he turns 15 soon, this one isn’t an option this year, but maybe in a year or two it’d be a good fit. My 16 year old will be going to Université Sainte-Anne’s 5-week summer program in Nova Scotia. The exchange rate makes it pretty affordable, certainly significantly less than a US residential summer program. She’ll likely fly to Halifax and take the program-provided transportation to campus. The French taught is “standard,” not québécois. (There are of course Acadians in N.S., but Université Sainte-Anne is a Francophone university, and their immersion instructors are recruited from all over the French-speaking world.) https://www.usainteanne.ca/en/learn-french/spring-and-summer-sessions#apply Note that when applying as a US student, you use the online form for Canadian students and then choose US for citizenship. This allows for credit card payment. If you try to use the International form instead, payment becomes a lot more complicated. Here is a podcast episode focused on the Sainte-Anne immersion program: https://www.americathebilingual.com/41-french-immersion-at-universite-sainte-anne-a-bubble-of-joy/

Assuming you mean the regular or honors chemistry and not the Advanced Honors class, she uses the 4th edition of Timberlake. You can look inside the 6th edition on Amazon. It is very similar, but personally I prefer the layout style of the 4th edition. https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Chemistry/dp/0134878116

No live meetings or classmate interaction, but you can communicate with the TA via Canvas, or you can email Meryl directly if a Canvas message seems to have fallen through the cracks. The 5-week chunk option is completely self-paced. There are no set deadlines and access does not expire. This was especially important for my kids toward the end, when they needed to slow down a lot.

There are also High School Study Guides intended for those using Destinos alongside another Spanish text. Those have exercises that do not require audio. Volume 1 is ISBN 0812375491, and volume 2 is ISBN 0812375017. Finally, there are also Student Viewer’s Handbooks, also intended for use when Destinos is a supplement rather than the main curriculum. These handbooks mention an audio CD-ROM, but I don’t actually think audios are required for any activities. Volume 1 is ISBN 0072497092, and volume 2 is ISBN 0072497106. If using the text and workbook, the Study Guides and Handbooks above are completely redundant. But of the two options, the Student Viewer’s Handbooks are by far the better resource, because they include the Más allá del episodio texts, while the high school study guides omit them.

We were happy with FundaFunda’s Python. I do prefer the 5-week chunks rather than the full semester course, for more flexibility. That last 5 weeks is fairly challenging! https://www.fundafundaacademy.com/product-category/5week/

I would separate it out as a semester class (unless it warrants a whole credit of its own?). That’s typically how people transcript something like the high school Build Your Library curricula, with multiple subject area credits for one very large curriculum.

Oh, and adding to my earlier post, Barron’s Spanish Now! Level 1 worktext is a possible alternative to a Practice Makes Perfect workbook. Audio is now online, but if you prefer CD you may be able to find an unused/overstock copy of an older edition. And I also highly recommend Dreaming Spanish videos. It is easiest to sort the videos and keep track of progress on the Dreaming Spanish website. No need to subscribe — so much of it is free! Here are the ISBNs of the Destinos items I’ve got on hand: Textbook ISBN 0070020698 Workbook Part 1 (Ep. 1-26) ISBN 0070020728 Workbook Part 2 (Ep. 27-52) ISBN 0070020736 Videoscript ISBN 0070672024 - may be hard to find Faculty Guide ISBN 007002071X - may be hard to find, definitely not necessary, but I do use the tests and episode summaries

Yup, definitely use Tom’s files linked above, including the audios. Here’s my personal workflow: 1. Go through the “before viewing” section of the chapter, using audio files. 2. Watch episode once or twice. Check video script (episode transcript), but only because I don’t bother suppressing my perfectionism. Probably better NOT to read video script. 3. Work through “after viewing” section of chapter, through to the end of the chapter. 4. Go to workbook, complete exercises, use audio files. Depending on the student, you can probably get through a lesson each week, possibly more. Definitely be a co-learner with your kid. As soon as you feel you have a handle on pronunciation, read everything in the text aloud together, always. And spend time with the audio files, mimicking them out loud. The Destinos sequence is somewhat unconventional. This is a good thing, because it introduces high frequency structures a lot sooner than typical texts. But as suggested above, it’d be a good idea to pair it with a Dorothy Richmond workbook from the Practice Makes Perfect series (hers are better than the other authors’). I’m a huge fan of the Coffee Break Spanish podcast. Seasons 1 and 2 are the oldest seasons, and they are both beginning level, but do listen to Season 1 before Season 2. It can sometimes be tricky to find the right episodes in podcast apps, but it is definitely worth the effort. (Hint, do not start with the Espresso episodes, even though some are also marked Season 1 in my podcast app. Those are more advanced.) As long as you are using other resources, there’s no need to buy the accompanying PDFs. Just listen. It takes a very systematic approach. Notes in Spanish is another favorite podcast, but less structured than Coffee Break. Lightspeed Spanish and Spanish Obsessed are also very good.

We loved Smarthistory/Khan Academy art history so much that I felt like I should start sending Christmas cards to Beth Harris and Steven Zucker, the co-founders of Smarthistory. They present the material so engagingly that we wound up spending a LOT more time on ancient art history than I anticipated.

I’ve found Hits/Misses threads helpful in the past when planning for the next year. I hope others will share here too! What has gone well for your high schoolers this year? What hasn’t met expectations? Overall, 10th grade is going well here, aside from the darn pandemic. Hits: Clover Creek Physics w/honors option - Jetta Seboly OnlineG3 Physics Literacy (1 semester) Derek Owens Honors Algebra 2 WTMA French 4/5 - Françoise Agena Integritas Lit & Comp - Cindy Lange Aim Academy US History w/honors option - Lisa Hawkins Miss: Dreaming Spires Spanish 3 Teacher in UK. Website describes their Spanish 3 as similar to US Spanish 4, but that was not our experience. The reading list looked great, but the rest of the (very small) cohort hasn’t reached the level of proficiency required to read and discuss Borges poems and stories. I wanted her to give it a chance, but she was miserable, and we ended up missing the partial refund deadline too. (At the end of the year I’ll be able to comment on what she did instead for Spanish, and also Russian.)

Note that Gamache is a retired FL public high school teacher. He may very well know the right things to say/do to help his students with UF requirements. I do know that his students typically do NOT earn a Level 2 score on the Spanish CLEP. I haven’t spoken with him in a long time, but as of 2020 none of his immediately post-Spanish 3 students had ever earned a Level 2 score, although a couple had come close. In your shoes I might reach out and ask if he’d be willing to give you any advice about helping your students satisfy the UF language requirement. IIRC, he has both email and phone contact info on his website, but it might take a bit of patience to get in touch with him. 😉

Would it be possible to list which accreditations would be acceptable? Dale Gamache’s synchronous online high school classes (La Clase Divertida) are accepted for NCAA eligibility, and WTMA’s synchronous online classes have Middle States Association approval.

Part of it may be quick speaking and less than ideal audio, and part of it may be the student not knowing exactly what to expect. The official practice test is not a good reflection of the real test. The actual test moves you along quickly and does not allow replaying the audio, so students have to be prepared to take notes that will help with the questions that follow the audio. It isn’t all audio though, there are reading selections and multiple choice questions not linked to the audio. My older one took Spanish 1-3 from Dale Gamache, followed by Spanish 4 with Ray Leven. Then she spent a few weeks preparing for the non-writing Spanish CLEP test using a very helpful blog and other resources. She earned a Modern States voucher to cover the cost. She had no problem with the test, and easily earned a Level 2 score. My younger one will be taking it this month via remote proctoring, also using a voucher earned from Modern States. (We were pleasantly surprised that at the moment Modern States is covering not just the test fee, but also the remote-proctoring fee.) In case you have other students that might wish to attempt the Spanish CLEP, feel free to message me with your email address and I can send you the tips and info my daughter compiled for Gamache’s Spanish 3 students.

One Schoolhouse offers an asynchronous class. Pretty expensive though. https://www.oneschoolhouse.org/ap-french.html Edited to add: the description mentions opportunities to meet on Google Hangouts with classmates, but it is optional, so level of engagement probably varies a lot. You might consider arranging private preparation with a classroom teacher who has experience teaching AP French Language & Culture. We did this for AP Spanish Literature. (Spanish is the only world language that still has an AP Lit exam in addition to the AP Language exam.) There are very few online providers. We considered and decided against both JHU-CTY and One Schoolhouse. Instead, I went through the AP course audit process in order to get access to the official online practice material, and my daughter studied under the supervision of a teacher who has been teaching that class for many years in another state’s virtual academy. That state used to allow non-residents to pay for their courses, but they no longer do, so we hired her as a private tutor for 1 hour per week via video conference. My daughter was doing more or less the same work as the virtual academy students, but she was a couple weeks ahead of them. Cost was slightly less than One Schoolhouse, so still quite expensive, but she loved going through the material. She was definitely prepared to take the exam, but didn’t because she had already earned the max credit she could get from her chosen college via the AP Spanish Language exam.

I have a daughter in WTMA French. She likes the class a lot. Anyone considering it needs be aware that although they are (loosely) using an AP-aligned textbook, it is not intended to be an AP prep class. This matters because the AP world language exams are quirky. Even native speakers may do poorly if they have not been taught how to approach the tasks. You might look into whether CLEP would be adequate documentation. Not all colleges give credit (or as much credit) for it, but the test is generally easier to access than AP. You can earn a free voucher for the test via the nonprofit Modern States. One of my daughters will be taking the Spanish test soon, and she’ll take the French test next year. She got the voucher from Modern States, and we’ll pay the additional fee for remote proctoring, since the test centers here are still closed. CLEP is another test that requires some strategy preparation. I haven’t seen specific advice for the French test, but we did find good advice for the Spanish test when my older one took it.

@Treewriter, if you’re looking for kindred spirits, feel free to private message me. My 10th grader belongs to an online group of homeschooled teens who all love languages. 🙂