I do check on their online courses, though, how much is different with each students. Interestingly, younger ds is much more responsible than his brother. I check on younger ds much less. I NEVER communicate with the teacher, instructor, or professor. However, I have told my students to communicate immediately when necessary. :-) As an aside, I do not view looking at their school work as an invasion of their privacy. If they went to a regular highschool I would get reports on progress etc. as well. This is really no different.

My boys are much older now. We actually used SOTW twice. In grade 1-4 the boys usually did the coloring pages while I read out loud to them. In grades 5-8 I still read the SOTW chapters aloud; this way we also discussed it. However, this time around they also did outlines from other books, read tons of additional books and we did different (more advanced projects). In short, you can use SOTW later, earlier or, like us, twice. :-)

Regarding the quality of courses at the cc vs the University.... I do believe that this depends largely on the department, the course, the professor and which CC (or University) the student attends. I have heard this go both ways from a number of students who have transferred. I know students who did indeed find the courses at the University level much more difficult than at the CC. I also know students who see it the other way. One friends' daughter actually called her to tell her Mom what an awesome preparation the CC courses had been. The courses at the University were easier. In short, this can go either way. Having said all that two other (imo) important points are: 1. When you transfer in as a Junior you are now taking Junior level classes. They should be more difficult than the courses at the CC. The CC doesn't offer that level. 2. How the students deals with the work load is something that can be scheduled. I think that often students who take the transfer route take too few courses per semester. Then when they transfer they experience a work load shock. This can be prevented by treating the CC as a full work load option as well. Of course, this is just my humble opinion from what I have seen. In the end we all need to do what's best for own students. :-)

Yes, as per their choice. Both boys have taken some classes at the CC, however, mostly for extra practice or whatever seemed fun. The real deal will start after high school for us. :-)

We will go the UC transfer route because it is just so much less stressful; and frankly quite often our own courses are indeed of better quality than UC approved ones. We do know several homeschooled students who transferred into a UC without any trouble. A close friend of ours applied to four UC schools including Berkeley and UCLA. She was accepted at all of them and chose to attend UCLA. She is in her second year at UCLA (her senior year) and loves. Btw, she also never took the SAT. On the flip-side we have very good friends whose son applied to several UC school and Cal Poly. He went to a public high school, took some AP courses and did pretty well. He was not accepted into any of the schools he applied to. They did offer him a spot at a UC school he didn't apply to and didn't want. He is now attending the CC to get into Cal Poly. So, yes, the UC freshman requirements are just too stressful for us.

Thank you Lori, for responding to the OP. We are planning on something like this for next year (my sons senior year). I appreciate you linking the old thread as well. There is so much information. I almost can't wait to get started.

Thank you so much. Consider it ditched! I have no idea why I needed permission to do so, but evidently I did. :-)

Nobody has tried to read it? I may just call it done and move on.

I am surprised that your local college wouldn't offer anything in that field at all. I looked it up quickly for our local college and they list several different paths and tons of courses in the area. This is a very wide and varied field in today's time! In our college catalog IT as a sub-category of computer science. Maybe that is the case in your area as well?

Good Morning Hive, Ds and I are working our way through The Sceptical Chemyst by Robert Boyle. It is a very dry (and therefore tough) read for us. Has anyone read it? If you have do you have any suggestions on discussion questions, prompts, summaries etc.? I suppose we could just finish the book and move on. Neither of us seem to be able to really get into it. We are reading it because we are studying Chemistry this year. Neither ds nor I are in love with Chemistry. This is our toughest subject because of that. He will be taking Physics next year at school. However, this year needs to be finished. Thankfully, we found a class only a few weeks long which will cover Chemistry calculations and this way we'll be able to cover this part of Chemistry. We are reading The Sceptical Chemyst because it is mentioned in the WTM if you are wondering. Thanks. :-)

Thanks Regentrude for your response! I have the same concerns about taking a break from Math. I could have him take an online course through our high school just to stay at the very least even. Hmm...something to think about.

Thank you Lisa! This is an excellent idea. I don't know why that didn't occur to me. :-)

Love the 'herded around' phrase. My son could have said this as well.

Totally agree! How does one plan a trip to say Japan on their own? I am talking about a teen travelling without parent. Any input appreciated. We have travelled to Europe quite a bit, and I would feel fairly comfortable putting something together in that area. Asia, however, is a completely different world for me.

Thank you for the responses! I appreciate all of them. We will have him find out requirements for various degree options. He will need to decide if it is worth the grind with math. He will definitively take a math break next semester just to take the pressure off and grow a little.

Is anyone familiar with Travel for Teens? If so what do you think? http://www.travelforteens.com/teen-travel/

I think for one he is trying to decide if he loves Science enough to work through his math difficulties. I am leaning toward taking a break from Math and explore. However, I also don't want him to get too rusty in case he does decide he needs more Math. Not sure what to advise.

Hello Everyone, We have finally reached the last year of high school with ds1.It seems that he has a very difficult time dealing with the what next isssue. What am I going to do after high school? He is currently attending a charter school while also taking Math as DE. He is doing well at the high school; not well in the Math class. Ds always wanted to study Oceanography or Chemistry. He know that requires much Math. He loves Science, but dislikes Math. What to do? Last night we did have a long conversation about this, however, I seem to have a hard time getting him to focus on the goal rather than on things he dosn't like. I have made some suggestions to him for next year: 1. Meet with the counselors at the CC to get 'real' information on transfer courses required in various disciplines. He does have some other interests. (Chem, Oceanography, Art, Theater, Anthropology, Political Science) 2. Take next year as an exploration into areas of interest. 3. Work for a while. Any other suggestion? He seems to have no idea on what he would like to start with at all. Thanks,

Lori's point about 'wanting to go to high school' is indeed the most important point. In order to homeschool high school you need her buy-in. This is very difficult to achieve if all she wants to do is go to school. Besides this point I would like to mention science. As homeschoolers I have found that we are much more concerned about Science than necessary. I, too, was always worried about Science. Both my kids went to high school for two years and what I found was that both my boys knew most of what they learned already and both did relatively view labs. Science courses they took: 1. Biology: We had covered everything they learned in this class at home. Ds said that we had done way more labs at home than they did at school. 2. Earth Science: Same as above. This course had no real labs because it was not a Lab Science course. 3. Chemistry: Same as above with the exception to Chemistry specific calculations. Finally a course in which ds learned something new. That year they had a wonderful Chem teacher who also did lots of labs. Ds really liked this class. The next year this teacher was gone. The next teacher hardly did any labs. 4. Marine Science: Because this course was more specific ds did learn new things. However, there was nothing you can't do at home. Again, hardly any labs as this was not a Lab Science course. All this to say that I strongly believe that how difficult the course is, or how many labs there are, greatly varies not only from state to state, but also from school to school, and even from teacher to teacher. I have come to the conclusion that I can cover all the basic Science courses in the same way as most high schools do. It is the advanced courses (AP etc) where I need outside help. And both boys will take care of this at the community college. You could cover entry level Science at home if you are inclined to do so. :-)

Agreeing with a previous poster about what the labs look like. I was always worried about this. Then my kids went to high school they did very few labs that actually looked like labs. It seems to me that the term lab in high school is used very broadly. Almost anything that is not a lecture could be called a lab. I find this quite disturbing in many ways.

Agreeing with Regentrude! For us, all the elementary and middle school Science curricula seemed extremely contrived and boring to us. Science all the way through grade 8 was largely fun for us. We simply picked a topic of interested and read books and used all sorts of lab kits and/or lab books and 'played' around with them. We did focus a bit on talking about the following questions while working on labs/kits/projects: Which materials are we using? What are we trying to do? What do we think will happen? What actually happened? Was this surprising? Or did we expect this? Did it work? Why? Why not? Sometimes we wrote this in down in a paper format; but mostly Science was fun. And for the record, my kids went to high school for two years after that; and both said that they felt they knew just as much (if not more) as all the other kids in their classes. Certain classes they knew almost everything that the high school covered (Biology, Earth Science) and in Chemistry they knew a huge junk of information already as well. What we didn't cover at home was the Math in Chemistry. Again, agreeing with Regentrude. Study Math and have FUN with Science.

Yes, scheduling can be an issue. We are with a charter school in California and do work very hard to get a schedule that works; not always easy. Ds 1: He takes 3 classes at the highschool (AP Gov, Drama, English). He is done at the highschool at 11:30. Then heads over to the community college for Math which starts at 12:30 (Tuesday and Thursday). The other days he just leaves school and goes home to work on homework. He also takes AP German online. Honestly, he loves being done at the highschool at 11:30. Ds 2: Is with the same charter school, but switched to their independent study program. This year he is taking Math Online with the school, Photoshop through the community college, and everything else independent study. This year is going very well, actually. Both the boys are mature enough to handle a varied schedule like this.

Oh my.This so describes how I often feel. :-)

We have used German Online through Oklahoma State for the last three years. It has worked well for us.

What!? German Online is approved. This is awesome! I did not know this. That means we are good on pretty much all our courses.