I would look at other math or science classes online that might not be dial credit but could be AP. My ds took AoPS Calc his senior year online and then took the AP test and passed. It also set him up beautifully for Engineering Honors Calc. I think there may be other options that are less expensive but still give your son what he needs in the online class route. Think PA Homeschoolers, Derek Owens, AoPS. We would have had to pay out of pocket for dual enrollment classes so we chose AP online classes as a less expensive route and we have found (atleast in our area) that these classes are far more rigorous than the local CC.

Thanks for sharing, it's so exciting! Congratulations to the students and to all the hard working parents. I was a mess this time last year waiting for acceptances.

I found that the guidance counselor portion took me 15-20 hours a week of work for 2-3 months for all the college transcripts and intense scholarship application. I am pretty organized and kept good records but, I was unprepared for the level of work. I have several years before my twins hit their senior year and I am not looking forward to it.

I sent unweighted grades as well but then after seeing the difference in scholarships on their site, I called and asked if I could send in a weighted transcript. They said that would be fine and then they gave him $10,000 more. My ds had excellent test scores as well but for the highest level of scholarships, the grades had to be weighted. Check out their sites for scholarship requirements and/or talk to admissions.

Weighting my ds' grades gave him $ 10,000 more in scholarships than not weighting them, so in our case having letter grades for everything made a huge difference. I gave everything a grade.

Hands down, AOPS. My now freshman in college says AOPS more than prepared him for Honors Engineering Calc. None of the content is new to him. He did also enjoy LOF Calc, but he's crazy that way.

I put them in my homemade granola which we use for snacks as well as for Greek yogurt parfaits.

We have had a very different year this year. My oldest is at college which has greatly changed the dynamic as I now only have one grade (9th) to teach since I have twins. It has also changed because my dd was diagnosed with a very rare autoimmune disease, Retinal Vasculitis, which due to meds has had to change the way we do school. Not necessarily a bad change but a very different experience. We are incredibly busy but it seems more peaceful probably because it has to be. My twins have several outside (online) classes which have both caused more stress and lessened more stress. However, some of the things that I have seen work to allow us to enjoy the journey and teach from a place of rest are - - having a written lesson plan and check off sheet for each of the kids on their desk by Monday. Also, going over their week with them on Mon morning has allowed them to think through and plan their week better, which with Doctor spots over an hour away has become imperative. - daily sit down time with Mom. We read our Bible, poetry and are reading SWB's, "History of Western Science" out loud. While I am reading, they can draw, put a puzzle together, play with the dog etc. We also do many of their history questions out loud. This allows them a bit of a mental break and a chance for us to laugh, chat and connect. -Scheduled time to follow their passions. We do better if we all know there is time for everyone to do what they love. -Friday's are designated as a sleep in day, (necessary because my dd takes her meds on Thursday night which completely wipes her out) then chores later in the day. -I have to say that this year we are more scheduled but there is more built in time for rest. I also have become far more watchful of how my kids are responding. Can they really not handle the work or is this something else? Do we have the appropriate level of academics and can I teach it more simply while still maintaining the same level of academics? -Honestly, in the end, it has come down to my attitude. My ds mentioned to his Aunt at the end of the summer how stressed I was and that he was concerned for me. That was a huge eye opener and I have taken a purposeful step in creating a much calmer atmosphere. I have been better about keeping the house neat, keeping fun, warm drinks available, keeping a tighter schedule and allowing for time to be at rest.

My ds uses MATLAB in his Engineering program.

We made our ds apply to the "safety" University that's 15 min away and that's where he is attending now. He was NOT thrilled with it until we went to their Engineering School day, took a tour of the Engineering Honors Dorm and met with Professors in his major. We also found that the Honors kids have smaller classes. Classes like Engineering Calc 1 which usually have 200 kids in them, have a smaller Honors Calc 1 with 20 or 30. Those things combined with the massive scholarships they offered won him over. He is young (just 17) and is living on campus in the Engineering Honors dorm and we have found that the close proximity to home has been a huge blessing.

If the English class also includes Lit, then it may not be worth it. You could just look at Notgrass in that case, although I really like SWB's Ancient World.

We are finding that the APs helped get my ds into colleges, get scholarships and into selective programs. However, they haven't really done much for my ds in college. The selective programs want students to take their classes not skip them because they took the AP. The idea that you can "skip" many of the basic classes with either APs or CLEPS ( my ds had both) or even dual enrollment at the university level seems to be false. This may vary depending on the level of the college or university but I would ask a lot of questions of not just admissions but maybe meet with advisors at colleges before you make the assumption that they actually get students out of classes.

That's a great idea. I think you are completely right about asking them. I also didn't realize you could go from a Bachelors to PhD program. This is why I love this group.

I found this to be true for several higher level scholarships that my ds was up for. At first, it was annoying but as we met and interviewed with these people, I saw how delighted most of the committees were that we, as homeschoolers, were willing to jump through the hoops to be a part of the process. I was told by several that they so appreciated having homeschooled students involved because they were so very interesting and they told me that they realized how many hoops there were to jump through. I think it's harder the first time through, as my ds got recognized for his accomplishments, I got less annoyed as I realized that everyone had to jump through the hoops.

He wants to go into research so I think academia is his main route to do that. He does not want to be a programmer, per se. He has interned with the Scratch team at MIT for years and has been offered an internship at the Lifelong Kindergarten Lab at MIT this summer.

My ds is considering getting a 5 year BS/MS degrees in Comp Sci through CU Boulder, where he is a freshman now. He met with an advisor today to start mapping out his plan because he also wants a Cognitive Science Certificate, which will be added classes as well. He is smart, pretty driven and knows what he wants to do but we don't have any experience with knowing whether it's a good plan to do the 5 year plan or for him to go to a separate Grad School. Anyone have ideas, experiences, opinions?

We have found Thinkwell to be a rigorous program that has video lectures and does the grading as well. Mine also like AoPS and Life of Fred. http://www.thinkwellhomeschool.com

It is from The Godfather but it is heavily referenced and explained in You've Got Mail. I think Tom Hanks says something like, " It's not personal, it's business".

If he is considering going into a Computer Science type degree or field, I would agree with the suggestion of pre-Calc. My ds is majoring on Comp Sci with a Cognitive Science track and the more advanced Comp Sci classes require Calc. Actually, my ds is required to take so much upper level math that he could easily get a minor in Applied Math by just taking a few more elective math classes. The advisors and Comp Sci professors we spoke to when we were planning his high school years, kept telling us to do more math and less programming languages. They said understanding the logic and the math involved is far more important than picking up another language. In the end, though, this is all guess work and I would contact the schools you are looking into and ask what they recommend.

I think Sue is pretty right on. On the list of solid rigor, I would also add Thinkwell.

So sorry, FaithManor, that is no fun. My fill broke several ribs and my mil had panic attacks that acted like heart attacks in the middle of college move in and it made life very difficult. Praying that your parents heal and that you'll catch a break soon.

Personally, as a conservative Christian, I want our history to not have a particular worldview. I want our history to be as accurate as possible. I have found that many Christian history program make too many judgements. I want us to learn what really happened and then to use the Bible as our moral authority. I want us to learn about the right and wrong decisions the church and Christians made through out history and then have a discussion with my kids on why they were right or wrong with the Bible as our guide. I don't want the history program to do that for us, I want to teach my kids how to think and judge based on the Bible, not someone else's determination. It is one of my pet peeves that Christian history programs often tell what to think not teach us how to think for ourselves. I found SOTW to be a wonderful bouncing off point. I think SWB did a great job of trying to be neutral. Then it's my job to bring the discussion to my kids.

http://spanish.academy My oldest used it for four years and now my freshman are using it. It is a personal lesson over Skype from teachers in Guatemala. We found the curriculum to be comprehensive and it really teaches kids how to speak conversational Spanish along with reading, writing and some culture. I really liked the relationship that my ds had with his teacher over the four years, she took a real interest in his life and that really engaged my introverted son. One other plus was that he then had a teacher recommendation for both college applications and for scholarships.

We use Homeschool Spanish Academy and absolutely love it.

We have found Thinkwell to be a good, solid math program which does all the teaching and grading.