It is okay to make mid-year adjustments. So just because you do certain courses in the fall semester does not mean you are locked in to doing all of them for the spring, especially if for some reason the course is not a fit for the student. It is also okay to make mid-semester adjustments (like, dropping a language since that is a HUGE amount of language classes... or switching curricula to a less rigorous option for a subject that is not of high interest or just needs to be "box-checked" -- for example, that might be Economics). Do what helps the student remain excited and interested -- rather than feeling you must stick with the plan going into next year and the student ends up crashing and burning. 😉

Not enough context to help you. What age and grade is DS? What is his post high school goal / interest? (career field? college?) Why (or what is your reason) for wanting DS to complete an AS during high school? What does DS want re: doing an AS simultaneous with high school? Can you explain the STEM program? -- hard to know if that would conflict with the AS without details 😉

Maybe practice timed short essay writing (like the old 30 min. SAT/ACT essays, from a prompt) once a week? Take the stress off, make it totally just a practice that you BOTH do. Work up from 10 minutes, so at first, it's NOT even writing -- it's just about picking a prompt, deciding on a position (pro/con), and seeing what you can come up with for reasons of support for the position. Then share thoughts -- you could each pick different prompts to reduce any anxiety about competition, lol. As you both get more comfortable with "faster thinking" and deciding on reasons and examples of support, take 15 minutes and work on actually writing the thinking out as a complete paragraph. Eventually expand to 30 minutes and write out as a short essay. Totally meant as practice that you then give each other gentle feedback. Again, not done as a graded assignment, so hopefully it takes the pressure off with coming up with THE PERFECT answer. Just a thought! Wishing you all the BEST in finding what helps. Warmest regards, Lori D.

I don't think anyone puts on performances that are in modern translation. Sometimes the original is condensed a bit, and then there are also adaptations -- the basic story, but none of the original language. Here are my recommendations for you: Hamlet - David Tennent (2009) -- he is magnificent as Hamlet; original language - Kenneth Branagh version (1996) -- original language; a lot of people like this one; I don't -- IMO, Branagh is miscast as Hamlet and this film seemed to be about further inflating his already overly pompous ego; he is great and well-cast in Much Ado (below), so it's not that I hate Branagh... Romeo & Juliet - Franco Zeffirelli directed version (1968) -- original language; Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting - West Side Story (1961) -- based on general storyline, set in 1950s New York City with gangs; no original language Much Ado About Nothing - Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson version (1993) -- original language that is SO clear and understandable from the 2 main actors, plus 2 of the older male actors; some of the other characters are badly miscast - Joss Whedon directed version (2012) -- slightly condensed; modern setting but original language; not bad -- several actors are good, some okay, one or two seem very lost; beautiful black & white Macbeth I don't recommend the bloody Polanski-directed version (1971); it was done after his wife pregnant Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by the Manson gang, and Polanski was clearly working out issues; original language; abridged/condensed - BBC 1983 version -- but minimal in staging/costuming and done for TV - possibly the 2011 version starring Patrick Stewart -- original language; I hear it is disturbing (set in WW1, bloody, with the witches portrayed as creepy nurses) - Throne of Blood (1961) -- Japanese samurai version of the story; no original language Taming of the Shrew - BBC version with John Cleese (1980) -- original language; from the same series done for TV as Macbeth above; I really liked that at the end, John Cleese actually portrays Petruchio as having done it all because he really cares about Katarina as a human being - Liz Taylor/Richard Burton version (1967) -- I have not seen this one; original language; I believe it is somewhat abridged - 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) -- an okay adaptation of the story, no original language; set with modern teens in a high school; some language and some underage partying/drinking

Just to make sure I had gathered as much info as possible for decision-making, I would look at what other options might be available through dual enrollment at the community college. Are there AAS degrees available at the community college? An AS is the "degree to transfer" Associate's (to then go to a university and finish with a Bachelor's degree), while the AAS is the "degree to work" Associate's that has a lot of the direct hands-on ed/training towards a Vo-Tech career job. Since this DS has a clear career goal that, at this time, does not involve transferring to a university to complete a Bachelor's degree, an AS degree is possibly not as helpful to him as as an AAS degree might be. What possible AAS degrees offered at your community college might potentially be useful from time to time in cowboying, or other work related to cowboying? Animal husbandry? Welding? Construction? EMT? Or even something like accounting or bookkeeping? Those could also all work well as a "fall-back" job later on if the cowboy gig doesn't work out. Or, are there other AAS programs that might be a possible fit for DS as a completely different kind of "fall-back" job, even if totally unrelated to cowboying? HVAC? Or intro training in plumbing or electrician or auto mechanic? He sounds like a hands-on / outdoors kind of guy, which is why I suggest some of these. Also, I'd be researching university costs and discussing with both DH and with EACH child. What's the plan for paying for the 2+ years at a university to complete a Bachelor's degree? How likely are scholarships -- on average 1/2 tuition scholarship is common, but that may lead all of the room & board cost for each year if going to a state university out of town. And what is the plan for paying if the scholarship is not renewed? Are federal student loans on or off the table for your family? If willing for your students to take on debt, do your students fully understand how that will impact their future? (For example, in 2022, the average amount of debt students came out of college with was $10,000; paying $300/month means that will take 10 years to pay off. That may lock a student into a job until they pay it off, meaning they are unable to move or take a risk on a different job because they must pay that debt off every.single.month. Also, if the student has college debt and marries someone with college debt, they are each mutually responsible for one another's debt -- and that could impact ability to afford buying a house, where they can afford to live, or even whether or not they can afford to start a family if they wanted to.) And what if the student ends up needed more than 2 years after transfer from community college to complete the Bachelor (for example, shifts degree program, or just can't handle the workload for graduating in just 2 years). Or what if the student ends up dropping out of college and not completing the degree first. If there is debt that must be paid, but now there is no degree to open doors to a potentially higher-paying job). And even if finances are not an issue and a student does get the AS and then a Bachelor's degree... depending on what the Bachelor's degree is for, there are a LOT of people out there with a Bachelor's who are working entry-level jobs because that's all that's available. Just a few things to throw in the mix as you all discuss and decide. Wishing you all the BEST! Warmest regards, Lori D.

eek! I missed that you were doing tragedies! We watched a variety -- Shakespeare (tragedy, history, AND comedy), plus also several really interesting contemporary plays -- not tragedies. 😉

That looks fun, @Rosie! 😄 During the pandemic shut-down, they were showing a play a week for free from their archive. We really enjoyed watching some of those! I bet you are having a grand time with this "unit". 😄

plays - The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde) - Pygmalion (Shaw) -- play on which the musical My Fair Lady is based short stories - Wodehouse on Crime (Wodehouse) -- short story collection of various of PG Wodehouse's reoccurring characters - The Club of Queer Trades (Chesterton) -- short story collection, humorously parodying Sherlock Holmes - Farmer Giles of Ham (Tolkien) -- humorous mock epic - various Mark Twain short stories novels - The Full Cupboard of Life (Smith) - light, gently humorous; "traditionally built" lady detective of Botswana - The Eyre Affair (Fforde) -- humorous, "meta"; literary hard-boiled detective Thursday Next attempts to keep novel characters in line - Thief of Time (Pratchett) -- one of the best in his Discworld series, IMO - the Bromeliad trilogy of short novels: Truckers; Diggers; Wings (Pratchett) - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Douglas Adams) - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Douglas Adams) - Cold Comfort Farm (Gibbons) - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Twain) memoir - A Year in Provence (Mayle) -- British author & his wife and their humorous year of living in rural France - All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot) -- humorous, poignant, the whole gamut of the English country vet's experiences - My Family and Other Animals (Durrell)

lol. I imagine they said it because it sounded "quippy". lol. Again, I would definitely encourage reading it while keeping the idea of metaphor in the front of your mind. It is not a book to "just read for plot" or you miss everything that's most important and most interesting about it. It is one of his earliest works of fiction (1908). It is subtitled "A Nightmare" which I do think should be kept in mind when reading -- what does he mean by that? Certainly that the work has a dream-like quality, but also it is a "nightmare" in the sense of a Christian trying to make sense of the paradoxes of God -- those paradoxes can seem very nightmarish, and can, if misunderstood or not taken in the greater context, make God and faith in God seem like a nightmare. You might want to get the Annotated version (annotations by Martin Gardner). I have not seen that version, but apparently it provides a great deal of biographical and contextual information as well as comments made by Chesterton himself on the book. I know I have read various (conflicting) things said by Chesterton himself about the book -- one, that he wrote it at a depressed and struggling period in his life, but that later he somewhat dismissed that and said the book was a "very melodramatic sort of moonshine" -- lol. I actually think it is a quite brilliant book, and that it has an amazing dream-like quality that Chesterton maintains throughout with a light and effortless feel, while simultaneously presenting the intellectual struggles of faith without making that theme feel like it was forced on top of the story.

Just me, but I'd skip the Pre-Calc, BUT do a 4th math credit so there can be 4 on the transcript. I'd probably opt for Consumer Math, Finance, Bookkeeping, or Accounting -- something that would be of real-world value for the future. Or, do whatever College Algebra as DE, or as self-study and then CLEP test it. Do the specific College Algebra course (or CLEP) that will transfer and knock out in advance that gen. ed. requirement of Math that many college degree programs require.

Great overarching theme! And, oh my, yes you have read a ton! 😄 I LOVE The Man Who Was Thursday; it's one of my favorites. DSs both thoroughly enjoyed it as well. It has a lot of Chesterton-style humor, and a lot of his trademark paradox. The overarching element is metaphor, which is a wonderful way to communicate spiritual truth that is complex, multi-meaning, and outside of ordinary physical human daily life. Metaphor is not allegory -- allegory is direct one-to-one representation. Metaphor is also not symbolism -- symbolism represents an intangible idea with a tangible object. Metaphor is strongly used in poetry (which is why a lot of people feel confused by or dislike poetry). The definition of metaphor is using one thing in place of another to show comparison and connection. In metaphor, by saying "this IS that," you get the whole richness of multiple layers of meanings and connections that the author might have in mind, but also all of what the READER has to 'bring to the table' and contribute to the reading/understanding of the metaphor. Simile is similar to metaphor -- both are comparisons which attempt to bring out more meaning in one idea or thing by comparing it or showing connection between that idea/thing with a very unlike thing. Similar is a bit more direct, by by saying "this Is LIKE that" -- "her hair was like silk". We think of all the things we know about silk (smooth, flowing, soft to touch), and then apply that to her hair. Metaphor is more poetic and abstract, and less direct -- almost mystical -- in how it makes connections. "He was the last peach high on a summer tree." It's not just about what is he like (a peach), but it's also about the image created there, the mood/emotion evoked by the image of summer time and ripe fruit; and also the ideas we have about childhood and summer -- that summer is the free and still innocent of adult burdens; and the layers of personal experience we have with a perfectly sun-ripened peach -- juicy, perfect, delicious -- as well as the idea that he is high on that tree -- so, untouchable, innocent, hard to get at to corrupt (because he's not a rotten fruit, he's the summer ripened fruit). Look at all that gets packed into metaphor. But -- it also takes time to stop and tease out all of those meanings. And there are likely more that I'm not thinking of... 😉 Metaphor is rich and layered, so it really takes multiple readings to see the different connections and the different paths each different connection opens out into. For example: most Old Testament prophecy, and Jesus' New Testament parables, are metaphor, because the words and meanings of the infinite Creator God of the universe have to be densely packed and layered for finite human brains to have time to slowly unpack all of the richness contained therein. Also, simile is a one-time short comparison, where as metaphor can be continued throughout a poem (or a story), and so it can be deepened and strengthen. All that to say... you might say that The Man Who is Thursday is a story-long metaphor, with a number of images and ideas embedded in it. So if a person is a direct/linear reader and thinker, or if a reader is expecting more explicit allegory, and they get metaphor... then it may be confusing or seem all over the place. 😉

haha, well, since you tagged me I'll throw in some musings. But mostly just sharing that I considered calling our 12th grade lit. year "Kitchen Sink" lit., because we were doing such a wide variety of works to squeeze in the last things I thought would be either valuable to cover or that I just plain thought we'd enjoy, that it was like "everything but the kitchen sink" for our lit.... 😉 So, maybe you want to take a "kitchen sink" approach for 12th grade, too. 😉 re: Wuthering Heights I will say that, much as I thoroughly enjoyed the multi-unreliable narrator structure and themes in Wuthering Heights, BOTH DSs had NO patience for that book. 😉 Both DSs thought it was a boatload of wailing and over-the-top emoting, when a little common sense would have prevented all of the problems. LOL! re: I Robot / Dune Those are both great choices. Just FYI: Dune is very world-building / empire-based so it is much closer to fantasy in some ways than sci-fi -- in case that matters. re: Lord Wimsey / PG Wodehouse Very fun! If wanting another mystery, The Daughter of Time (Josephine Tey) is well-written and follows a police inspector stuck in the hospital who unravels the mystery around King Richard II. re: 1984 / Crime & Punishment / All Quiet on the Western Front oof-ta. That's a lot of heaviness. I know Crime & Punishment ultimately has the theme of redemption, but it is a long hard depressive Russian route to get to that, lol. All Quiet is the one book my "harder" DS actually was somewhat shaken by (which was ultimately a good thing, seeing war is not all video-game unaffecting) -- but it's a rough go, just to let you know in advance. And 1984 is so very brutal. All that to say I personally would only go with no more than ONE of those heavy-hitters per semester. And if ALSO doing Wuthering Heights and The Crucible, maybe only do ONE of these heavy hitters. But, that's just me. play ideas (and, a couple of these have really good filmed versions, so I would WATCH rather than READ, esp. since plays are written to be seen/heard in performance; JMO): - Our Town (Wilder) -- turn of the century American drama - 12 Angry Men (Rose) -- 1950s American drama - A Raisin in the Sun (Hansberry) -- 1960s American drama - The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde) -- British light comedy - The Mousetrap (Christie) -- British mystery - the Sophocles trilogy of Ancient Greek Plays: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone - Hamlet (Shakespeare) + Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Stoppard) - Hamilton -- watch the original cast recorded version; it's a musical rather than straight up play/drama, but very worthwhile Sci-Fi ideas - A Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller) + Anathem (Stevenson) - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy + The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Douglas Adams) - Foundation (Asimov) -- series of short stories of how societies/governments change over 1000s of years, predicted by Harry Seldon - Shades of Gray (Fforde) -- NOT the s*x book, obviously!! -- a light dystopia that is very creative with a slice of humor; the social hierarchy is determined by each individual's ability to perceive color possible themes • forms of government / social organization and their demands/requirements from individuals: - Animal Farm (Orwell) - 1984 - Tale of Two Cities - The Crucible - Merchant of Venice - Crime and Punishment and other works not on your possibilities list that could fit into that: - Watership Down (Richard Adams) - 12 Angry Men (Rose) - Antigone (Sophocles) - The Once and Future King (White) - The Goblin Emperor (Addison) • inspiring / encouraging theme - Sir Gibbie - Silas Marner - Tale of Two Cities and other works not on your possibilities list that could fit into that: - The Man Who Was Thursday (GK Chesterton) - The Great Divorce (CS Lewis) - short stories: Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wootton Major, Leaf by Niggle (JRR Tolkien) - short stories: The Light Princess, The Wise Woman, The Golden Key (George MacDonald) - Hind's Feet on High Places (Hurnard) -- Christian allegory - The Goblin Emperor (Addison) -- fantasy; themes of choosing to forgive; looking for the good in the midst of hardship; finding loyalty & friendship in unexpected places - Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury) -- speculative, with a tinge of horror; ultimately a very positive image of a father standing up for his son & son's best friend; themes of loyalty; sacrifice; choosing laughter & love over selfish desire & lust

Welcome! I see by your post count you are new. Literature curriculum would be a resource that teaches about literary devices, covers literature topics, and also provides background info on the author/times of each work, as well as discussion questions for each work, and possibly vocabulary. Usually, literature curricula covers a variety of types of literature -- novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, essays -- and covers novels in several genres -- realistic, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery / detective, etc. So, I assume you are looking for something like that, which digs into the literature, rather than just a list of books to read for literature. Christian publishers using traditional/classic lit. - Abeka -- 7th grade, 8th grade - Bob Jones -- comparison of older/newer editions of 7th grade lit. program; 8th grade Program created by a Christian, but not overtly Christian in presentation, using traditional/classic lit. - Lightning Literature -- 7th grade, 8th grade Christian programs using their own stories rather than traditional/classic literature: - Christian Light Education -- 7th grade, 8th grade - Mosdos Press -- 7th grade ("jade"), 8th grade ("gold") Our experience: We read and enjoyed a lot of well-written books geared for middle school. Some were just for reading, some we also discussed a little bit informally. We also used and enjoyed Lightning Lit. 7 & 8 as a very gentle first intro into beginning literary analysis, using traditional/classic novels, short stories, and poetry. If your student has done other "digging deeper" into literature, then Lightning Lit. will likely be too "lite." You may find this older thread helpful, with several different experiences with Lightning Lit (LL), as well as Mosdos and Christian Light Education (CLE): "Bought Lightning Lit. Disappointed. What Other Lit Programs Should I Consider?"

We enjoyed The Complete Book of U.S. History. There are 10 units, with each unit covering a variety of topics occurring in the time frame of that unit. A number of the topics were really interesting -- little-covered/more unusual topics. The book covers from pre-history through about 1990. Also the Holling C. Holling books + the geography map pack from Beautiful Feet publishers. The Holling titles that overlap with American History: - Paddle to the Sea - The Tree in the Trail - Minn of the Mississippi A few U.S. historical fiction books we enjoyed in the upper elementary years: - 1769 = Sign of the Beaver (George) -- colonial and Native American boys - 1800 = Naya Nuki: The Shoshone Girl Who Ran (Thomasma) -- true teen Native girl who was friend of Sacajawea and escaped her Native captors and traveled on foot 1000 miles back to her tribe - 1849 = By the Great Horn Spoon (Fleischman) -- Gold Rush / clipper ships - 1860 = The Great Turkey Walk -- based on a true person/event; teen boy who bought and herded a giant flock of turkeys 1000 miles west - Civil War = Rebel Spy (Reit) -- Civil War; true teen girl who dressed as a boy and spied for the Union - Civil War = The Battle of Bull Run (Fleischman) -- the Civil War battle told in short bites from 16 different perspectives/characters Biographies we enjoyed: - Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt (Fritz) - Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman (Sterling) - George Washington Carver (Collins) And a few other titles that might be enjoyable: - 1831 = Longwalker's Journey -- based on the author's real great-great-grandfather who blazed a trail for his Choctaw people into Indian Territory - Civil War = The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg (Philbrick) - The Oregon Trail: An Interactive (You Choose History series) - Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented the Wild West (Fleming) Some of Steve Sheinkin's nonfiction: - Wild West: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion - Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon - Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team - Two Miserable Presidents (Lincoln & Jefferson / Civil War) - The Notorious Benedict Arnold (Colonial / Revolutionary War) Or Albert Marrin's nonfiction: - Cowboys, Indians, and Gunfighters: Story of the Cattle Kingdom - A Time of Fear: America in the Era of Red Scares and Cold Wars - The Great Adventure: Theodore Roosevelt

Nice @kfeusse! 😄

I've crocheted dozens of baby afghans over the years. I use Bernat's baby soft / sports-weight (3-ply) yarn to keep it light. I use machine-washable yarn. Typical size of my finished baby afghans runs about 45" wide x 50" long -- big enough to toss over sleeping baby, but small enough to not get too heavy. I mostly use the same pattern that allows me to alternate white yarn rows with colorful variegated yarn rows, so the yarn gets "carried up" the side, and the only loose ends are at the same corner for starting/ending -- that way there are not loose ends to pull loose in the afgan. Also, the pattern IS an open weave. Babies seem to love putting fingers and toes through the holes. No they don't get stuck if it's an open pattern. And no, it doesn't seem to ravel or pull up loops. I especially love that the open weave means there will be plenty of air flow if the baby somehow pulls it over their head while sleeping. Also, I've seen moms use these crotched afghans as a light throw over baby when nursing in public. I think most people use these crocheted baby blankets like a sofa throw, and NOT as a floor spread. Maybe some people use them just as display or as an "heirloom" hand-made item to pass down...? I've also been crocheting a little baby hat out of the same yarn/colors to go with the baby afghan, and then get a favorite children's book to make a very personal and cozy baby gift. 😄

Tough call. It's always great when you can double up -- required high school graduation credit AND required future college gen. ed requirement. A couple thoughts off the top of my head: 1. That might look like he only has narrow reading/literature interests (ancient lit, and esp. mythology) -- but then, STEM likely will only look at box-checking rather than care about diverse exposure when it comes to what he has read for literature... 2. Statistically over 80% of college students change their major once at college... so, what his gen. ed. requirements are right NOW for ENGL/Writing -- may change later on, and he may need that ENGL Comp II in that case, and the Classical Myth. class may end up only working as an Elective (albeit one of high interest to DS. 😉 )Shrug. We can't plan for everything. And, not everything should be planned around trying to knock out credits in advance. Just throwing that statistic out there because, while right now, he may completely convinced of his future college path... that might change once he's actually in college. 3. I'm a fan of encouraging students in their interests, so that part of me would say "sure, do the Classical Mythology since he loves it." However, I'm also a fan of encouraging students to broaden their horizons and try a few things that they might not have thought to do while they are in high school, so that part of me would say "Do other lit. for your last 1.0 credit of English -- try it! you might like it!" 😉 4. Also, I am a big fan of parent/student discussions (and making memories) during the high school years -- especially to have an opportunity to discuss some big/tough issues that the student WILL encounter once out of the home and into college. Good literature -- and films -- are so great at sparking those conversations naturally. 5. Once a student is in college -- Engineering / STEM college programs can be pretty heavy, so it can be very nice to have some of those "lighter" classes in completely different subject areas (like the Classical Mythology) to help keep the college class load from being too burdensome. Also, some STEM programs are set up so that it just WILL take 4 years to complete the program because of the course pre-requisites and when courses are scheduled. That may be a positive -- it allows students who have taken many of the gen. ed. required classes to take a lighter STEM class load each semester and either work a job or other activities. But it may be a stress factor if the student needs to find other classes to take to fill up # of credits required for possible scholarships; although that might allow for completing a minor, to go along with the major... Lots of pros/cons to everything, as you see... 😉 Final thought: I am biased: I have a huge love of literature, and I DO have a STEM-based DS#1 (mechanical engineer). He ended up loving doing the wide-range of literature together at home, all through the high school years. I also have been teaching Lit. (and some film classes) at our homeschool co-op now for 10 years. So if it were me, I'd be pulling together our "last hurrah" senior year of lit. to enjoy together, and not worry about trying to squeeze out one more possible course for future college. 😉 But again, it's your call. I don't think there is an obviously "bad" choice here.

Here's a blog article from a high school / college counselor on making extracurriculars "shine" when using the Common App. When writing up the Public Speaking and Debate extracurricular, include in your activity description : - that it is self-motivated - amount of hours put in each year and types of assignments completed and work/skills developed - number/types of competitions competed in and rankings earned - skills he developed/displayed in this activity -- esp. leadership, responsibility, teamwork, networking, and of course, communication - list of awards and honors earned, positions of leadership held - how he mentored or helped younger/newer team members - attitude shown towards competitors This College Guy blog article is from 2020, so I don't know if Common App still limits you to 150 characters on the activities list, BUT, whether you now get more or not, he has some good ideas on how to use strong verbs showing skills, strengths, and interests. Also check out this 2023 blog article on how to stand out on the Common Apps Activities Section. Finally -- DO create a separate Awards & Extracurriculars document, where you go into more detail about how DS "shone" at each award/activity. Hopefully, you can upload that along with the transcript and any other documents required for college admission. Good luck!

^^ If interested in the route suggested by @EKS, you could split the difference -- award 0.5 credit per year for a total of 2.0 credits of Public Speaking & Debate, and then count the rest of the "hours" and energy as a long-term (4-year) high interest extracurricular. You would go into detail on the separate document of Awards & Extracurriculars, about his 4 years of involvement in this activity so you can write it up and let it really shine -- the hours, the leadership, the motivation, the awards/honors, etc. It is harder to have a 4-year extracurricular shine when it it "hidden" on the transcript as credits, and described in the separate Course Description document, which focuses on overall course objective, materials used, and scope & sequence. Just another option.

I see 3 strong traditional English credits, and 4 strong credits of Public Speaking & Debate: Honors English 9 Honors English 10 ENGL 1100 Composition I Principles of Public Speaking & Debate I Principles of Public Speaking & Debate II Principles of Public Speaking & Debate III Principles of Public Speaking & Debate IV Yes, in many public schools, often up to 0.5 credit of speech / debate / public speaking is used towards English credit. Yes, Debate requires a lot of writing, and you have 4 full credits of it. Yes, you could probably count all that as English credits and not have push-back from future universities as meeting admission requirements. JMO: However, those 4 debate credits would sure look good as a sort of unique "minor" under their own heading, or under Electives. They definitely lose some of their strength when mixed in by date of completion with the English credits. Ideas: Since the ENGL 1100 was DE -- will it also transfer to the future university to count as the gen. ed. credit of WRT 101? If so, could he take the second semester of DE, which would give him that 4th credit of solid English credit AND knock out in advance the future gen. ed. requirement WRT 102 credit? Or, could he just read/discuss some works of literature with you in 12th grade? (No writing, and no pressure to overload his schedule.) Pick works that you would really like to make sure you cover with him, and/or that would be of high interest to him. Make it a fun and interesting Lit-based English course that will be a solid completion to the English credits, plus make great memories together as you finish out your homeschooling journey. Again, just my 2 cents worth.

Many colleges require 3 Science credits, with 2 of them having labs, as part of their admission requirements. So somewhere in 11th/12th grade, you'll want to get a 3rd credit in there to make sure you're not scrambling at the last minute to complete a 3rd credit of science. Note: most colleges are flexible about which Sciences they accept as meeting the entrance requirements. However, a few require Biology and Chemistry. So looking ahead at your future colleges, will you need a full credit of Biology? Or can you do 0.5 credit of Biology + 0.5 credit of other Science, to round out the 2.0 credits of science coming from Chemistry and Physics? You can "bring up" Biology credit from the 8th grade from your use of part of Miller-Levine (a standard high school Biology text). How much of the text was covered? Enough to award 0.5 credit? If so, then you can spread out the other 0.5 credit to finish out the Biology credit over the next two summers, or across the two semesters of 12th grade, if the future university looks like it will require Biology. If 1.0 credit of Biology will not be required by the future university, then you can spread out a 0.5 credit of non-lab-based other science of interest that is not as intense (non-math-based Astronomy? Earth Science?), and end up with 3.0 credits of Science -- 1.0 each of Chemistry and Physics, and 0.5 each of Biology + ?...

Hard to know for sure, but I was thinking along the lines of @kokotg there -- the prof may be hyping it to get students to be serious. If that is not the case, and the prof runs an extremely hard class with a ton of work so that it will take that long to earn an A, then your options as I see it are: 1. stick it out, work hard, and hope to do well I'd only do this option if the student is fine with whatever grade is given at the end of the semester, and if a B or a C wouldn't wreck the student's GPA for automatic scholarship $$ at the future university. 2. transfer to a different class/teacher 3. drop the class and do something else for Biology

Thanks for that correction. I should have quoted the syllabus there. Because I had no personal experience, and it's listed as a self-paced course, I mistakenly interpreted there was not a lot of feedback. From the syllabus: "Writing assignments in this class are designed to offer practice composing and editing paragraphs that apply sound grammar and punctuation, that weave in a variety of sentence structures and word choices, that utilize topic sentences and closing sentences in body paragraphs, and that smoothly integrate support quotes and commentary. • Every student will be aided and encouraged with detailed individual feedback on essays to help develop their proficiency. • Writing will start with the basics and move toward the ability to confidently compose analytical essays and a research paper. • Short writing assignments will help students practice constructing sound thesis statements and topic sentences while learning the indents, headings, and citation style of 2021 MLA 9 formatting. • Students will work independently on vocabulary and grammar in exercises that will help them refresh and hone writing precision."

I'm sorry. To denigrate you and how you are guiding your children was not at all my intention in posting. I always try to post with the goal of being kind and helpful. I am sad that did not come through, and that my post offended and hurt you.

disregard -- not helpful, and accidentally unintendedly hurtful 😢