We just signed our 15 year old daughter up for Clonlara. As far as I can tell, they do have online classes with teacher interaction available through their website. We are not going to use any of the online classes this year, since we are starting mid-year and already have her program set for the school year. We may use some of the online classes in the next two school years. If you have questions, the people I have spoken with at Clonlara have, so far, been very friendly and helpful. I'm sure if you called, they'd be happy to answer your detailed questions. I know I asked quite a few detailed questions about their program over more than one conversation! :D

My dd, who is 14 and will turn 15 in late August, just finished her Freshman year of high school. Next school year (starting in late August as well!), she will be called a Sophomore, but she will be "re-doing" some Freshman classes (math and science), and will be moving forward into some Sophomore classes (English 10, World History). Electives are not dependent upon grade level, so those will be counted as Sophomore classes as well. My dd is enrolled in a public school charter program (her choice, and a good one for her, socially, though I'm not thrilled with her academic experience). She takes the English and Social Studies classes at the school with other "home schoolers." (I say we are hybrid schoolers, now, though she was home schooled most of her life.). She does the math and science at home. She was just not developmentally ready for Algebra 1 last year, though her consultant teacher pushed her into doing Saxon Algebra 1. It went well for the first 30 lessons (really, a re-hash of pre-algebra), and actually solidified her knowledge of pre-algebra very well. But once the program moved into Algebra, she just wasn't ready for it yet. We've started over this summer with Jacobs, and with Key-To Algebra, book 4 and it's now starting to click for her, so no more tears of frustration! I don't know exactly how her consultant is going to do this on the books, but it was her suggestion that we put her in "grade 9/10" this coming year, but call her a Sophomore. Her consultant says she can still graduate in 3 years if we plan it right. The main benefits to her will be that she will have an extra year of math under her belt before she has to take the high school exit exam. And, I am hoping, though I need clarification on this, that it will look like she completed Algebra 1 as a Freshman, rather than as a Sophomore - but we'll see. If that doesn't happen, she can always go to CC for a year or two after high school. Dd is also a serious ballet student who will be training 25 hours per week, in addition to 15 hours a week of commute time, so this new plan will also give us some breathing room. If we were not tied to a public charter program requiring grades and records, I would not hesitate to hold her back in every subject and let her call herself whatever grade she wanted to. My son home schooled high school independently, and I didn't care what grade he wanted to call himself. He just did the work he was ready for when he was ready for it.

Then this is the program we will be using! :D (Actually, Dn (Dear niece) just finished Geometory using Discovering Geometry this year and she really liked it. She wants to be an architect, and she's very good at math, so between your recommendation, and hers I think we'll just go with it.. And I already know they have it at the resource center. :) )

O.K. Thanks, you guys. I'll be sure to get her half way through Jacobs Algebra 1 before starting in the Geometry book. Since I posted, I've read on this board some criticisms of Jacobs Geometry. My neice is currently finishing up with Discoverying Geometry, but frankly, I'm so dismal at Geometry (my husband takes on Geometry teaching around here) that I haven't really looked at it. It seems to get good reviews around here, so I'll look at it too. Whatever book I use, I'm liking the idea more and more of combining Algebra 1 and Geometry, but I'll be sure to wait until the half way point in Algebra 1.

My dd got not even halfway through Saxon Algebra 1 during her just completed Freshman year, and then hit a wall. She was doing very well, and then it all fell apart for her around Lesson 40. The positive from all this is that she finally has a good understanding of basic math and pre-algebra concepts. I have her working this summer in Key To Algebra to give her some confidence, and to work her up to the kinds of problems that Saxon seems to just suddenly throw at the students. However, Key To is not a complete enough Algebra program. So, I've also started working with her in Jacobs, and I think (I hope) we've found the ticket for her. Since she could complete Jacobs Algebra by the end of the first semester of her Sophomore year, I could start her in Jacobs Geometry at that point, but I was thinking of combining Jacobs Algebra and Geometry from the start of the school year. She has trouble retaining math concepts, and needs regular repetition (thus the go at Saxon) to help her retain it. I'm as certain as I can be that she would forget all the Algebra she'd learned if she only does Geometry for a year between Algebra I and II. Has anyone had their child complete Jacobs Geometry and Algebra simultaneously? Is it possible, or do they have to have a solid grasp of Algebra I prior to starting Jacobs Geometry?

I'm glad you brought up this topic. I am in the same boat with my dd, although she does well in English and the Humanities, and she struggles with math and science. She just finished her Freshman year, technically, and she has enough units to continue on as a Sophomore but only because she took more elective units than are required for Freshman. She is enrolled in a charter school program, and they gave her 20 units for her involvement in an intensive ballet program. She only finished 2/3 of her Algebra 1 requirements, and 1/2 of her science requirement, though! They let her extend her "school year" through the summer, and she is supposed to be finishing her Algebra program, and her science program in addition to completing her one semester health requirement. The problem with that is, she will be out of town for 7 weeks in an all day intensive ballet program. What I would like to do is make her a freshman again next year in the same program. Her teacher is open to this, and will make her a "freshman" on paper for standardized testing purposes, but let her keep her As in English, Geography, Art, Music, P.E., and Performing Arts. She'll set up the credits so she will graduate early. I have no idea how this will work, since they have had to officially provide grades and a transcript via the public school district, but her counselor seems to think this will work. In that case, I guess I don't understand why she needs to finish her freshman math and science and health requirements this summer. Her counselor also wants me to look for a good online Biology program for her for next school year (we both think that an online program would be better for her learning style than a text book approach), but that is a Sophomore science requirement. So, I left our final meeting confused. I may just have her repeat Freshman year, English and all, come fall. She could go to classes just the same (she spends 4 hours a week total at the school for English and Humanities classes), and then maybe just do online and CC classes during her real senior year so no one else would have to know. Maybe they could even put her in the Sophomore English and Humanities classes and say she's accelerated. I don't know. But I have that gut feeling - you know the kind, moms! - that I should hold her back. Ugh! So - no help here, no answers, just commiserating. FWIW, she has been homeschooling since 2nd grade (ds homeschooled as well, and we just graduated him), and this is the first time since that time that I've had to deal with official requirements.

One thing I have learned through my many years of homeschooling - if it ain't broke, don't fix it! My daughter used Miquon and Singapore math in elementary and middle school and she "hated" math. She would understand whatever math concept we were working on at the time, but she would get upset and say I explained too much. The other problem was that even though she understood and could work problems during each session, if we weren't actively working on a topic, she would forget the processes once we came back to a topic, and she'd have to start over almost as from scratch! I had heard so many negatives about Saxon from other people that I had never even given it a thought until a teacher who had worked with many homeschoolers listened to my complaints about my daughter's math learning and suggested that Saxon might be her perfect fit. I was skeptical at first - it looks so dull! But dd has been working her way through the Algebra 1 text, and she and I are both astonished at how well she is doing (finally!) in math. For the first time, she understands what she is doing, WHY she is doing it, and she doesn't forget how to do problems. It's the perfect fit for her. I do modify the explanations. For my taste (and dd's) the text explanations seem to over-complicate processes. My dd also uses the "Mastering Algebra" DVDs from Art Reed. She enjoys Mr. Reed's teaching style. If your son has been successful with Saxon, plug your ears or avert your eyes when hearing or reading negatives about Saxon and forge ahead. There are plenty of stories about students who became engineers, scientists, or mathematicians who grew up with Saxon as their only math curriculum. :001_smile:

We also sent Keystone back, and we got a full refund. That was not a problem. The main problem we had with it was that there were many technical errors including scoring tests incorrectly, assigning worse grades than she actually got and the staff refusing to correct the errors. We finally concluded that the program was not fully compatible with the Mac operating system, so if you use Apple computers, I would not recommend Keystone. Also, my daughter found that she got headaches from being on the computer for several hours a day. This, of course, was no fault of Keystone's, but I just thought I'd mention it. We learned that an all online program would not work for her. One of my daughter's best friends used 3 Keystone classes in one year and she and her mom absolutely loved it. Her daughter decided to go to a regular public high school, and they are missing Keystone for the academics terribly.

LOL! Thanks for the reality check, Redsquirrel. :D Memphispeg: I've heard great things about UC Santa Barbara (one of the most beautiful places in the world), and I've heard that the dance program is good as well. Both UCSB and UCSD are huge, though. UCSC's campus is gorgeous, and even though Santa Cruz is a wacky place :lol: it does have a nice small town feel to it.

Online open courseware AP classes: Description of program: www.uccp.org List of courses: www.ucopenaccess.org Fun online instruction in sciences, math, and misc.: www.khanacademy.org

I'm not concerned at all about whether or not a university is top tier. I have no problem with the idea of my kids going to a CC first before transferring to a university. That being said, my dd's intended major (dance with an emphasis in classical ballet) does not easily allow for that pathway. Her major of choice seriously limits her choices, and definitely requires her to enter a 4 year college as a freshman (or defer while she tries for a career as a professional ballet dancer). My son, 16, is already planning on going to the local CC when he's older and feels more ready. He has no idea what he wants to major in nor does he have any idea what he wants to be when he grows up, so CC is, in my mind, the best choice for him to pursue while he figures all that out. My niece could follow that path as well, and that would work well for her intended major, architecture. She could study art, take CAD classes, and get some GE out of the way and then transfer to a 4 year university. Dh and I both got our degrees from CSUs, and we've both been very successful in our chosen careers. :001_smile:

I can tell you that at my son's public charter high school that was a regular school with a regular high school schedule, units, college prep, AP's, etc. they had "contract P.E." which meant they had to fill out forms stating that they had completed 3 hours and 20 minutes of physical activity (walking, jogging, skateboarding, swimming, surfing, bike riding, etc. all counted) per week for 36 weeks per school year. They had to complete 72-75 hours per semester. I had to sign the forms each week. That's it. Kids who graduate from that school get into good public and private colleges regularly. (My son, a life long homeschooler, only went there for his freshman year and is now homeschooling independently. Once a homeschooler.... :D).

Memphispeg, UC Santa Cruz sounds like it would fit your dd to a T. Warm - check. Beach - check. Marine Sciences program with teamwork based learning, boats, scuba, etc. - check. They do have ballet classes there because they have a dance program within the theater program. I know one of the ballet teachers there who is wonderful. That being said, my dd is in such an intensive ballet program that I know it will be hard for a program like UC's to be "enough" ballet for her, but I don't know how intensive a dance program your dd is looking for in college. If she wants to continue dancing, but is pursuing Marine Science as her major, she might want to dance in quality classes but not want a 25 hour+ weekly dance schedule. She could certainly do that at UC Santa Cruz. (P.S. I would be thrilled if my daughter wanted to major in Marine Science in college. That is so cool!).

Come to think of it - I may have heard that the CSUs are reluctant to enroll home schoolers as freshman, but that UCs are more open to home schoolers. Janice H - Your experience with the CSU your son is applying to might be evidence (frustrating evidence) of that!

Interesting, KarenAnne. I do know two life long home schoolers who are at UC Berkeley on full scholarship, but they were admitted based upon their CC grades and SAT scores and not on their "mommy transcripts." I don't think they did many classes at the CC, though. Since we're not planning on having the kids take more than a couple of CC classes during high school (if that), I may have another reason to write off the UCs!

Thanks for the advice about Vassar, Memphispeg. We'll put that on our list of schools to look at when the time gets closer. :) Thanks, everyone, for a clear thinking and comforting thread. I've focused too much on the "average GPAs for the incoming freshman class" at the UCs many of which seem to have average GPAs of 4.0+. For my niece, who wants to be an architect but has a GPA of 3.5 (so far - she's a sophomore), I've already written off most UCs including both of the UCs with the best programs in architecture. Maybe I'm being too hasty in that regard as well.

Thanks for posting that link, Janice. Maybe I don't need to sell my daughter short with regard to her prospects. If we had unlimited funds, I'm sure she could get into a good private college with a strong dance program, but with 3 teens to put through college (we have a 14 year old, 15 year old, and 16 year old!), funds will be a huge issue! I think in-state public universities will be more in alignment with our budget. I've been fretting that that fact narrows our kids' choices considerably.

Yes! I felt a bit freaked out when I read the latest article. My daughter also does just school and ballet, but ballet takes 25 hours per week, and we just don't have time to do much else. She's also not particularly interested in academics, so she just gets the work done and moves on. She's in a hybrid home study/charter school program, so she's getting grades now, and so far, she has a 3.7 grade point average. It seems like most of the incoming freshman classes at the UCs have GPAs of 4.0 or higher, so I guess she's not going to be UC material. We're looking at the CSUs now (California State Universities). Their entrance requirements are not as tough (though stiffer than when I went to college). I think the article was referring to top-tier colleges. However, since top-tiers are turning away so many students with 4.0+ GPAs, high SATs, great extra-curriculars on their CVs, etc., those same kids are applying in droves to the second-tiers, pushing what used to be second-tier type students (probably my daughter in past years) to third tiers, and so on. I don't know if your daughter is in a pre-professional ballet program but from what I understand, if she's a very serious student of ballet (takes classes 5 - 6 days a week, goes to SIs, etc.), that looks great to college admissions personnel. They seem to understand that serious ballet students really don't have time to do other activities, but that the training they've gone through is proof that they have the kind of focus and determination necessary to be successful college students.

A little background: My niece, a sophomore, is now living with us. She is enrolled, along with my daughter, a freshman, in a charter school program in which they take several classes at the school, and do several classes as independent study. It is called a "home school charter" program. Currently, she is taking the licensed version of the online UCCP Biology course. The one drawback to this otherwise excellent course is that they have no wet labs available. She is completing the "web labs" add-on to the program. My understanding is that without completing wet labs, this course is not acceptable for admission to UCs or to CSUs. Her counselor at the school told me that some kids have just put "UCCP Biology" on their transcripts, and the class was accepted by university admissions, but if they decide to look more deeply at the contents of the class, they would likely not accept it as completing the science requirement. My questions (finally!): Does anyone here have any experience using the UCCP science classes for completing lab science requirements for college entry? And/or are there any stand-alone biology wet lab programs available that could be completed at home which would fulfill the wet lab requirement? TIA!

My daughter and niece take a Humanities/English class at a public charter ISP. They will each get two full credits (in California, that's 20 high school units) for the class. The class meets 6 hours per week. For English, in class, they do grammar assignments, literature analysis, written responses to art, poetry, film, selected readings, etc. Outside of class, they have additional work to do, which takes them at least 4 - 6 hours per week to complete. They each have Word Skills vocabularly workbooks for their respective grades. They are expected to complete a unit per week. They work on one novel per quarter, so they read their novel (just finishing To Kill A Mockingbird). They respond to comprehension questions regarding each chapter of the novel as they read through it, and this week, they're working on writing their character analysis essays. They have had quite a bit of "response to" writing this year, but this is only their second formal essay due. For Humanities, they complete two World History packets per month: 10 - 15 pages of reading, and about 20 pages of questions to answer. They have done a couple of research projects, and have had to turn in two essays regarding their research, and give short oral presentations on their topics. They also do work in class, but I'm a bit fuzzy on exactly what that work entails. As an aside - the other day, my daughter, a Freshman, said, "My Humanities class is fun and all, but it sure is disorganized. I enjoyed history so much more the way we did it...in order, like a story I was listening to through the years!" Thanks, WTM! :)

We have a large white board that the kids write their assignments on. When an assignment is done they do two things: write it down in their planners, and erase the assignment from the white board. They take a social studies/English class twice weekly, and both of them have to write their new assignments on the white board immediately upon arrival home. The planner is required by their ISP, the white board is required by me. I like the white board because I can see at all times what still needs to be done, and help them plan their time accordingly, if necessary.

In California, though I don't agree with this decision at all, Algebra 1 has become the state standard for 8th grade math, so your dd is right on track. As I recall (haven't used it in a couple of years), what Periwinkle has said about the first 4 chapters is correct. It will get more complex as you go along.

It's interesting that Cetaphil worked too, since two of the main ingredients in Cetaphil are alcohol. Maybe try the rubbing alcohol, since it's cheaper, and if it's just too difficult for the child to deal with the fumes (that part just lasts a couple of minutes while the alcohol is being poured on), try the Cetaphil. It's good to know that Cetaphil works, too. It looks like those of us whose children have had particularly difficult cases of lice have had success with using alcohol in some form. That's very interesting! In any case, both of those products are far cheaper than using RID. Cool!

My dd once went through a couple of months of having lice. She has long, thick, gorgeous hair that she wears in a bun for ballet almost everyday. Because of her ballet commitment, she really doesn't have the option of cutting her hair, nor did she want to lose her lovely long locks! We went through several rounds of RID, conditioner. combing, combing, combing, washing every blanket, sheet, pillow and pillow case several times over, and spraying everything from the couch to the car with RID spray and still, the lice would come right back. I finally talked to my hairdresser about the problem, and she said to pour a half bottle of rubbing alcohol on her head, cover her head with Saran Wrap for an hour, then wash it out, condition and comb. The lice were gone in one treatment and have never come back. I did retreat a week after the first treatment. And it only cost $0.50 per treatment! What a relief. The fumes are a bit difficult to deal with, so use the alcohol in a well ventilated area, and of course, anyone with alcohol on their heads has to stay away from open flames! But it works. My hairdresser got the tip from a friend of hers who is a foster mother. She does this treatment to every new foster child who comes to live with them, and they never have lice problems.

I have an IQ in the gifted range, and I learned to read when I was 6 years old. My gifted son was reading at 6 - 9, but didn't learn to read well until he was 10 years old. I sat down with him for an hour a day using the original Reading Rewards program, and he picked it up quickly. After he completed that program (or mostly completed it), he was able to read high school level text books. I think he didn't want to read the books that were available to him at his reading level when he was younger because they were boring to him. He does not read fiction unless forced to.