You have to figure out what works for you. For my kids, they find their sense of community through church, scouts and an ultimate Frisbee team. I have outsourced some classes to online providers which has taught my kids a lot about accountability to an outside teacher. This allows me to pick and choose what classes I want my kids to take. Hope you find your path. :closedeyes:

Love the advice of Lori D. Here are some of my thoughts: From my perspective (as a parent who outsources writing), I find good feedback invaluable. I agree that you might find some parents who don't like your comments and/or disagree. I'm not sure what to do with that. This year we had a coop writing teacher decide to no longer give feedback. It made my daughter really not care for the class. As a mom with multiple children with learning disabilities - My son could never write in class - still can't and will have accommodations in college. I agree with grading to a standard, but more importantly it is helpful if you meet my child where he is and then move him along in his writing. Handing me a rubric to grade from would not help me at all. It is easy enough for me to find rubrics. It is the good, subjective feedback that I CANNOT do. I can teach calculus; I can correct grammar; I am worthless at asking questions to move my writer along or giving good feedback.

I agree - change is hard. While I pick and choose what to outsource and how to outsource, I know many who do exactly what you are considering. We have a great local high school coop in which you can pick and choose to take one or more (or all) your core classes. You can also take electives. Many of my friends have students that do all their classes through the coop and are very happy. Is it an option to only do a couple of classes through the coop. That way you might be able to have the social outlet without giving up all academic control. Go visit and visit again if you are on the fence. Is there a reason you are looking to join? New city, new network of friends? Are there any other outlets that will provide the social interaction? Maybe you want to find an elective coop. Maybe you just need a break from teaching and this is the best alternative? I'm not sure what your underlying reasons are for considering and if there are any other options that fit your needs.

Maybe pick and choose from topics in MEP math (google it). I'd look at years 7-9. Pick the algebra topic that need review and you don't necessarily need to do it all. It's free except printing.

It's a good mix of some calculator and mostly good math logic. Calculators are used for pesky decimal math as well as trig functions such as sin 57 degrees, but I'd say the focus is not calculator math at all. I'm a fan of learning math without calculators and I think Derek Owens is very reasonable in calculator usage. Granted, it's not AoPS which is definitely written to be done without a calculator.

No experience with algebra 2, but for precalculus if I had to pick I'd do less of the textbook problems and all of the "homework" problems. A lot of the textbook becomes rote, but Derek Owen's homework sheets cover everything well (and better in my opinion). DO homework is not enough by itself as you do need more practice.

Hopefully it'll all sort out on revisits. If all else remains the same, then I'd go cheaper and let someone pocket the $20,000 difference. When I went to school, my dad said that whatever I made in scholarships I could spend toward a car as it was saving him that much money. You could do something similar. $20K could be used to go to school, buy a car, start a retirement fund (when working), etc. If you are willing to spend the money you might let her decide where the $20K goes and see what is really important. I would love my kids to get good enough finances toward collage that I have money I was "planning" on spending toward college to help teach them to invest for retirement or some other some such investment toward their future.

Well, I don't know. I still don't see a question about income. I guess I'll find out for real as we go to preadministration next week and fill them out for real. Here's what I'm look at for 2016-2017 AP tests. Am I simply missing the income section?

... by the way, I felt like DO assigned too many practice problems from the textbook. I would let me son skip many of the easy ones as long as he could do the hard ones. He had to do all of the worksheet homework and tests that were written by DO.

On the sample sheet that I looked at the SS# is optional The ethnicity is not marked optional - no idea if it really is optional. I did not see a parental income on the sample sheet and I never give this out anyhow.

Yes. I was basically in the same boat. I taught my oldest just fine through all of AoPS, but my second needed someone else to be the primary teacher. We were just butting heads too much. Now he can watch DO lectures, do the work and then have me grade it and explain anything he's missing. I've told him that next year we will do a little of the AoPS Precalc book alongside DO Calculus, not that I didn't think DO Precalc was great, but I really like how the AoPS precalc book does certain things (it just feels so much like my engineering courses).

I do parent grading (and have for a couple of courses). When I sign up, I say I want the half-price option and grade it myself. I get invoiced monthly for half the listed price. My son watches the videos online. I buy the DO notebook for him to take notes in. We print the syllabus from online so we have a guide to how much is reasonable per week. When I sign up, I get emailed a file of ALL the solutions to all the homework and tests. I then grade everything myself. My son goes at faster than scheduled pace so it takes us less than a school-year. A few of the weeks on the syllabus are review and a full week for the test. My son does about one day of review and one day for the semester test so he can knock those two weeks out in two days. Also, I think it is scheduled over 32 weeks so you have an extra month in a traditional 36 week schoolyear. No need for any solution manual assuming you understand the math. The textbook has answers. The DO homework/test solutions are all complete solutions worked out for you. To be able to self-grade, you do need to understand it well enough that if you student is making mistakes, then you know where the mistake is and how to correct it. Edited to say if this arrangement doesn't work for you, you can have just paid for the months you tried it and then bail and do anything else.

Attollia - I think the difference is minimal at rankings you are talking about. However, my son and I discussed him being the big fish in a little pond versus just another smart kid at a selective university. He didn't want to be that big fish. He specifically wants peers that will challenge him and push him. I've seen him flourish in some situations where he challenged by other students. I can see the merit of both for different kids. My second may very likely go toward being a big fish in a small pond.

Just a thought about another path - My daughter did AoPS prealgebra WHILE doing Beast - she had already done SM like your son. It was good for her to continue beast as it continued to shore up difficult areas even though she was managing Prealgebra fine. Often, she'd find it easier to go to the prealgebra book. She has now finished the prealgebra book and is just finishing Beast 5c and will do 5D as it just came out. I think you have to figure out what works best for your child and then go down that path. Everyone is different.

For me, at that point I think other factors such as best fit, location, cost, size of school all would factor in more than where they rank numerically. I know others may say it's better to go to a higher ranked school. Are these rankings in your degree or just overall university rankings? If the higher ranked school offers more educationally (different classes, more depth, etc) then it certainly has more to offer. I do think it can be worthwhile to invest an additional $20,000 in education for a reason. ... I would ask what is your reason?

IEW - it is easy to slow down as much as you want.

I agree with Lori D. What you describe sounds like a good class to me, but I wouldn't call it English (or Literature). If focused on science or history readings then I'd call it a science or history elective. I would count classical literature (or science fiction or modern lit) as literature. For an English credit, I would also do some writing. I think you can certainly have a lighter literature year - google what your local high school is reading, look at all sorts of reading lists. Pick what sounds FUN to read - not necessarily what is important. DIscuss and write as well. You can go down the rabbit trail of history readings or science readings and call it an elective. If you need help naming it, put together what you want to do and then I'm sure lots of people can suggest names.

I would get a practice book with real tests and then practice one section at a time.

Not live, but Brave Writer offers summer classes that are 4-6 weeks.

I'd pick on interest or do your own writing. Is your student interested in creative writing? There are good creative writing courses. There is a second expository writing class - it is very good. There is a new journalism class - don't know anything about it. There are literary analysis classes. The needs and interests of each child is different so I don't think all of these classes are good for all students.

I assume you are talking about your 12 year old. If it makes you feel any better than my non-writer was much older before writing a paragraph. He did it through Brave Writer Online courses (but I wouldn't recommend them yet for a 12yo non-writer). Does he have learning disabilities? Is it the physical act of writing? Can he dictate? Can he type? Does he have any language problems? How's his vocabulary? Can he write something down for fun if HE WANTS TO? Is it just school writing or all writing? Generally, if my student is resisting something (like writing), I try to back up and figure out what is wrong. Oftentimes the resistance is there for a reason - maybe it's simply too hard for him. Figuring out why is much more complicated.

I'd ask what graduates of this program usually do? If they go into workforce immediately, go to state schools, go to competitive schools?

I say that approx. the first 13 chapters are algebra 1. I called the rest of the book algebra 2. One of my sons did the Intermediate algebra book - I called it Algebra 3 (as did AoPS at the time). My second son, very good in math, but not a math lover went from the Intro to Algebra book to Derek Owens Honors Precalc. I don't feel like he missed anything by skipping the AoPS Intermediate algebra book. He will do some of the AoPS Precalc book just because so much of the book feels like my engineering courses and that is the direction he is heading.

I agree. My son applied for a scholarship - everything was due Oct. 1st. Notifications will be in JULY. Some are given big four year scholarships and there is a decent chance he'll get one (big or small). I wish we could find out sooner.

A consideration for some... If you are receiving a large amount of need-based aid that you have to re-qualify for yearly, is there anything in your circumstances that is likely to change in the next few years such as a large inheritance from aging parents. IF you are in this boat, then merit based scholarships might be more appealing than need-based.