I would do what you think is best for her academically. I wouldn't go out of my way to do APs or dual enrollment just for her transcript. As others have said, you can certainly get into colleges with no outsources classes. Her ACT or SAT score will matter. Also, I wouldn't worry Alpha Omega Academy - take the classes if that's best fit otherwise don't.

I think it's fine to give credit for unconventional classes. I do think that a typical English credit also involves literature which isn't part of your plan. What I usually do in a similar situation is say Engish 11 covers grammar, literature and writing with an emphasis on journalism. I'd add in my own literature with discussions or writing and say in my course description that the SAT prep class and Journalism class are components of my English 11 course, but I don't give separate credit for them. I do this with Brave Writer, Center for Literature, Co-op classes, and other online classes. I just lump it all together as English - list in my course description the pieces that make up my class, and try to make sure I cover all the pieces typically covered in English as well as making sure the workload is justifiable for a credit. Most outside classes that say they are 1/2 credit, don't get that much on my transcript.

I didn't know that a school could get into my son's FAFSA and make changes - WOW!!! Yesterday I received an email from one of my son's potential school saying that they had not received his FAFSA. Of course this sent me into a panic and I went back to his student aid report and checked to make sure that he sent it to all his potential schools. I called the school and told them that the FAFSA had already been sent. They ended up putting me on hold and they they told me that they had gone into my FAFSA and made a change which will trigger it being sent to them again. They simply changed DRIVE to DR. I called my son's probable first choice school yesterday to verify that they had gotten the FAFSA and they said they got it in October. This school is very upfront about saying you need to file your FAFSA early as the need based aid is first come first serve. I sure hope this doesn't mess up anything with them now that they got an updated version today. --- by the way, I did get an email from FAFSA saying that my updated FAFSA was processed successfully. When I log in, it says it was "corrected" by a college, but appears to be sent to all the schools again. I haven't looked over everything carefully yet, but I would hope they wouldn't/couldn't change anything else.

Well, I've talked to some instructors who use this approach and they really like it.

What does your son want to do? I think there is a fine line between micromanaging and supporting your son. I see one failed class - that can be retaken - , but nothing else jumps out at me. The grades aren't spectacular, but neither are the average college student's grades. An introvert is not going to all of a sudden become a social butterfly no matter where he lives. Executive functioning skills are tough for some to learn, but often will be learned with experience. Is he growing and learning? Is he becoming overwhelmed and depressed? You say he likes the school and independence, and I think there is a lot that can be learned by struggling through how to manage your time rather than coming home and having someone "help" too much. There are good reasons to bring him home and I would listen to your instinct as well. If it's a financial strain then finances should be the focus and it shouldn't matter what his grades are. Is he overwhelmed - it doesn't sound like it. What's the reality of graduating with a GPA of 2.5 or 2.0? You might ask the school. I would think that he would still be good for many jobs as he learned the material to graduate. He might not get a chance at the top nitch jobs but they also might not be a good fit if he has trouble with EF. After he gets his first job, it's likely that his GPA will never be asked again. So the bottom line is that he'll learn different things if he stays there or if he comes home and is one really better than the other? I think it depends much on the student and the family.

Freesia - and others... I totally think that you need to respect the teacher and class and not put your student into a class that has expectations that you are not going to fulfill unless you have prior permission from the teacher. I teach in co-ops of multiple settings and different expectations. I have classes that my expectation is that homework is done - and it is. Other classes, I assign "optional" homework and I'm always surprised at how many do it. I do think you need to spell out expectations ahead of time and consequences other than bad grades if there are other consequences. I think it is hard in many homeschool communities to host classes that have the expectation that all kids work at the same level and do homework when each family is very different. It's very frustrating as a teacher if you put in lots of effort and don't see the students put in their effort of learning. However, I think that oftentimes you can figure out the setting in which you are teaching and the families involved/attitudes toward homework in the place. If you are in a co-op that expects homework of all and it is done year after year, I would expect not to have troubles. If you are introducing a class with homework into a co-op that is more loosely structured and homework is considered optional, then I would expect a number of families to opt out of the homework unfortunately. As a teacher I try to do my homework about how the co-op is run and then make my expectations very clear.

My experience is that the output of the students correlates highly with the overall expectations of the co-op (no matter what the teacher expects). We are in both. In one co-op, essentially all of the students do the homework and homework is expected in all the classes. The teachers are well paid and grades are given. It is known when you sign up what you are signing up for. In another co-op, I suspect very few would do any homework no matter what the teacher stated in the description. Regardless of whether or not homework is done, I feel that I have fulfilled my obligation to the teacher if I have paid the teacher. I expect the teacher to teach no matter what. ... and I expect that I can choose whether or not my kids do the homework as I am the parent and have to decide how I'm using that class as part of my school. My kids have signed up for classes and I told them that I did not want them putting in the time to do "homework" for that class if it took away from the homework that "I" wanted them do to for my expectations. (This was only done for a class that was not supposed to have homework in the first place). I do think it is only respectful to the teacher to ask ahead of time if the kids can be in the class if they are not going to do outside work - especially if discussions are based on work done at home. I wouldn't dismiss kids from a class unless they are being disruptive or not fulfilling expectations that were stated from the beginning with it being known that a student could be dismissed from the class. It's frustrating when students don't live up to your expectations, especially if you see your teaching and time being more of a gift or ministry and not a well-paid job.

My son has been admitted and received the Presidential Scholarship for Univ. of Kentucky. Still awaiting decisions from a couple of schools.

This year, my senior is only waiting on an EA that I'm sure he'll get into. However, I certainly remember a few years ago anxiously awaiting a decision in mid-Dec.

All the schools I talked to wanted testing within 3-5 years. Noone wanted it in less than 3 years. It might be a regional thing, but you might try calling the schools disability department directly and asking.

My oldest got accommodations several years ago, and I just got approval for my daughter. Both my kids had formal psych reports saying they needed the accommodations. I wrote up a "homeschool educational plan" outlining accommodations at home. I did a simple paragraph summary of elementary and then more year by year starting in middle school. Usually my accommodations from one year to the next were exactly the same. I just made a bullet list saying unlimited time for homework, extra time on tests, books allowed to be listened to rather than read, etc. They have been homeschooled since day one. We have always been approved on the first try. My son got accommodations for both ACT and SAT/psat/AP and now has college accommodations. My daughter has only applied for college board accommodations so far, but since she was approved for this I don't anticipate any problems getting ACT approval. I would definitely recommend getting the psych evaluations done if you think your student will need accommodations in college.

I agree with your plan - I'd go visit some earlier than the decisions. You are right that the common app has you sign that you will only accept and pay a deposit at one school, unless you cancel the first school when you change your mind and accept the second. This is also in the agreement of most schools that I've seen when you pay the deposit. I would not intentionally break these rules.

DS - admitted Univ. of Alabama Huntsville - with charger distinction scholarship ... still working on other applications.

I had no problem submitting ACT, FAFSA, CSS Profile all before the application. We never created a portal until after admission, or at least the applications - not sure if you can do it early.

The fact that I should have weighted the grade for a scholarship application, I found out after the fact in talking to the college. I will weight the grade for my second specifically for these scholarships. I do find it unfortunate that schools can't take an unweighted grade with multiple AP classes and compare it to someone else that has a weighted grade. For my older son's first choice, I specifically emailed and asked the admission counselor if I needed to weight the grade. She said there was no need to weight the grade since they unweight everything and redo it. She also told me that I didn't need to call anything honors for that school. I think the more that a school has a real person look at the application and course descriptions, the more they will form their own opinion as to level of courses and GPA. Most schools however simply take a number and fill in the blank.

For my first son, he had a math coach write a teacher recommendation for him. He was hesitant as he had never had him in the classroom. I simply told him to write the recommendation as he knew my son and submit it as through the teacher link - told him to answer the other questions the best he could or write n/a. My son got into an extremely selective school with this recommendation.

I only did unweighted for my first son. His first choice was a school that told me there was no reason to weight his grade as they would recalculate it anyway. My second (this year) son is getting both weighted and unweighted. He needs a weighted GPA for scholarship applications as some will not recalculate his GPA and even if he has 4.0 on a 4-point scale, it doesn't compare well to kids that have a weighted GPA.

I had to do that when I was in college. My son was required to either participate as a subject for so many hours or research OR write some papers. He was allowed to read the descriptions of the research studies and pick the ones he was interested in -- he said it was very boring.

My son did both DO Precalc and then calculus. I would say there is more work in the precalc class. My son took off a couple of months during the calculus class and had no problem finishing it in the schoolyear. There was no problem with the transition at my home. I would say that my son gets math fairly easily. I could help him with anything, but he really didn't need any help. He added a AP prep book and a couple of old AP tests and then took the AP Calc AB exam and thought it was easy and made a 5. I would love it if Derek Owens would take calculus through AP Calc BC.

When I look at your list, my first thought is that is a LOT of literature to cover - for any class. I like the suggestions Lori D made for paring down the list.

I wouldn't wait to send in a final transcript. Is there any reason they need the last AP scores on the transcript? At this point, the student is accepted and has any awarded scholarships. Usually the final transcript is a formality saying that the student actually finished the expected coursework and did not fail everything their senior year. Some schools have deadlines to receive the final transcripts before AP scores are out. Most all schools require official AP scores sent to award credit for the classes.

As to HSLDA's short list - I don't know. There are long lists of all sorts of curriculum. HSLDA doesn't tend to support any of them, I think they are trying to provide a starting point for someone who doesn't know where to start. As far as the "best" curriculum, I think you need to pick the best for your child in whatever situation they are in. Look at college requirements - that will tell you what subjects must be done. Search these boards - there are plenty of us who have gone before you and gotten kids into all sorts of colleges without problems.

I'm not sure I have a specific expectation. I do expect to know what the rules are BEFORE sending my child as to level of supervision/freedom. I am sending my high school student to a 5 week camp this summer. He will have a lot of freedom on the campus, but not allowed off campus. He will be expected to be in various classes through the day and to participate in group activities. He will have lots of freedom in the evenings. He will be on his own to go to meals, laundry, class. He will only be allowed to have a cell phone in the dorm room (not on person). Strict curfew. Another camp my kids go to has very loose free time with time to wander off campus around a quaint downtown. Kids are given strict guidelines and then expected to follow them. In general I would expect some level of supervision. Most, but not all camps, I'd expect some kind of rules around curfew but it might vary considerably. I would generally expect that high schoolers are mature enough to get themselves around campus, to meals, and to have freedom to jog etc during free hours. If it's a church camp, I'd expect more conservative rules than at other camps.

Well, my son has not taken two classes at the same time. I think it is doable if your son is at all mathy. My son did honors physics in 9th grade - double timed it and took breaks and finished in 5 months. He did AP Calc as a junior and did all the work over about 5 months again. He's a hard worker and likes to get the material out of they way. He thought the AP Calc test was "easy" and he should get a five as he was well-prepared. I could see a good student doing both classes at the same time. My biggest concern would be if they click with listening to the videos or if he grates on their nerves. You could have your student try out some of the DO vidoes on youtube if you are not sure.

Got an email reply and Edhesive really has upped their prices. They are honoring their quote to me. I have no idea if they will give you a reduced price if you email and say you were planning on enrolling at the previous price. Before you completely strike them off your list for this year, I'd email about the situation. This might mean that I strike them off my list for future years however.