I was just on the phone with Susan Richman at PAH, and she mentioned that they're looking for someone to teach AP Environmental Science for them starting this fall. Anyone want to make a connection here?

Has anyone done a class with Worldly Pupil? Their site looks interesting, but I first heard of them just this week.

The College Board has announced that starting in the 2019-20 school year, schools will have to order their AP exams by November 15. In other words, start your annual round of begging calls as soon as you boot up in the fall. Aargh. Here is their new info sheet for homeschoolers.

We loved it. The lecturer is lively and engaging: perfect for a 9th grader.

My son is in the secondary section this year, and it’s great. He spends a ton of time on the class (up to three hours/day), mostly because he loves the interaction with the other students. His older brother did the same thing, so it’s hard for me to say how long the daily workload would take a kid who wanted to approach it more efficiently.

Not sure how to do a link with my phone, but there’s an annual book series we’ve used, The Best American Science and Nature Writing.

Last year, WTMA let my son enroll in a literature course mid-year.

I’m asking here, since no one has anything to say on the K-8 board: Does anyone have experience with this class? The syllabus looks great, and I’m thinking of signing up ds13.

Checking back on this, as I’m thinking of signing up ds13 for this spring. Any experiences to share?

One Chromebook feature I like is the ability to set up a user account that only permits access to whitelisted sites. For some kids, at some times, it’s nice to be able to limit distractions. This has worked fine for us for Bravewriter, WTM, and AP Lang through PAH. Sometimes they’ll need to click through to other sites to complete assignments; in that case I just let them on my own, less restricted user account.

DS15 has an iPhone. I've disabled the internet browser, disallowed games, and subscribed to OurPact, which lets me schedule and control his access to apps. Right now, apps he uses for school are available all the time, while others, including messaging, are available only for an hour a day outside "scheduled" blocks (school, dinner, nighttime and Sundays). I can grant temporary access for good reasons. Tougher than some, I know, but we figure it's easier to start out tight and loosen up than to go the other way.

No firsthand experience, but a friend liked BYU's Korean courses: is.byu.edu.

Missed this thread the first time around. Re: the BYU Idaho recommendation above, you should know that the Idaho campus is much less selective and academically rigorous than the BYU flagship campus, which also offers DE: www.is.byu.edu. That said, DS1 took Biology 100 through BYU a couple of years ago, and we were underwhelmed. It was very much a check-the-intro-course-box kind of class--read the textbook and provided course notes, and take ungraded quizzes and three or four graded tests. DS was frustrated with unclear/imprecise wording in some of the questions, and there was really no way to take that up with an instructor. Customer service people and tutors were available, prompt, and helpful, but we could never figure out who was actually in charge and grading the tests. Furthermore, for "test security reasons," they wouldn't allow students to look at their graded tests, so they couldn't figure out what they missed and thus what they needed to bone up on for the final. Overall, DS doesn't regret taking it, since it got him out of freshman bio, but I'm not rushing to sign up his brothers. No idea if this is an outlier--other people I've talked to love BYU classes, particularly for foreign language, so take it for what it's worth.

I hadn't heard of it, but looked at the site since ds12 is an avid stargazer. They lost me at "Bible-based projects."

Thanks for your great responses, everyone. We've always done ad hoc kinds of service projects through scouts and church, and I'm thinking of adding a more regularly scheduled commitment--maybe Meals on Wheels a couple of times a month. I appreciate all the ideas.

Have your teens found great ways to serve your community? I'd love to hear what they're up to.

For us, one of the great features of homeschooling is the ability to move ahead academically without having to skip nominal grade levels. Ds will head off to BYU in the fall at age 18 with a nice scholarship, having already finished all of the math classes required for an engineering degree. He intends to use the extra space in his schedule to study music and other things that interest him. I'm very leery of putting a bright kid in a situation where s/he will be treated like a prodigy all the time. It's hard for them socially, and can influence them to avoid challenges for fear that they'll lose their status as the smart kid if they're seen to fail at something. FWIW.

Scandinavian: Kristin Lavransdotter (long but absorbing); maybe Ibsen's The Doll's House.

DS is off to BYU in the fall!

Yes!!

I got a prep book, but ds scored a 5 without using it: the class was very thorough.

Have you seen www.conceptualacademy.com? They have lessons, videos, etc. to go with Hewitt.

Thanks for the helpful post! BYU Independent Study has a-g approved courses; does anyone know of other providers?

How about bits from plays? I make my kids memorize Mark Antony's funeral oration from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

If you've used Latin for the New Millennium and continued after Level 3, what did you use next? Thanks!