From the info on their website, it sounds like you could email CLRC and ask to see a video of a sample Spanish class. I sat in on part of the first class in the fall and at that time the teacher used the chat in part for participation, so that for example when she explained something, she might say something to the effect of, do you understand or does anyone have questions, and kids would respond to this kind of question in the chat. My son hasn’t mentioned it going off the rails at all— that type of thing would probably really annoy him.

I will also recommend CLRC. My son is in Spanish 1 this year and the teacher is great and super nice, and he is learning a lot.

Obviously you should do whatever you decide you want to do. Personally I concluded that there were too many great books that were not Great Books that I'd prefer my kids to read. And to choose Great Books is to choose not to do other great books because we are all finite 🙂. I understand the attraction of Great Books -- one thing one of mine did end up doing was a couple of units from Wes Callihan's Old Western Culture (he did Greek Philosophers, and the Medieval Mind.) For him the units were half-credit electives. I think he is glad he did it, but after 2 units he did not want to continue. (He is more interested in programming, game design, and music so is taking courses in these areas instead.)

I'm exploring options for my son who will be in 10th grade next year. We may do a CLRC class but I am also wondering about the Schole American Lit class? Any feedback on what you thought of it and the workload? My son is a thoughtful kid so I think would enjoy some good discussion, but he does not read or work super fast. So I am looking for something where the workload will not be too burdensome. Thanks!

Does anyone have any reviews/experience with this? I am considering it for my son who will be in 10th grade next year. I'd be particularly interested in info about the workload, quality of discussion, as well as composition instruction. Thank you!

Thank you all so much! This is all very helpful and encouraging. I will make a dummy account and check things out. I do have a running list of course descriptions with texts, grades, etc. so hopefully that will help. Silver, thanks for that link! I feel better already, though I imagine I may be posting again come fall. 🙂

I know it is early, but my son will be applying to colleges in the fall using the common app and I am already really stressed about what I as homeschool parent etc. am going to need to do for this. I think a lot of the stress comes from the unknown -- so I am wondering if anyone can give me an idea of what I am going to need to do? I went to the common app page and don't see anything in particular for schools etc. -- should I create a practice account as an educational professional, or as a parent? Is there a way to see what I am going to need to provide as parent/teacher/counselor etc.? My daughter is a senior this year and applied to a few colleges but did not use the common app, so I do have a good template for a transcript and have been compiling course descriptions at the end of each year ... Thanks for any advice!

I voted stainless before I read your post. Sounds like you want black so I would go with that then 🙂

If you are looking for a recipe with the spices mixed into the dough, I have a recipe! The consistency should be as you describe 🙂 Ginger Cookies 2 c. flour 1/2 tsp. salt 2 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. cinnamon 3/4 tsp. ground cloves 3/4 tsp. ground ginger 1 c. sugar 3/4 c. butter 1/4 c. dark molasses 1 egg Cream butter and sugar, then add molasses and egg and beat until well mixed. Add remaining ingredients and stir until mixed. Roll dough into balls about the size of a walnut, then roll in additional granulated sugar to coat, and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 11-12 minutes. (Cookies puff while baking and then start to fall -- I consider them done when they start to fall/have fallen, but if you bake them much longer than this they may end up crisp.) (From a cookbook of my Mom's when I was growing up.)

They make me very grumpy! Perhaps this is because I rarely go to the store for only one or two things. Here there is a Target with maybe 16 checkout lines, which routinely will have only one of these lines open and the self-checkout lines on each far side will have a long line of people waiting. At the grocery store I don’t like looking up all my produce, and evidently if I set the produce on the scale before entering its code I get an error which a cashier has to fix. So I have to hold it in the air and read the code and enter it before setting it down. If I have a decent number of items they won’t all fit in the bagging area and I don’t want to put bagged stuff in the cart with unscanned stuff. When stores take out regular check out lines to install more self check out it makes me grumpy because I feel like they are trying to force people to use it. I do think my grumpiness about this probably means I am getting old. I try not to show my grumpiness but definitely feel it inside.

Thanks very much!

Does anyone have experience/feedback for these? Thinking about one of the spring semester courses for my 12th grader. Thanks for any info!

I would think the CC course for non-majors would likely be just what you are looking for. My son is doing that now (CC Biology for non-majors, as his first high school biology course), also with very little bio background, and it is going great and he is doing very well.

We did the parent-graded option for regular chemistry a couple of years ago. I looked back at my kid’s tests and see that I made the decisions about how many points the test questions and tests were worth.

Thanks so much everyone -- I really appreciate it! My oldest is a senior and is applying to colleges so I am feeling the pressure :). This kid (the junior) took ancient world history in 9th and US history in 10th -- I'd like for him to do at least some government I think. His interests are still pretty varied; today he says he likes math (and music.) I'll make sure he gets at least one social studies credit next year, and we will see where his interests lie then for the rest. Again, thanks very much!

My son is in 11th grade. This semester he is doing 3 dual enrollment classes and one online class through WTMA (math, science, programming, German.) So far it has been good and he is doing well and the workload is fine but keeping him busy. Anyway, in planning for next semester, I know he needs an English credit which he'll do through a DE comp class -- but is it ok if he doesn't have a history/social studies class junior year? He would definitely take one (possibly 2) then as a senior. This spring I'd like him to take Calculus and comp, and he would like to take a music class. His German will continue then as well. I'm thinking adding an additional DE course might be a bit much (Calculus is 5 hours so 4 courses would put him at about 14 college hours plus German which has been time-consuming.) He'd rather not do something at home (but he could probably handle an at-home semester course of government or econ or history if really needed.) So, will it look bad if he has a year on his transcript without a history/social studies? I am asking in part because he is a smart kid with good test scores so I'd like to keep his options open when it comes to more competitive colleges. Thanks for any thoughts!

I am trying to pull together a last-minute digital art course for my daughter (12th grade.) (I had her registered for an online digital art course for the fall but it was recently cancelled.) I'm sure there are numerous short courses etc. available online but am wondering if anyone has any specific suggestions? She has an ipad and has been enjoying using Procreate for maybe 6 months or so. She has a drawing tablet (intended for the now-cancelled course) which she has tried out but has not used too much yet. The past year has been a struggle for her (anxiety which we are working on) so neither of us has a lot of bandwidth at this point to be too DIY (and unless the description sounds very gentle she tends to be against any kind of live or DE class but I'm open to suggestions.) I'd like something not stressful, but if our plan is too amorphous it likely will not get done. Thanks for any thoughts/ideas!

Anyone have feedback on this? Thanks very much!

Moon Over Manifest The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 Bud, Not Buddy The 39 Clues series audiobooks are fun and well done IMO, as are The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place books.

I know there is a TA you can contact for help — just asked my son and he said he did that once and that worked. But my husband does a lot of python programming so other times he just asked Dad. 🙂

My daughter did the class, and the next semester my son did it. So I think it was a good class — my husband and I both thought some of the programming projects were excellent. However I wouldn’t consider it gentle (which is what I was looking for for my daughter.) She was willing but not super interested in programming and it was kind of intense for her. For both kids it got pretty time consuming by the end of the semester. I think the Python class is available as 3 modules which don’t have time limits as well as the semester class. In hindsight that would have been better for one of mine. The other had more programming interest and experience. He a couple of times needed extra help but mostly did well and liked it except for kind of running out of time at the end of the semester.

Oh my!!! I’ll have to think about whether or not I want to make myself see that 🙂

I didn’t want to read the thread until watching, but am 6 minutes in and think I may quit. Ugh. I love the book and the Amanda Root version, but so far they seem to be trying to make the story into an extended joke. So disappointing.

Thanks so much! I will check all of these out.

My daughter is interested in anatomy and physiology for next year -- she will be a senior, and is considering nursing if she can get past her squeamishness. She has already taken biology, chemistry, and physics, and for various reasons I'd like for her to have a gentle, non-stressful (to the extent possible) senior year. She doesn't want to do any kind of live or in-person class, and would frankly prefer a textbook to read, workbook to fill out, and occasional tests. We really prefer to avoid Apologia. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks very much.