Well, while FLVS classes are not typically difficult, they are typically a lot of work. I don't have experience with either English or French, but my oldest did FLVS Latin 1 and 2, and two of my children have now done FLVS Spanish. The child who did Latin had already had Latin with me at home, and I remember thinking how overwhelming the course would be to a kid coming in to Latin cold. IMO their language classes dump A LOT of info on the student in a short amount of time, so it seems that 2 such language classes at once would be asking a lot. On top of that, SL 100 is, as I recall, heavy on the English/Language Arts side. So it seems an online English on top of it would be a bit of duplication. My advice would be to at least stagger the starts, don't do all three FLVS classes at once. Try one, and get a good start in it. If it's going well, add another. You can start at anytime if you are doing their part-time program.

"We'd love to have you join us at the beach house! Please plan on making your own meal arrangements and/or bring food to feed your family." And if they showed up without food, I'd hand them menus to some local places.

Well, I like them. I used the condensed version with a high school class. My students ranged from 8th grade - 10th, and I didn't want them to get bogged down in what can be very dense and detailed text in many high school books. I feel that the Hakim books give a great overview in a very readable, accessible way. They make a great jumping off point for class discussion and critical thinking activities (like Reading Like a Historian). I used the Sonlight guide to get ideas for my own study guides. I also used the Oxford Assessment book, and I used other texts (K12's high school text American Odyssey, college text Give Me Liberty by Eric Foner) for my own research to add material for class lecture and discussion.

1) What state are you in? Florida 2) Do dual enrollment students pay tuition in your area? No, but homeschoolers do have to purchase textbooks for their DE classes. Public school students do not. 3) Can dual enrollment students count their courses towards their HS diploma? Yes 4) How many credits can a dual enrollment student take? Not sure what the rule is now. When dd was DE'd it was either 2 classes/semester or you could go full time DE and get an AA at the same time as high school graduation. I think there are in-between options now, it's been a couple of years. 5) Are there limits on the DE classes a student can take? Again, not sure now, but a couple of years ago, no. Am I right that other areas do it differently? Yes--love our DE options in FL!

Oh my Katie--I'm in your state and will be in a similar situation next year. Please post an update if anything changes--I had planned on DE for my son's junior and senior years as well, and he's an August b-day who started a year late, so he'll be 18 for all of his senior year. Yikes!

Dd applied to UGA. No problems with her homeschool transcript. She was accepted but didn't end up going there because it was much cheaper to stay in state.

This was our experience as well. Our state colleges and universities are linked, so anything taken at the cc will transfer to the university system, though not always as intended. The state flagship will accept calculus taken at the cc as an elective only--they want to use their own Calc 1 as a weed-out class for their engineering program, for example. Dd took a number of classes from the local cc, which then did transfer as intended to the university. But she just took gen ed classes that everybody needs, like Psych, Soc, Econ, etc., and also the math credits that she needed for her humanities major. She definitely found that the cc classes were easier. Her first semester of college was more difficult than expected, because those cc classes she had aced so easily were not what she encountered at the uni.

The landlord needs to realize that good laminate is going to last him much longer than cheap carpet. We rent, and over our first year here it became apparent that some of the carpets had pet odor that we hadn't noticed upon first inspection of the house. They were in our kids' rooms, so when our lease came up again we asked the landlord about replacing it with laminate. He bought the product, dh installed it. That was 12 years ago and it still looks great. Carpet would have had had to have been replaced probably twice during that time frame, so we actually have saved him money.

ITA with the above. We have a number of iPads. I spend hours a day and get a lot of work done on my MBP. I'm just not interested in a smaller screen, a smaller keyboard, and everything tied to the cloud.

Great beaches in the area, and lots of history to explore. The Casillo de San Marcos (a 16th century fort), the Pirate and Treasure museum, the Colonial Quarter museum, the St. Augustine Lghthouse, the Alligator Farm, the Old Florida Museum . . . . I've done all these things and would recommend them to a family with boys especially.

We don't buy new cars. And we've sought out Fords or Lincolns for our last several car purchases because we've experienced excellent reliability. We generally buy them at least 5 years old, so they come to us with a history, and then drive them forever. I put over 200,000 on my last Navigator (got it at 70,000) before upgrading to a newer one (that was 3 years newer, but still a 9 year old car!). It had over 120,000 when we got it and I hope to drive it to 250,000. DH loves the Ford Excursion--drives them for work. His last one was over 250,000 before he swapped it for one with under 150,000 so he could drive the wheels of that one, too. Prior to our Navigator we had a Lincoln Continental, and before that a Ford Crown Vic. Both great cars. So no we haven't had reliability issues with Ford, and I have no idea how they are babied before they come to us.

Replied on the x-posted thread on the high school forum.

We've taken two summer trips to DC. Both times we got a house well outside the city through VRBO and drove in every day. We did have to be creative about when we arrived and left the city (coming in around 10 am and staying through the dinner hour, even into the evening worked well), but when we did that traffic was not an issue. Nor was parking--we just picked a lot nearby and parked there, then made sure we had the car out by the time the lot closed. It was around $20/day, but daily metro passes would have been at least that for our family of five. We like living space to spread out when we travel, and that's just out of the question cost-wise when touring a big city, at least for us.

Well. It's complicated. First, there are different FLVS programs--full time and part time, through the county and through FLVS itself. For full-time FLVS, you are considered a public school student. You follow their calendar, you take their tests, you get their diploma. Some people like this option because while the student can work at home and independently, they still receive that official diploma. At the high school level there's a teacher for every subject and I'm pretty sure they speak to the student at least weekly, probably the parent as well. You do have to start and end on the school calendar, and I'm not sure how flexible they are about working ahead or behind. Often the full-time FLVS option is a county-run franchise. I think the county franchises offer social opportunities to the students enrolled in their full-time program. For part-time FLVS, you are still considered a homeschooled student, either registered with the county or an umbrella school. For part-time FLVS you work with the company itself. You can take one class or several, you are not tied to a particular grade level, you sign up whenever you want (not just on the school calendar). There is a teacher for each class who calls for assessments, and contacts parents for updates. You can work at your own pace to a degree, but there is an expected number of assignments to be completed per week and they do push for completion. They let you sign up for whatever class you like, only those with pre-reqs would placement be an issue. My oldest took high school classes in middle school, and I've known of an elementary student in Spanish I (NOT recommended!). Rigor-wise, FLVS classes are pretty easy. For many classes, students can re-take each assessment and sometimes even quizzes to get a better grade. So while getting a decent grade is not difficult, they are A LOT of work. A student can expect to spend close to an hour a day at the computer for one course. Multiply that by a number of courses and you have a long day in front of the computer. As with any institution, some teachers are great, others are not. The teachers are available all week and mostly all day. They are officially off on weekends, though some will respond for a request for help. They don't do assessments on weekends. My kids have taken part-time FLVS classes and my sister is an FLVS teacher. I think for the money (free!) they are a good deal for certain classes. My oldest did her math and language with FLVS, but by the time she was finished she said she never wanted to take another online course, she was so over computer classes. They did, however, check a college box for her: the University of Florida requires homeschoolers to take SAT II tests in certain subject areas UNLESS they have taken two FLVS or Dual Enrollment classes in that subject. So my dd got her language and math boxes checked that way. Since you are in Jax, check out this option: PEP It's a two day/week tutoring program for homeschoolers, almost like a part-time private school. It is fee-based, but reasonable, and has a strong academic curriculum. My dd did PEP for 10th - 12th grades, as well as a number of dual enrollment classes, and she was well-prepared for the college experience (and had a lot of fun at PEP in the meantime!). Dual enrollment generally starts when they are in 11th, though there are possible exemptions for younger students. There are of course cautions about the environment and content of college-level classes, but that's something to be determined by the individual student and family. If you have more questions and want to chat about homeschooling high school, PM me and I'll pass along my e-mail.

MIne doesn't, and thinks it weird that guys need best friends, or friends at all for that matter. We have people we are friends with as couples, but even then he would consider the guy of the other party more of a close acquaintance than a friend. He scoffs at men's retreats and things where guys get together for community. He thinks those kind of things are okay for women, but has absolutely 0 interest as a guy thing. He wouldn't be opposed to a dad and kid thing, as an activity to bring families together, but doesn't get men-only relationships and activities. He's weird like that. ETA: He's also a complete introvert. That likely explains a large part of it.

Yes just call and ask. They are used to these types of questions and more then willing to help your student successfully apply. In my experience the larger universities have admissions people who are specifically assigned to homeschool applicants, so they are more aware of homeschool-specific questions. And if your local Big 10 U is Indiana, my oldest applied there because both dh and I are alums and I have family in B-town. We did the campus tour one summer when we were visiting, even though my kids and I have been on campus a lot and I certainly knew the campus well. It was fun to do the tour, and the admissions person we talked to afterwards was actually homeschooled himself! Dd didn't end up going there because we are out of state and OOS is hideously expensive, but she did get accepted, and IU's was one of the most homeschool-friendly applications we encountered. If it's the other Big 10 school in Indiana, I can't help you there ;-) I do highly recommend the campus tour, even if you are local. Schedule an admissions appointment after so you can ask your questions face to face--I found I got more straightforward answers when I was sitting in the office of the person I was asking instead of talking to them on the phone. And sophomore year is NOT too early--it can get the student excited about the college experience and what s/he has do to get there.

Well I am just finishing up teaching high school US history at our co-op. We used the Joy Hakim A History of US (Condensed version) books as our spine, and went through all of them in a year. The students read anywhere from 8 - 12 chapters per week, with generally around 4 - 7 short answer study guide questions per chapter. The readings were grouped by units--13 in all--with each unit taking about 2 weeks to complete and culminating in a test of 40 or 50 questions. For the fall semester they had a research paper/presentation which was worth in points about 2 tests, and for the spring they have a shorter research presentation (no paper this time), also worth 2 test grades. During class we used the grading of the study guides as a springboard for class discussion, in addition to me bringing in additional information on which to lecture. Often there have been pop quizzes covering the readings, study guides, and lecture, just to keep everyone on their toes. We also incorporated videos (John Green's Crash Course US History videos on YouTube are great). I also used the class activities from Reading Like A Historian quite a bit. They incorporate a number of primary source documents critical thinking-type questions. I should add that our co-op added an additional day for high school classes like this one, so we meet two days/week instead of the one day for regular classes. I have taught many co-op classes, and this has been one of my favorites. I plan to teach it again when my younger son is in 9th, and am already planning on how to make it better!

Two of mine have mid-August birthdays in a state with a Sept. 1 cutoff. One started a year late, because it was apparent early on that's where he needed to be and that's what would have happened had he gone to a traditional school (I've no doubt he would have repeated K). I cannot imagine him a year ahead, though now that he's in high school things are evening out. Still, an extra year for brain maturity when it comes to things like Algebra and Sciences has been a very good thing for this kid. His brother did not start late but probably could have. We have been heavily involved in a homeschool community since he was born, so he had a number of friends in his same "grade." He's done fine but is usually the youngest when things are grouped by grade, and of course when it comes to learning I just teach him where he is, anyway. I will say that if I had to put him in school, I would probably place him back a year, just because he's not the strongest student and I think the extra year would benefit him. As it stands now he's doing okay. We'll see how the high school years go!

I don't have anything specific or earth-shattering that I'd like to share, just the general day-to-day life things that my mom has missed. In the 18 months since she's been gone, my boys have gotten taller than me, my daughter has finished her second year of college, and my sister has welcomed her 4th and 5th grandchildren, with 2 more on the way. My mom loved being a part of everything with her family, and every day I think of something I'd like to share with her.

That was rich. Thanks for the laugh!

I think that any foreign language, but most particularly one for which verbs conjugate and nouns decline, is a boon to native language study. In your native language you don't think about why you use the correct form of a verb or whether this noun in the sentence is a direct object or an object of the preposition, you just use it because it sounds right. This is not particular to English--my sister teaches Spanish and has a number of kids who are native speakers taking the class. They are native speakers due to a parent speaking it at home, but they have never studied the grammar of Spanish. And even in their complete spoken language fluency, they often struggle with the grammar of the language. Learning a second language forces you to think about those things because it's all new. And with languages like Latin or German or Russian, the declension of nouns asks the learner to really examine the role of the noun in the sentence, something we don't do in English. This gave me personally a greater understanding of English grammar as I taught elementary Latin to my children. I did not, however, drop English Grammar study in favor of Latin study. We did both.

I do the admin side from my computer, but my field trip person who uses her phone pretty much exclusively does all of her admin tasks from her phone. And a number of people in our group just use their phones for the user side of it. It's actually extremely mobile-friendly.

I know. I'm just saying my introvert self would NOT have done it. I was in Mom's groups when my oldest was born, in 1996 before many people were on the internet. We had things like phone trees to keep everyone connected. I hated it.

We have more time together as a family because we homeschool.

homeschool-life.com If I had to manage a homeschool group in the pre-internet days, I wouldn't have managed a homeschool group. We've had a website with homeschool-life.com since 2008. It cuts down on administrative tasks significantly. It doesn't help with your rural/inconsistent internet access problem, however. But in an age that is becoming more digitally-linked rather than less, I don't think I'd go back to newsletters and construction-paper sign-ups.