Thank you; this information is so very helpful!!

My daughter will begin her first-ever AP course in a couple of weeks and will take the corresponding exam in spring 2023. I need to send a reminder email in September to the school that is agreeing to let her sit for the exam. Do I need to have a College Board account set up for my daughter before that, so they can order her a test? (Is setting up an account just like, entering my daughter’s name and email and basic info, or is it something more involved? Is it something I can go ahead and do now?) Thanks for your help with my AP newbie questions. 🙂

Thank you so much!! I really appreciate your taking the time to respond!

Thank you! This response is so helpful. I'm very torn; I do like the idea of the two formal lab reports, but I really wish she demonstrated the labs, because that was the support I think would most benefit us. I have a follow-up question, if you don't mind me asking: Is just the one semester lab course "enough" to call the course "Chemistry with Lab" on your high school transcript? (I find the WTMA credit system for sciences a little weird/confusing, since they break the labs off from the regular course.) I looked at the lab course syllabus online and it shows that students do 8 labs during the semester and then it looks like one or two "extra" labs where they write the long lab reports. Is 8-10 labs "enough"? (We did 20 labs for biology this past year, so I'm concerned that 8-10 labs in chemistry will look "light" in comparison.) I suppose I could sign my daughter up for both the fall and spring lab sections, but that will total like $1500 spent on chemistry (year-long course, lab courses, microchem kit, etc.) and that feels...like a lot. Anyway, would love to know what credits you issued, if you don't mind sharing. Thank you so much, and thank you again for your helpful response!

Hi! My daughter is currently enrolled in WTMA's upcoming Chemistry course. I am debating whether or not to also enroll her in the corresponding lab course. (I bought the MicroChem kit and am debating between doing the labs ourselves and enrolling my daughter in the formal lab course.) My main question: In the WTMA lab course, does the instructor perform the labs live on camera each week? Or are the labs just discussed during the classes? Basically, I'm trying to get a sense of how helpful the lab course would be for us. Is there a lot of extra work beyond the labs themselves? (We enjoy science in our house--we did biology labs on our own this past year with the QSL kit and we were super successful!--but my daughter is a prospective fine arts major, so chemistry is not where she wants to devote the bulk of her energy. Her painting is super time-consuming and her year will otherwise be super full; she'll be taking an AP art history course, a French II course, geometry, an intensive English course, doing test prep, starting to drive, etc., so chemistry is more of a "get 'er done" course for us. Plus, our homeschool budget is nearly maxed out as far as outsourced courses go, so I only want to consider the lab course if it's amazing...) Basically, I'm trying to determine if the lab course would be super helpful to us and make our lives easier (because the instructor provides clear and helpful demos of the labs), or if the lab course would, in effect, just pile extra work on my daughter beyond the labs themselves. We're definitely going to build a solid Chemistry with Lab course either way, but again, science is not a passion area for her, so I'm thinking it might be overkill? Thanks for any info you can provide!

Thank you!!

I currently have a rising sophomore, so she won't be taking her standardized tests until she's a junior (fall of 2023 and/or the spring of 2024). We have not yet decided on which test she'll do, but I'm curious about both. A recent post put the idea of test registration on my radar. Does registration for these tests open at the same time every year? I'd like to make a notes to myself and set Google reminders so I don't forget this next year.... (Any related tips or info re: test registration is much appreciated.) Thanks!

Awesome, thank you!

That is what I was planning to do, too. Thanks!

I doubt this matters too much one way or the other, but I'm not sure where I should file summer courses on my daughter's transcript. She's currently taking a summer college course worth 3 college credits. She's a rising tenth grader, so I'm not sure if I should include this course with her other ninth grade courses, or if I should list it as a course she completed in tenth grade. (Just wondering if there is a standard procedure for summer classes.) Thank you!

So helpful! Thank you!

Thank you! The weight # is helpful!!

Thank you so, so much!!

Lots of questions today! Trying to bang out these course descriptions and be done! We don't use much formal curricula, but we use a little. (For math, I'm obviously going to list "Math U See Algebra 1" as the text we used, because that curriculum was literally the only text we used for that course.) But...things get a little murkier for other subjects. For subjects where you used a commercial curriculum, did you list that curriculum by name, or did you just list the topics covered by that curriculum? For instance, I purchased the Oak Meadow World History curriculum to use as a guide for topics to cover in our World History course, but do I need to mention that? Can I just list the actual textbook we used for readings (McGraw-Hill World History and Geography) and the other books we read over the span of the course (Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Maus, Night, etc.)? I guess I'm wondering: Does "Oak Meadow" or "Brave Writer" or "IEW" mean anything to admissions counselors? Is it useful information for them that is worth including in a course description, or is it just confusing and unnecessary? (Would they see it and think, "What the heck is Brave Writer?") In your course descriptions, did you mention specific curricula by name, or did you strictly mention texts read and topics covered?(I hope I'm making sense here.) Thank you!

Good points, thank you! 🙂

This is very helpful, thank you! A follow-up question: Where did you physically list your integrated courses on your transcript and in your course description document? (Did you put them under English, Social Science, or both?) I guess this depends on if you organized your transcript and course descriptions by subject or by grade, but I'd love to know how you structured it (for future reference). Thanks!

We've only done the middle school version of this course so far (my kids do it in seventh grade), but we definitely plan to do the high school course. The middle school course was super straightforward and didn't take a ton of time.

Two questions: (1) Roman numerals or Arabic numbers? (Is anyone else driven crazy that on the same transcript, we call one course "French I" (Roman numeral), but then we call another course "English 9" (Arabic number)?! (The inconsistency makes me crazy, but of course writing "English IX" would be ridiculous.) Similarly, did you call it "Algebra 1" or "Algebra I"? (Our Math u See curriculum actually uses the title "Algebra 1"...) So that's making me crazy. (2) How did you title your English courses? Our English courses are self-designed, but they're pretty standard in that we covered both literature and writing in the one course. Some homeschooling advice I've read suggests just keeping things simple and calling it "English 9" because that is clear to admissions. (Every school will know what "English 9" means, whereas a more flowery title might confuse them. I've heard it's best for the transcript to be skimmable, so admissions officers can just quickly read down and be like, "Check, check, check.") We do a Brave Writer sort of approach to our English courses, in that there is no overall theme to the literature titles we choose; we just select major books that interest us. (So, I can't call the course something like, "19th Century British Literature" because, again, there was no unifying theme like that to our books. Plus, I'm worried a title like that implies it wasn't also a writing course.) Anyway...does anyone have thoughts on this? The downside of calling it "English 9" is that, to me, it doesn't capture the richness of the work we actually did. (It feels generic?) What did you do? Should I just stop overthinking and call it "English 9"? Maybe "English 9: Language and Literature"? (I feel like that title, at least, makes it clear that both writing and literature were covered.) Please advise. Thank you! Edited to add: If anyone would like to share how they titled their English courses for each grade, I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you!

Thank you! This is super helpful!

I know; that's what's making it problematic--her outsourced courses are written in present tense! I'll definitely pick a tense and make them all the same, I'm just trying to decide what sounds less weird. (I've been starting at it all for hours, so everything sounds bizarre at this point, lol.)

Hello! I'm working on course descriptions for the school year we just finished. (It's my first time doing this!) A lot of homeschool advice I've read recommends writing course descriptions in present tense ("This year-long course introduces..."). BUT, as I'm actually sitting down and doing this, it feels really weird to me to use present tense, especially for the courses my daughter and I have worked together to design especially for her. (That is, our courses are not ongoing like those of a traditional school, so shouldn't we use past tense to describe them?) What did you do? Please advise! Thank you! 🙂

I'm seeking recommendations for good home computer printer paper. I've tried so many kinds, but I haven't yet found one that I love. (The cheaper brands tend to be see-through/not great for double-sided printing. Some of the nicer papers I've tried are weirdly slick and the printer ink sometimes smears....) If you've found paper you love, I'd love to hear about it! Bonus if it is available in bulk. Thank you!

Oh, this is so good to note--thank you. I will keep this in mind!

We operate like this! Aesthetics are so important to our homeschool life, honestly. Beauty and environment matters! (It doesn't have to cost anything; it's just about intention and set-up, really.) First, I would have her (or help her) clean the room she'll be working in. (I cannot concentrate AT ALL in a messy space, so this is the biggest one for us!) If you don't have time to actually clean, just put all the visible junk in a laundry basket to get it out of the room and deal with it another time. Other recommendations: Set up the workspace as an "invitation" to work: Set out pretty gel pens, sticky notes, highlighters. (Color!) A cup of sharpened pencils, nice pens. Set work out nicely (put assignment sheet on a clipboard, open notebook to fresh page, make space for everything) "Reset" the desk for each subject switch or during breaks Fill a water bottle with ice water or use a carafe and a pretty glass on a coaster Make sure her chair is comfortable (add a cushion or blanket) OR use a lap desk on a bed Set out a little tray or basket with tissues, lip balm, and hand lotion (if she has everything she needs, there will be few excuses to get up! lol) Set Spotify (or whatever) to a "focus" playlist or find a "music for reading" playlist on YouTube (New Bliss and Cat Trumpet are our favorite YouTube channels for reading music) I agree that candles and flowers only ever help! Brownies or a snack brought to her while she's working is such a treat

We took our first WTMA course this past fall and it was wonderful. I am making notes to myself for future reference and I saw that WTMA offers an SAT prep course. Has anyone taken it? Was it "worth" it? (How necessary do you feel formal test prep courses like these are? I vacillate between hating the idea and thinking a formal course would likely be helpful.) I'm debating between this SAT prep course or possibly the Mr. D SAT math boot camp. (If we decide to do either of them, my daughter would likely take these courses next year--in the summer or fall 2024--but I'm making notes to myself in my new teacher planner now, so I don't miss the sign-up deadlines next year. Figured I'd start collecting info about the courses while it's on my mind.) Thanks for any feedback or advice!