We would be very interested in an Honours Chemistry in Fall 2018 (as well as a post-AP course in 2020).

There are several GC chemistry courses, which one were you considering? Here are a few that I know about: 1) Chemistry and Our Universe: How It All Works (60 lectures) is a first year college level course. It looks very complete, but might be rough going without some preliminary exposure. 2) Chemistry, 2nd Edition (36 lectures) is marketed as a supplementary course for high school students that emphasizes problem solving, I suspect that this is the one that has had a few negative reviews, but, I do wonder if the issue is with people using it outside its stated goals (as a supplement for those who want/need additional problem solving exposure). 3) Foundations of Organic Chemistry (36 lectures) does not have any pre-requisites, but would be more meaningful after at least a good grounding in general chemistry (IMHO) and/or microbiology. 4) The Nature of Matter: Understanding the Physical World (24 lectures) is a physical chemistry/materials science class. Based on what I know about Chemistry 101, you may want to add additional problem solving (e.g. the second GC course above) and lab work. Even still, it does not seem very rigorous for an 11th grader.

My college experience with Greek was very similar. And really, that is the same approach that Mueller uses in his Great Courses course (but using Homeric Greek as a base rather than Attic). Every lesson includes a Koine discussion, and the exercises include Koine sentences. the vocabulary includes Koine entries. So really, you are getting two-in-one, both a course in Homeric Greek and a Koine course with NT readings. I think that you have basically validated the claim that it is easier to go from an earlier form (say Attic to Koine) than from a later form to an earlier (Attic to Homeric). But, I agree, it all depends on your goal for learning the language. BTW, I suspect that Homeric seems more difficult because, not so much due to grammatical or vocabulary differences, but because it is poetry. The grammar is sometimes secondary to the meter, so sometimes features such as epsilon augment get dropped for metrical concerns, but on the other hand, contraction is far more rare. If you start with Attic, it will be more difficult (as both you and I experienced) to read Homer or even Herodotus. If reading Epic poetry is not important to you, then you are right, you might as well start with Attic. If the only goal is to read the NT, then start with Koine. On the other hand, if the goal is to eventually be able to read "Ancient Greek" in all of its many genres, dialects, and forms, then you might as well start with Homer, then learn Attic, and then Koine (which will seem very easy at that point). My own goal for my kids is that they would be able, if they desire, to be able to pick up one of the Green Loebs (which cover from Homer to Proclus), and with effort (and perhaps a good dictionary and grammar) be able to read the Greek text without having to rely on the facing page translation constantly.

I agree, if the only goal is the read the New Testament, then the sub-set of Koine used in the NT would suffice. But the question was "Koine versus Ancient Greek?" I would assume that the OP was interested in more than just being able to read the New Testament in Greek. If that is the case then Pharr makes a great case for learning Homer first before Attic. As far as time, Homeric (really Epic dialect) was still current and in use as a literary dialect as late as the 4th or 5th century AD (cf. Nonnus' epic poem, the Dionysiaca). For a more detailed account of dialects as well as a discussion on which to learn first, I found the exposition at http://www.aoidoi.org/articles/dialects.html spot on: From my experience, after first learning Attic in college, it was not very difficult to read the Gospels. On the other hand, I think that it would have been very difficult to read Xenophon or Plato (in Attic) if I had started with Koine. And Greek drama (in Doric), Herodotus (who wrote in Ionic), as well as Homer, Hesiod, etc. would have been completely out of reach. My (very similar) argument for starting with a pre-Koine dialect is that the language of the NT did not form in a vacuum. Literate Koine speakers still heard the Homeric Epics recited, could and did read the Iliad and Odyssey in their original form, could read Attic history and philosophical texts, and so on, even if the dialect in which they were written was not the dialect they used in day-to-day life. That is, Homer and his Greek was to them as Shakespeare and his English is to us. So, if your goal is to be able to read the NT and understand the words as they were understood when they were first recorded, then it would seem to me to be important to understand as much of the language and culture of the Greek world as possible. Otherwise, I am not sure that there is that much to be gained by reading the NT in Greek, if the only Greek you know is limited to a lexicon that someone else has pre-selected for you.

You may also want to look at Greek 101 from the Great Courses (http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/greek-101-learning-an-ancient-language.html). It primarily teaches Homeric Greek, but also includes Koine examples and practice from the NT in every lesson. As others have said, it is probably a little easier to go from an earlier dialect (like Homeric) to later (Attic or Koine) than the other way around, mainly because as time went by, words became more contracted (consider if you were learning English, it would probably be easier to first learn "cannot" and "did not" before their contracted forms "can't" and "didn't." It is easier to see how "cannot" becomes "can't" but perhaps a bit more difficult to see how to expand "can't" into "cannot" if you learned "can't" as a vocabulary word first and the encountered "cannot" later). So as to which dialect to learn first, I would suggest either Homeric or Attic, then Koine just looks like a simplification. Greek 101 has you reading the Iliad starting in lesson 13 or so. You can continue translating Book 1 of the Iliad after you complete lecture 36 by finishing the remaining lessons in Pharr's Homeric Greek textbook (which is the basis of the TGC lectures, and freely available, at least in its 1920 edition. If you prefer, a more modern fourth edition is also available at https://www.amazon.com/Homeric-Greek-Beginners-Clyde-Pharr/dp/0806141646/ ) My ds12, started Greek 101 this fall. We are at lesson 10, looking forward to getting to the "real" Greek in a few weeks.

My ds has taken classes from both Ms. Whitson and Ms. Stieger (the mythology teacher you mentioned). He enjoyed both, but our experience of the myth class was completely different. It was absolutely his favorite subject, and he ended up taking another myth class from her the next semester. The class inspired him to go above and beyond the assigned readings and to do extra work beyond the assigned homework. I appreciated that Ms. Stieger approached the class almost like a college course with a printed syllabus at the beginning of the semester, a final project due at the end, and clear expectations. Afterwards she followed up with a written student evaluation. The Advanced Computer Science class was not his favorite, but he did learn a great deal, and he is excited about taking the Story of Science class this fall with Ms. Whitson.

I have Exede and am very happy with them. In fact, I just upgraded to the Liberty 30 plan. You do have to be aware of what you are getting, however. The latency (that is the round-trip time between your computer and the server with which you are communicating) will be much higher with any satellite service (the satellites are in geo-synchronous orbit above the equator). This is not a problem for watching videos, but may be an issue for online classes. Also, the while the Ka-band signals that Exede uses allow for higher speeds than the older WildBlue or HughesNet services, it is also (even more) susceptible to rain-fade, both at your home, and at the satellite uplink site. I telecommute to work via the internet, so my connection is very important to me. I also have AT&T wireless LTE service as well. I tend to use my AT&T connection for my work VPN and for online-classes and the like, and exede for everything else. Overages on AT&T are much more expensive than exede (where your speeds are just throttled somewhat if you use more than your monthly bandwidth allotment). As far as the bird issues, satellite uplink is very low power. I just checked my modem, it is a very cloudy day, so the transmission lower level is just about as high as it ever gets. My current reading is (Tx RF Power: 23.8 dBm) which is about 0.2 watts. Sometimes (very rarely) it will burst as high as 30.7 dBm which is 1.2 watts. That is not very much power at all especially when you consider that a commercial FM radio transmitter might be radiating 10000 or 20000 watts (not to mention that your local amateur radio operator is allowed up to 1500 watts). Unless a bird is actually building a nest on your dish, the power levels are so low as to be lost in the noise of solar radiation for them.

You might also want to check out Communications of the ACM (http://cacm.acm.org/) in addition to IEEE Spectrum. I so firmly disagree with your DH's position regarding college though, that I wonder if it would not just be better to direct you to this article instead, (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/08/30/why-the-tech-world-highly-values-a-liberal-arts-degree/)

We love MCT in our home, for many of the reasons others have already articulated. MCT engenders an appreciation for the beauty of language, and his approach to vocabulary, grammar, and poetry, is, IMHO, second to none. It is definitely a sit and work through together approach, however. I too, share some of the reservations about MCT's writing instruction: we also use Moving Beyond the Page, (both LA and SS). We do read MCT's writing instruction, but use the writing exercises in MBTP:LA. Having said that, I do feel that for academic writing, MCT's approach will be invaluable as my kids progress through the upper grades,

I am thinking of doing something similar. I am not sure of the need to supplement the Algebra content, however. The EMF approach to Abstract Algebra seems very complete (but maybe I am missing something? Problem solving practice?). However, I am thinking of supplementing with additional geometry content (perhaps working through Rightstart Geometry) and other "interesting topics" (like Egyptian Math, Cryptography, etc.) for fun. What Data Analysis workbook are you considering?