Good advice above! My kids' online classes were all asynchronous, which has pluses and minuses. Here's what I do: I find the younger the child, the more parent-intensive the online class. This means when my kids were 11-ish, I had to heavily monitor due dates and assignments, and reinforce, remind and cajole. As they got older, they had more experience and organizational skills to figure things out themselves. Still, no matter how old they are, keep close track of their progress-- you may get to Christmas and then discover that your otherwise-very-organized DC is 6 weeks behind because she hit a hard spot and didn't ask for help!! BTDT, not fun! I print out the syllabus and course assignments, one copy for me, one for DC. We have a weekly meeting on Sundays to go over all assignments for the week, assess DC's progress, figure out when during the week dc will do longer assignments and projects. I also make and print out a weekly, one-page chart of ALL their courses and assignments, with suggestions of what they should do each day. This goes on the fridge, one for each DC. Yes, this is totally anal. But it helps serve as a quick reference for all of us to help keep them on track. I also get their passwords and log onto their accounts to shadow their progress. Each online provider has its own system, and I find it is sometimes overwhelming for a tween or teen to figure out each system. Last year we discovered that one DC had a bunch of incomplete assignments in an online class-- but she had no idea the instructor had given her an incomplete. I discovered it by clicking on a tiny, tiny icon of a piece of notebook paper that was next to some assigments listed in her account. That icon opened into a note from the instructor asking her to redo the assignment to add more information. There was no email to me, or to DC alerting her to any of that, no red flags -- just that tiny, innocuous icon. So that taught me to check her account every week to make sure assignments were completed and graded. If there was a long delay on getting a grade for an assignment, I had her send a short, polite note to the instructor asking whether the instructor had seen the assignment. The instructor always responded positively, sometimes explaining that they were out of town. This year, one of DD's online classes through PA Homeschoolers seems to be less asynchronous and much more involved, with weekly online class meetings. I think that will really help her stay on track. She had a bad experience with organizing her time last year, but she learned a lot of lessons since then, grew up a lot and is determined not to let that happen again. I am hopeful she learned important lessons on time management, but I will monitor her progress. Who knows what new life lessons she will learn this year? Your kids will be fine, because you are prepared to help them!! Maria

This is a wonderful thread! DS19 is in India for 6 weeks working at an education company. He is making short films to help teachers in the countryside become better teachers. He is staying in Mumbai but takes trips with staff to other parts of the country. He has already come down with a stomach bug-- the rest of the staff (other interns from UK) is acclimated to the water, and he felt he needed to do that too, for some reason. They sent him home to get better. He loves India, and he said he finds the work very rewarding, although he is looking forward to eating a thick, juicy steak when he gets home. He sends us very short films, just a minute or two, showing the street with the puttputt cabs, or a stray cat, or the bidet. Maria

I agree with other posters about that activity. It sounds like it could easily go very wrong. You don't say how old your class is. Below are links to lesson plans about the election. I haven't used them, so I can't vouch for them but if I had this assignment I would start here. When my sons were in Cub Scouts and studying citizenship, we staged a mock election for governor: Godzilla vs. King Kong. The whole pack got to vote at a monthly pack meeting. They split up into campaigns, making posters, brochures, flyers. They made speeches. They had a lot of fun. You could have your class organize a mock election for the entire coop to vote on-- candidates could be super heroes or other fictional characters. (Godzilla won) Here are lesson plans: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/US-election-teaching-resources-matt-davis http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson331.shtml http://lessonplanspage.com/elections-htm/ Good luck! Maria

We have seen this, also, and it is hitting my youngest harder than it hit the older boys. Like Sebastian, I've stepped up ALOT to create teen opportunities this year-- teen-only field trips, teen-only classes. At our teen group activities we had an average of THREE teens at each event. But I wonder if the hard work is paying off-- we have an event tomorrow and I have a whopping 10 teens attending! I am floored. It's hard, especially when some venues require a minimum of 10 or more. I've had to pad numbers with tweens, which is not always great, either, as 17 yos really do not want to hang out with 12 year olds. At our coop I taught teen classes, but had to let in tweens there so that the class could have some group dynamics and not a tutoring dynamic. Over time, it seems people do start to coalesce. We seem to be having a lot of interest for next year with project-based, teen-only classes that are multi-disciplinary, having something for the humanities kids and for the STEM kids. It takes time to build relationships with parents outside the usual circles AND for the teens to develop friendships with other teens. Lots and lots of Positive Mental Attitude!!! without letting DD know that inside I am worried, worried, worried. On the up side, it is always good to learn to make new friends and build relationships. And also start looking beyond the homeschool community for social stuff. Good luck!! Maria

My younger son took the War and Peace class through By the Onion Sea. Julia Denne is the instructor, and she is fabulous. The classes are weekly live lecture, discussion and student presentations, with weekly writing assignments and a final paper. My older son also took her W&P class, as well as a class in 20th Century Soviet Literature and Film. She includes quite a bit of Russian history in all her classes to give students the historical context in which the books were written, as well as a listing of all the characters and all their different names in the text, which really helps in keeping straight who is who. These classes really give a perspective that is quite different from typical English & American literature, obviously, and they stand out on a transcript. Julia's passion for the literature of her country really inspired my older son to read as much Nabokov as possible. He is currently taking a class with a well-known Nabokov instructor at his uni, and it is his favorite class. Maria

Yes, that is the DD in the sig line. She finished TT Geometry this week (she started last May and worked on it a bit during the summer.) She is now doing math review to prep for the Math 1 subject tests in a few months-- that will be our day of reckoning, although she is taking the ACT again just to track her progress. If things go well, she will do TT precalc next year as a freshman, then do AP Stats, rather than go on to calculus as a sophomore. I would rather she tackle that at the cc. At least that is the plan..... It still takes her a couple hours to do math each day. She listens to the video, works through the practice problems on her laptop, then works through the lesson problems with pencil and paper. She hits it first thing in the morning--she considers it a soothing, dependable way to start the day. It's not something she wants to rush through. The TT site lets you download the table of contents of the precalc, so you can see the chapter and lesson headings, to help you compare. http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/v/vspfiles/tt/PreCalculus.htm Maria

One of the things my daughter really likes about TT is that they provide an explanation for every problem. She did Saxon up until Algebra, used Jacobs' for Algebra I. She was really frustrated with the lack of explanations in both programs/texts. She doesn't get stuck very often, but enough that I was worried she would lose her math confidence. The stress induced by the discovery method of AOPS would wipe out our family as we know it. The explanation feature of TT alone dropped the stress levels in our house quite a bit She did TT Alg II last year, and her ACT scores jumped about 8 points-- high enough for her to qualify for the local cc's calculus for social scientists class, lol! TT precalc has 95 lessons. In our house she works everything out by hand, and when she is done she checks it with me. She likes the personal accountability. Good luck! Maria

It is no fun being the guinea pig, but then that could give you some authority to give feedback in a positive way, to help the families coming after you have a good experience, for instance. Since you are experienced with online classes, you could offer suggestions based on what worked with other providers. If there are issues that could be fixed easily and improve the rest of the school year, they probably would want to know that. When I write these kinds of emails, (haven't had to do it alot, but it happens) I always make sure I start and end with something positive, and I always express my gratitude that the opportunity to take this class is being offered to my child. If they are a good operation, they will send you a survey when the course is done. Keep track of the problems so you can refer to them in the survey, so they can improve the experience. And I try to remember that even in b&m schools there are disorganized teachers, and in life there are disorganized bosses. It is a good life skill to learn how to work around other people's disorganization/confusion, and not let that stand in the way of reaching your own goals. Good luck!!!! Maria

I am so sorry for your loss. I have a teen who also struggles with depression, and yes, the meds are great, but as others posted it took a while for the benefits to manifest. I do want to comment on the not keeping up with the readings-- this seems a very age-related issue, at least it has been for my family. Those years of 13-15 are when they are still transitioning in their intellectual development, and while intellectually they are quite capable of a course with heavy reading, my kids always struggled with the organization and time management of it. I found my kids needed a warm body next to them to help them get the work done. So, when my kids fell behind in that age-- and they all did, at 13-15, in one thing or another-- we had to take a step back and help with reorganizing their schedule to give them the time, and be present to them while they did the work. My oldest did a coop class on War and Peace at that age-- I read it too, so he had someone at home to talk to. My second son fell way behind in an AP World History course-- I sat with him to make lists with him on what he needed to do every day to catch up, then oversaw that work. My daughter was not doing the work for an intensive Shakespeare class at coop-- so now I sit with her and we read the plays aloud, alternating roles, one act per day. It's not the most fun part of homeschooling! But particularly with depression, when a teen already feels isolated, that can be a way to be companionable, present. And it gives them the chance to comment on what they are learning. All the best-- Maria

She still will be just fine, and it will turn out to be a better situation. The adult musicians will help the students, and they will be very patient with them.(if they didn't like working with kids they wouldn't be there) She will get better care and more attention than if she were in a school orchestra. DD13 has been in a regional youth orchestra for 3 years. One year she had a bad stand partner who was really not paying attention AT ALL. She asked the conductor if she could change partners, and he switched everyone up at the semester. He could tell that that kid was just not focused. Aside from that, it has been a great experience for her. If she is still worried, I would arrange for her to sit in as many times as she likes so she feels prepared. Maria

My oldest had a math-collapse his junior year. That January we decided to drop the math course and instead focus on ACT math test prep.He had a lovely tutor who understood him and totally taught to the test. He got the scores he wanted, and that made it easier to list his at-home math courses as completed but without mommy grades. He now is at a wonderful LA school and is very happy, wallowing in his favorite literature and writing courses. Hang in there! Maria

I think the hardest part about planning for high school is understanding that there are some important skills that have to be learned before the student can really fly. The ages of 13-15 seemed to be the time when my kids really struggled with 1. learning to read non-fiction critically and analytically for specific information 2. learning to read fiction critically and analytically, and not just float along following the plot 3. learning to write coherently, making an argument and using evidence from what you read. 4. learning new skills in chemistry, physics and math 5. learning to do all this quickly, with purpose and avoiding distractions. That's why it seems all drudgery and no fun at the beginning--because they are still learning the skills to learn. I can't figure out a good way to learn these skills other than to just keep working at it. Sooner or later things will click, and they figure out how to be in charge of their own education, how to manage their own time, and they learn the skills they need to learn. Then, then, they take off. Maria Once my sons figured this out, then they just blasted off with their learning-- and THAT is why we homeschool through high school. My daughter is in the process of figuring it out, and, yes, it is drudgery for her and for me-- she seems to need a warm body to sit with her or she just loses motivation to get the work done. But she is making progress.

:lurk5: This is awesome! Thank you for posting these ideas!! Maria

Tomorrow will be better. Get lots of rest and take care of yourself. Keep your lists, but use them like an extra memory bank. I have an ongoing to-do list on the inside of a cabinet (so I don't have to look at it all the time.) Stuff gets done when it gets done, and no sooner. What are they going to do, fire me? You will feel better. I have never really found anyone I could talk to IRL about homeschooling--even the hsing folks who have kids my age have different philosophies and goals, so conversations are more frustrating than rewarding. I go for long walks in the morning where I talk to....myself!! Turns out I am very good company! :D :grouphug: Maria

In addition to the excellent advice above, you also might want to consider what skills you want him to learn from these classes. Research skills? Analysis skills? Writing skills? In Astronomy, do you want him to be able to calculate light years between planets and stars? You can build those goals into your course-- that way when the course is over, he has useful skills that can be applied to other classes. Watch out on that chicken mummy. We have tried it many times, and it seems to take forever. When my oldest was in 1st grade at a brand-new, start-up school, I talked the 1st grade teacher into having her class mummify chickens. We left them in the classroom over Christmas break-- they did NOT mummify but instead slowly rotted, leaving a perfume of rotting chicken oozing out of the classroom. Luckily the teacher thought it was hilarious, but she did throw the pseudo-mummies out before the principal showed up. Another time my husband was able to make it work, but it sat in the oven at the lowest temp for hours to dry it out. Have fun! Maria

DS19 is still home. (he just turned 19!!) Classes don't start until Jan. 21! He is super-excited about his classes, especially the one with a Nabokov prof he admires and interviewed for the school paper last fall. All his classes this semester will have 9 a.m. start times--he is a night owl so this will be interesting. Last semester he said a sophomore had advised him to aim for 1 a.m. bedtime, knowing that you probably won't get to bed until 2 a.m.!!!!! :svengo: Wise fool, indeed. Oh, and he has a twinge in one of his knees that gets worse when it's cold; he thinks it is overuse from running on concrete to stay in shape for rugby. First organized sport the kid is in since first-grade soccer, and he gets an injury. "This is why we don't do sports!" DD13 chided him. Heh. Dorms will open next Tuesday, and he wants to be there as early as possible. He misses his friends, but is glad for the time at home. Maria

What about non-fiction? When my daughter was 12 she listened to Sam Kean's The Disappearing Spoon (periodic table of elements) and The Violist's Thumb.(genetics) Also The Poisoner's Handbook, about the beginnings of forensics chemistry in early 20th C. New York City, by Deborah Blum. Maria

When I pulled my sons out -- they were younger than yours, 1st and 3rd grade -- I made sure they continued extra-curriculars. We did not join any groups at all for the first 4 years. They did taekwondo twice a week, art class once a week, weekly swimming lessons and scouts about once a week, and that was quite a lot. The homeschool groups near us had nice people, but it was just not a good fit during those years -- they were religious, or their kids were different ages or genders from mine. I will say that after 4 years of this schedule, my oldest DS started agitating to meet new people. I found a homeschool group through a state-wide homeschool conference, and that group had kids like my kids. It is an hour drive one way to their coop, but it has been 7 years now, and this group has been pretty central to my kids' education. But the demographics dip and sway as far as socialization opportunities, as well as the commuting distances, so instead of relying on the homeschoolers for socialization we find groups that cater to my kids' various interests. My kids don't care where someone goes to school as long as they can talk to them about their shared interest. You may want to find a group for your own support, but if you are like me, don't be discouraged if it takes a while. Maria

I see the flies dropping at the beginning of high school, but I think a lot of it is economic. The Recession may officially be over, but there are deep pockets where it is still being felt-- dads losing their jobs, moms who need to go back to work for economic security and stability. Homeschooling starts to lose its romance. We had a nice contingent of teens with my oldest DS, but they are all gone, and our group seemingly over the summer shifted to very, very young-- younger than 12. 16 yo DS has no interest in socializing with these families. There is less than a handful of girls who are about DD's age, so that is something to maybe build on. Distance is a problem, though. Because of DE, though, I started to think of high school as two sections-- the hardest is the first two years, when they are too young for DE (here you have to be 16 and a junior) but really too old for mommy classes. Once they are in DE classes, it is such a relief for them to be in b&m, but with the flexibility of classes in their interests. Maria

What if you created a semester-long business class? I pasted below some of the info from a 2013 syllabus for a business class for non-business majors at USC. I searched for "business text for non majors" and got the pdf for this class. You could use it as a spine to build a custom class. "This course provides students with an insight as to how a business is managed. There are many factors that determine a company’s success including marketing, operations, finance and leadership, to name a few. This course will give students the basics for understanding how these different departments work independently yet are reliant on each other for a company to prosper. To accomplish this goal, the course is divided into several major themes: 1. Organization: How should a company be legally organized? 2. Ethics & Social Responsibility 3. Marketing 4. Accounting 5. Operations 6. Finances 7. Management & Leadership 8. Negotiating ...... Ferrell, O.C., and Hirt, Geoffrey, and Ferrell, Linda. 2008. Business: A Changing World 7e.McGraw-Hill Irwin Berman, Karen, and Night, Joe, and Case, John. 2008. Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs.Harvard Business Press. Order online at http://www.amazon.com/Financial-Intelligence-Entrepreneurs-Really-Numbers/dp/1422119157/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358094145&sr=1-1&keywords=financial+intelligence+for+entrepreneurs Optional Materials Fisher, Roger and Ury, William. 1981. Getting to Yes; Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.Penguin Books Gitomer, Jeffrey. 2005. Little Red Book of Selling; 12.5 Principals of Sales Greatness; How to make sales FOREVER.Bard Press" I feel for you and your DD. My oldest DD was D-O-N-E with math long before the end of senior year. Good luck!! Maria

Same with us. DS18 did 4 years Spanish, with a tutor, which I documented in our course descriptions, but he did not take an SAT Subject test. His school recommends FL in college, but it is not a requirement. If he wants to pursue Spanish he has to take a placement test, but it does not affect admission. Maria

So if dance is his major passion, why would he not want to major in dance? If that is his biggest strength, wouldn't he want to have that as his major? So that when he auditions for dance roles his cv will say 'dance major"? Is there a way for him to create opportunities on campus-- start his own dance company, or a dance festival, or invite tap dance pros to campus to teach master classes? Is there a way for him to work with the department to create these opportunities, or create more dance opportunities with theater and music? And then others will benefit from his leadership? And then he will be creating contacts outside campus that he can use once he hits the Big Time? Maria

OhOhOH!!! My favorite subject!! First, Brad S. is awesome. I am almost done reading Mary Beard's SPQR A History of Ancient Rome, and it is excellent--very readable, but very long. Beard focuses on big questions, such as what difference does it make that Rome's founding mythology began with both fratricide and rape? (Romulus and Remus, and the Rape of the Sabines) and How was Rome able to conquer so much territory--was it all a massive plan? if not, then what? The down side is that she ends at 212 CE, when Caracalla extended Roman citizenship to all people in the Roman territories. The up side is that she really addresses all the major reasons why ancient Rome is still important to the modern world. And, for fun, my kids liked to add films for 'color' so when we did the ancient world we watched "I, Claudius," as well as "The Odyssey" with Armand Assad. Not historically accurate, but it helps to bring the period to life. We also watched a Great Courses lecture series, "Pompeii," to get a feel for every day life. We added a coop cooking class on ancient cooking. I found these books, and we recreated some of the recipes: A Taste of Ancient Rome, by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa, and Meals and Recipes from Ancient Greece by Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti. I also found a fascinating book, Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber, that I had planned to pull excerpts from for additional reading, but ran out of time.... Maria

oh, and DH and I did help DS edit his essays. He is VERY long-winded (like his mom!) and would write twice as much as was needed, or would fit in those annoying CA windows. For him writing is very collaborative-- every essay, even now, has to start with a conversation so he could think outloud. So the editing was very collaborative. Going to church now! Maria

One book I found very helpful on essays-- and interviews-- is What You Don't Know Can Keep You Out of College by Don Dunbar. DS really wanted to go East for college-- he definitely wanted to get out of the Midwest. So starting freshman year we looked for summer opportunities for him to do programs in other parts of the country as a way to signal to East Coast admissions officers that this homeschooled kid from flyover country had the social skills to thrive outside of the Midwest. What High Schools Don't Tell You is an excellent resource for these types of programs. He did 4 APs and took 9 DE classes at a local CC. His LORs were mostly from CC faculty, although he did have one homeschool LOR, a biologist who taught him AP Bio. He hit it off with his CC profs, and as a result one of his philosophy papers was accepted into the CC's biennial journal of best student writing. That was a big deal. I also second the PP with the kite expert to allow your children to pursue their deep interests. My son wants to make movies. He made films in his spare time and entered film fests all over the world. One film was screened at 2 film fests in India (as well as accepted into festivals in the Midwest) and he traveled to India twice, once as a student juror for a film fest there and once to teach filmmaking to middle school kids in Mumbai. His ACT composite was on the low side for his chosen school, but with his academic accomplishments (published paper, summer programs) and the filmmaking, he fit in with his first choice. He just finished his first semester and is very happy. Tired, but happy. Maria