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A list of awesome online classes your kids are taking this year?


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I know that online class providers are starting to update their websites and list when enrollment starts. I am looking for a lit class for my dd who will be in 9th grade, but I was hoping that we could all share our online class treasures here!

 

What has REALLY worked for us this year --

 

Chemistry -- Chemadvantage http://www.chemadvantage.com/

 

Chemadvantage is run by the fellow who does AP chemistry for PA Homeschoolers. My older son took AP chemistry with him and loved it. This year the teacher offered Honors Chemistry in addition to AP chemistry. The Honors class is truly rigorous and has great labs. It has no class meetings. The assignments are all done on the web, with multiple submissions possible. The teacher is wonderful about getting back to students about questions quickly. My "If it has to do with school I don't like it" son loves this class and is learning a fantastic amount. I can't recommend the class highly enough.

 

English -- both composition and introductory literature http://lt-tutorials.schools.officelive.com/default.aspx

 

My son is doing the High School Composition class; my daughter is doing the Intro to Lit class. Both classes have been really well organized, with clear assignments, goals, and criteria. Students give feedback on each other's writing, which has been very helpful. The teacher's feedback has been excellent. The composition class does not have any discussions, but the lit class has optional discussions 2x/week that my dd has found fun and useful.

 

My kids are doing several other online classes, but these are the ones that are just outstanding.

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We have been particularly pleased with:

 

Potter's School classes:

 

  • the "Narnia" class;
  • French (my daughter is in her third year with Madame S.);
  • Advanced Composition with Mrs. Troxell
  • Human Anatomy & Physiology
  • Junior high geography with Mrs. Runkle

Pennsylvania Homeschoolers:

 

  • AP Psychology
  • AP US History

Looking forward to hearing from others. We really need a good 12th grade science class for next year. :)

Edited by LynnG in Hawaii
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AP calculus, through PA Homeschoolers. I can't say enough good things about this class. The format totally suits my son's learning style, without class meetings, and the teacher is extremely prompt, organized, and does lots of AP prep with the students, right from the beginning of the course.

 

I have nothing else to recommend though. : )

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I know that online class providers are starting to update their websites and list when enrollment starts. I am looking for a lit class for my dd who will be in 9th grade, but I was hoping that we could all share our online class treasures here!

 

What has REALLY worked for us this year --

 

Chemistry -- Chemadvantage http://www.chemadvantage.com/

 

Chemadvantage is run by the fellow who does AP chemistry for PA Homeschoolers. My older son took AP chemistry with him and loved it. This year the teacher offered Honors Chemistry in addition to AP chemistry. The Honors class is truly rigorous and has great labs. It has no class meetings. The assignments are all done on the web, with multiple submissions possible. The teacher is wonderful about getting back to students about questions quickly. My "If it has to do with school I don't like it" son loves this class and is learning a fantastic amount. I can't recommend the class highly enough.

 

English -- both composition and introductory literature http://lt-tutorials.schools.officelive.com/default.aspx

 

My son is doing the High School Composition class; my daughter is doing the Intro to Lit class. Both classes have been really well organized, with clear assignments, goals, and criteria. Students give feedback on each other's writing, which has been very helpful. The teacher's feedback has been excellent. The composition class does not have any discussions, but the lit class has optional discussions 2x/week that my dd has found fun and useful.

 

My kids are doing several other online classes, but these are the ones that are just outstanding.

 

What kind of math background do you need for Chemadvantage?

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Psst, Lynn, I'd love to check out your French if/when you get a chance. Emily is interested in starting French next year and I was thinking of TPS. Thanks!! :D

 

Anytime. :) TPS French used the BJU textbooks (just years 1 and 2). It is a very traditional program that combines vocab and grammar. The teacher is very good, provides a variety of experiences for the kids, and does about the best job I can imagine with the difficult task of teaching a foreign language on-line. The teacher asks nothing of the parent at all, unlike a couple other on-line language classes we've tried.

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I think you have to check with the university. For instance, for the University of Florida (or other state uni in FL), they are not accredited. For admission purposes, our state universities don't look at AP scores - only SAT II scores and grades from accredited classes (accredited hs or dual enrollment) and SAT/ACT scores.

 

HTH,

Sandra

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Oldest ds (9th grade) is taking Great Books I from Schola Classical Tutorials (Wes Callihan) and Latin I from Artesian Wells Tutorials (Aaron Wells.) I'm highly impressed with both. For Latin, he'll make it through ch. 24 of Wheelock's Latin by the end of this school year. That's the book I used in college for Latin study. Definitely rigorous!

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My dd has taken and recommends the Latin and the Literature through Scholars On Line. I just received an email that they are pursuing accreditation and expect to get it soon.

 

Potters school is recommended-the Vocabulary class was fun; the teacher has a beautiful speaking voice. I am taking the Microsoft Office class for adults through TPS and it is also very good. (it's the same as the High school class) He did say that the classes will be somewhat different next year- you will do each topic separately for 1 semester. (ie Word, Excell, PP, etc. He also is going to start teaching summer classes. The teacher's great! (Bob Madison)

 

She's doing Electronics through TPS and it's fun, but hard.

 

Professor Otieno is excellent, he left the PA AP school but continues to teach on his own. He uses more of a live meeting format. He's very supportive of the kids. (Computer Science) They work on units and then take a quiz. www.acit. I believe is his website

 

Also recommended is the LSU distance classes. (price is great and quality excellent) Unfortunately they have discontinued the high school courses, but I could recommend the college ones. I've done two math classes and am trying to decide on my next class. HTH

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I think you have to check with the university. For instance, for the University of Florida (or other state uni in FL), they are not accredited. For admission purposes, our state universities don't look at AP scores - only SAT II scores and grades from accredited classes (accredited hs or dual enrollment) and SAT/ACT scores.

 

HTH,

Sandra

 

Which is just crazy. I'm going to have to follow up on this. I mean, none of my homegrown classes are accredited so does UF not look at any of those grades? My ds applied to Florida and had two accredited classes in each core category, but he also had two unaccredited but CollegeBoard audited AP classes. So I'm wondering what admissions will do with those classes? As well as the other honors and regular classes he took at home. Any thoughts Sandra? I know we've discussed this a bit before but I'm really at a loss here.

 

Thanks!

Lisa

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My dd has taken and recommends the Latin and the Literature through Scholars On Line. I just received an email that they are pursuing accreditation and expect to get it soon.

(Pretend I multi-quoted Charles Wallace and LynnG here :001_smile:)

 

When you all are saying accredited, are you referring to the College Board syllabus audit for AP classes or do you mean accredited through an association of schools?

 

Thanks,

Lisa

 

ETA: Just thought of another issue: If UF truly only looks at grades from *accredited* classes for homeschoolers and tosses the others, that could completely skew a student's GPA -- for better or worse.

Edited by FloridaLisa
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By accredited, I mean through an accrediting body of a school association. (I forgot which one they mentioned in the email)( I think one for private schools. ) If you have questions about accreditation-you can go to the website for the accrediting body, and see the list of schools that they are responsible for. When you read the Bears book about schools and accreditation you'l find that some accrediting bodies are just store fronts. Depending on the type of accreditation, the credits will transfer if the schools are comparable.

 

Re Digipen- the computer Game College- their accreditation is vocational, and the other schools listed under the same association are trade schools or beauty colleges. That's why the credits won't transfer to a regular university if you don't finish and want to change colleges.

 

The AP part is through the college board, but the college board wouldn't be considered an accrediting association. They could approve your class, but that wouldn't make it accredited. HTH

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I know that online class providers are starting to update their websites and list when enrollment starts. I am looking for a lit class for my dd who will be in 9th grade, but I was hoping that we could all share our online class treasures here!

 

What has REALLY worked for us this year --

 

Chemistry -- Chemadvantage http://www.chemadvantage.com/

 

Chemadvantage is run by the fellow who does AP chemistry for PA Homeschoolers. My older son took AP chemistry with him and loved it. This year the teacher offered Honors Chemistry in addition to AP chemistry. The Honors class is truly rigorous and has great labs. It has no class meetings. The assignments are all done on the web, with multiple submissions possible. The teacher is wonderful about getting back to students about questions quickly. My "If it has to do with school I don't like it" son loves this class and is learning a fantastic amount. I can't recommend the class highly enough.

 

 

FYI: I checked out the Honors Chemistry class through ChemAdvantage for my son next year and emailed them some questions. They responded very promptly. However, they will NOT be offering their Honors Chemistry class next year, only AP Chem.

 

Both of my dc have/are doing the Literature classes through Scholar's Online (an online Christian school). My dd, who is a strong reader, jumped right into their Western Literature through Dante class in the 9th grade. I only recommend doing this if your dc is a very strong reader. There are 11 books total (including the Bible). Some of the books my dd read included The Illiad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Memesis, Ten Greek Plays. Not light reading. My ds is doing this class as a 10th grader this year, but he started with World Literature last year (which uses a textbook). My dd progressed through English Literature and American Literature (this year). They even have an AP Literature class and I've heard through the grapevine that their Senior Literature class is tough indeed. The literature classes meet once per week with Dr. Bruce McMenomy.

 

My dc also take Latin through SO. They use the Wheelock's textbook for Latin I and II. There are also higher level Latin classes. Latin I and II meet twice per week. I don't know about the higher level Latin classes, but you can find out on their webpage.

 

SO will begin registering in April. As of today, there are no classes listed for the upcoming school year, but you can look at the subjects down the left side of the webpage and click on them to get an idea of what they offer.

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I was hoping that we could all share our online class treasures here!

 

Dd1 is really enthused about all her online classes this year:

 

Scholars Online --Summer Shakespeare, Latin V, Greek II and Senior English (yes, it is lots of work)

Pennsylvania Homeschoolers -- AP Biology and AP Calculus BC

 

dd2 could care less about hers, but then she's not enthusiastic about much of anything. Her sister loved the Latin course dd2 is taking and is positively drooling over the second that she can't take. so ymmv on any of these courses.

 

Regarding approval: You can only list a course as AP if the syllabus is approved by the College Board but you can say subject/with AP examination. A course may lack approved status for many reasons and lack of approval does not imply inadequate. The approval process was instigated because the AP designation was being 'gamed' by schools. The number of AP courses offered is one of the measures used to rate high schools. Schools were designating courses as AP with little or no intent to cover the material examined.

 

HTH

~Moira

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(Pretend I multi-quoted Charles Wallace and LynnG here :001_smile:)

 

When you all are saying accredited, are you referring to the College Board syllabus audit for AP classes or do you mean accredited through an association of schools?

 

Thanks,

Lisa

 

ETA: Just thought of another issue: If UF truly only looks at grades from *accredited* classes for homeschoolers and tosses the others, that could completely skew a student's GPA -- for better or worse.

 

I was actually talking about accredited through an association of schools, to be honest -- something for which one could receive high school credit if one decided to go to public school.

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My daughter is taking AP Biology with PA Homeschoolers. The instructor is wonderful. I think my daughter will be very well prepared for the AP exam.

Alice

 

Yes, Dr. Gross is great unfortunately she has decided not to teach AP Bio next year. :(

 

My son took AP Bio with her and he was really prepared for the test too. Loved the year with her.

 

Carole,

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Rivendellmom - Wow! Thanks for posting QSL!!! I have read everything on the site and I am so excited to find this!

 

I can't wait to show my 11 year old daughter this site tomorrow! She is totally an Edison child!!

 

I also have a 14 yr. old son who would love this too.

 

Do you think I should sign them up for Intro to Electronics and skip the Edison project?

 

My husband works with electronics and I'm sure he would love to help with any hands on projects.

 

This is just amazing...seems like an answer to my prayers.

 

I have been looking for alternatives/supplements for Math and Science.

 

Thanks!

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  • 3 months later...

:)

Neat thread! The online lit classes from Laurel Tree look awesome. Can someone tell me how religious the Potter's school is? (whether it would work for secular teaching style)

 

 

I have found the Potter's School classes to vary regarding religious content. They are definitely a Christian school, as their website explains.

 

But as a practical matter, my daughters have not found a huge religious content in most of their classes there. You can probably expect an opening prayer before many classes. Most of their science classes use Apologia textbooks, which obviously have a Christian/creationist/young Earth viewpoint.

 

My daughters have not taken any worldview or religion classes. Obviously, those would have more Christian content.

 

We are a Christian family but don't necessarily want a ton of religion in our classes, for the most part. I would say that if you are primarily secular, but would not mind things like an opening prayer and the occasional reference to Christianity, most Potter's School classes will be ok for you. There are, of course, many different classes and individual teachers . . . so your mileage will definitely vary.

 

HTH. :)

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I'd love to hear your feedback on this class. I just registered my dd for next year.

 

Well, it's been three years since my daughter finished the class, but it was definitely one of her all-time favorites! It's a real treat to be taught by the teacher who wrote the textbook you are using. ;)

 

I believe Runkle Geography is considered to be physical geography. So there is quite a bit of earth science, for lack of a better term, in the course.

 

I apologize that my feedback is short on specifics. I think it had a medium light to medium work load. I just know that Mrs. Runkle is an extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic geography teacher, and that my daughter really loved her class.

 

Good luck to your daughter! :)

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Well, it's been three years since my daughter finished the class, but it was definitely one of her all-time favorites! It's a real treat to be taught by the teacher who wrote the textbook you are using. ;)

 

I believe Runkle Geography is considered to be physical geography. So there is quite a bit of earth science, for lack of a better term, in the course.

 

I apologize that my feedback is short on specifics. I think it had a medium light to medium work load. I just know that Mrs. Runkle is an extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic geography teacher, and that my daughter really loved her class.

 

Good luck to your daughter! :)

 

 

Thank you! This is just the confirmation I was looking for. I'm starting to homeschool my little girls in June, so I'm looking to outsource more for my 8th grade dd in the fall. (I am keenly aware of my limitations.) :)

 

Plus, I'm a big fan of TPS.

 

Thanks again!

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Thank you! This is just the confirmation I was looking for. I'm starting to homeschool my little girls in June, so I'm looking to outsource more for my 8th grade dd in the fall. (I am keenly aware of my limitations.) :)

 

Plus, I'm a big fan of TPS.

 

Thanks again!

 

 

I know just what you mean. :) The reason I am foggy on the details is that, three years ago, I had a one year old and was pregnant, plus trying to homeschool two high schoolers. I was happy to outsource what I could that year for everybody's sake. ;)

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Love home2teach.com classes. We have done several and will do more. Dd15 did their lit course recently. I find their classes of a high standard, great feedback, and I love that they are 6 week courses so they are not a long term committment.

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Both my high schooler and jr higher love their classes with:

Latin and Greek: clrc homeschool-- http://clrchomeschool.com/

 

Our 15 yo is taking Greek I and will continue in the fall with Greek II; the 13 yo will continue with Latin II. I wish this program was available when my older two were in high school. Foreign language has never been easier!

 

Anne Van Fossen is so knowledgeable, yet so patient and flexible. My children's grammar skills have markedly improved! (without whining):lol:

 

For Writing: Alexandria Tutorials-- http://www.alexandriatutorials.com/

 

Matt Turnbull has take my reluctant high school reader/writer and made him really like to write.

Edited by CherylG
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I also love this thread.

 

My younger dd absolutely loves Madame Starosciak (TPS) for French. I cannot recommend her highly enough.

 

Also, both dds are taking Laurel Tree tutorials next year, so we'll see how that goes. Oh, and my younger dd will be in Runkle's Geography with TPS next year as well. Maybe she'll be in class with a couple of your kids.

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