Is there a maximum number of credits per year?

[MiMi 4under3]

DD is "not sure yet" if she will stay home for high school. I have a feeling she will and I'd like to plan ahead. 

 

Any comments or advice are very much appreciated!  :)

 

 

I actually have 4 questions:

 

 

1. As I understand it, if a proficient student breezes through an Algebra 1 text in, say, 85 hours, and a less proficient student takes 225 hours to get through the same material, both get 1 credit for math. Is this correct?

 

2. What about more subjective subjects like photography? DD spends at least 120 hours (I assume 120 hrs is the standard amount considered 1 credit??) per year on photography. It's her hobby and takes most of her free time. If I add a photography class or video series, she will be well over 1 credit (like in the math example) but I still award one credit for Art or an Elective, right?

 

3. It seems like it doesn't matter if one goes over a certain amount of hours per credit, as long as the minimum is met. Is this accurate? I ask because if I want to include everything for next year, it seems to be about 8-9 credits. This may be way too much, or I may be counting it incorrectly... I don't know. 

 

4. Is this too much for 9th grade?

 

 

Saxon Algebra 1  -  1 credit

 

Thinkwell Biology  -  1 credit

 

SWB's Ancient History  - 1 credit

 

Ancient Literature/Great Books  -  1 credit

 

French (haven't decided on curric) -  1 credit

 

Writing (maybe WWS1 plus IEW's Elegant Essay)  -  1 credit

 

Photography  -  1 credit

 

P.E.  -  1/2 credit

 

Music/Guitar  -  1/2 credit

 

Speech ??

 

Grammar ??  should these two be incorporated into Language Arts/English?

 

 

 

Should I try to stick to 6 or 7 credits per year either by eliminating or combining subjects? 

 

 

Thank you!!  :)

[regentrude]

1. As I understand it, if a proficient student breezes through an Algebra 1 text in, say, 85 hours, and a less proficient student takes 225 hours to get through the same material, both get 1 credit for math. Is this correct?

 

Yes, for subjects where content is relatively standardized, as in math, that would be the  case.

But I would strongly encourage a strong math student to select a more challenging curriculum rather than breezing through an easy one in less time.

 

 

2. What about more subjective subjects like photography? DD spends at least 120 hours (I assume 120 hrs is the standard amount considered 1 credit??) per year on photography. It's her hobby and takes most of her free time. If I add a photography class or video series, she will be well over 1 credit (like in the math example) but I still award one credit for Art or an Elective, right?

 

People often count hours for such credits. You may want to decide to "save" some hobbies for extracurriculars. I would give academic credit if she took a photography course or received instruction, but count it as extracurricular if she did not have an instructional component.

 

 

3. It seems like it doesn't matter if one goes over a certain amount of hours per credit, as long as the minimum is met. Is this accurate? I ask because if I want to include everything for next year, it seems to be about 8-9 credits. This may be way too much, or I may be counting it incorrectly... I don't know. 

 

You can make the credit as meaty as you want. 9 credits is very much, unless the student takes college courses; it would mean working for 9 hours every day.

 

 

4. Is this too much for 9th grade?

Saxon Algebra 1  -  1 credit

Thinkwell Biology  -  1 credit

SWB's Ancient History  - 1 credit

Ancient Literature/Great Books  -  1 credit

French (haven't decided on curric) -  1 credit

Writing (maybe WWS1 plus IEW's Elegant Essay)  -  1 credit

Photography  -  1 credit

P.E.  -  1/2 credit

Music/Guitar  -  1/2 credit

Speech ??

Grammar ??  should these two be incorporated into Language Arts/English?

 

Typically, an English credit contains literature and writing and, if needed, grammar instruction.

There is often debate here about awarding two English credits per year, and whether that appears as padding the transcript. Opinions differ.

 

 

Should I try to stick to 6 or 7 credits per year either by eliminating or combining subjects? 

 

I would err on the side of caution and award ONE English credit - unless the stand alone writing course is really time consuming enough to merit a separate credit.

But again, it's your homeschool, you can do whatever you want - there are no transcript police.

[marbel]

I agree that English or "Language Arts" includes literature, writing, and grammar.  Sometimes speech, too.  I've been advised not to give more than one English credit unless there is something really special or different; for example, along with the typical high school  English stuff, an additional 120+ hours in "Dystopian Lit" or something like that. 

 

But, of course, you can do it in whatever way works best for you and yours.

 

 

[MiMi 4under3]

Yes, for subjects where content is relatively standardized, as in math, that would be the  case.

But I would strongly encourage a strong math student to select a more challenging curriculum rather than breezing through an easy one in less time.

Thank you, that's what I thought.

 

 

People often count hours for such credits. You may want to decide to "save" some hobbies for extracurriculars. I would give academic credit if she took a photography course or received instruction, but count it as extracurricular if she did not have an instructional component.

Thanks again, I hadn't thought of allowing some things to just be hobbies or after school activities. 

 

 

You can make the credit as meaty as you want. 9 credits is very much, unless the student takes college courses; it would mean working for 9 hours every day.

I never looked at it this way, that's very helpful! 

 

 

Typically, an English credit contains literature and writing and, if needed, grammar instruction.

There is often debate here about awarding two English credits per year, and whether that appears as padding the transcript. Opinions differ.

OK, that makes sense. All language arts combined = 1 credit.

 

 

I would err on the side of caution and award ONE English credit - unless the stand alone writing course is really time consuming enough to merit a separate credit.

But again, it's your homeschool, you can do whatever you want - there are no transcript police. 

This is what I plan to do. 

 

Thank you regentrude! 

[clementine]

I would try to stick to 6, 6 1/2, or 7 credits per year.   That is what was recommended to us if your child is on the college track.  

[Julie of KY]

I agree that photography would often be just counted as extracurricular no matter how many hours are put into it. If she is taking a specific photography class, then I would award credit. However, I would not award 4 credits of photography for 4 years of work - just count the rest as extracurricular.

 

Also, I'd put all grammar, literature, writing into one English credit unless they are very specifically different courses with large amounts of work. It is not unusual for English to be a hefty credit as it covers a lot of material.

 

Speech, I'd only count as a separate course if it is truly a separate stand-alone course. Otherwise, I'd probably just lump it into my other classes. I certainly had to do speech across the curriculum as I was in school.

[MiMi 4under3]

I agree that English or "Language Arts" includes literature, writing, and grammar.  Sometimes speech, too.  I've been advised not to give more than one English credit unless there is something really special or different; for example, along with the typical high school  English stuff, an additional 120+ hours in "Dystopian Lit" or something like that. 

 

But, of course, you can do it in whatever way works best for you and yours.

 

Thank you.

 

Do you think reading and writing (short summaries or 1 page essays - nothing major) about Great Books would be included in 1 English credit? That's in addition to a separate writing curric, grammar, a short speech boot camp, and poetry study?

 

I was originally going to count Ancient Lit. separately but now I plan to award 1 English credit regardless of how many aspects it includes.

[Lanny]

DD is a Distance Learning student and she is subject to the Texas regulations for high school graduation from public schools there. Under the new (1 or 2 years old) regulations, there are several types of diplomas. She will go for the most difficult, which requires 26 credits. That is 6 1/2 per year. I suggested she try for 7 credits a year,  which will be a total of 28 credits.  The workload for 7 will be very heavy. I think more than that wouldn't allow a student much time for anything else.  GL

[MiMi 4under3]

I would try to stick to 6, 6 1/2, or 7 credits per year.   That is what was recommended to us if your child is on the college track.  

 

Thank you, I'm going to keep it to no more than 7 credits.

[MiMi 4under3]

I agree that photography would often be just counted as extracurricular no matter how many hours are put into it. If she is taking a specific photography class, then I would award credit. However, I would not award 4 credits of photography for 4 years of work - just count the rest as extracurricular. 

 

Also, I'd put all grammar, literature, writing into one English credit unless they are very specifically different courses with large amounts of work. It is not unusual for English to be a hefty credit as it covers a lot of material. 

 

Speech, I'd only count as a separate course if it is truly a separate stand-alone course. Otherwise, I'd probably just lump it into my other classes. I certainly had to do speech across the curriculum as I was in school.

 

Thank you Julie.  :)

[MiMi 4under3]

 

You can make the credit as meaty as you want. 9 credits is very much, unless the student takes college courses; it would mean working for 9 hours every day.

 

 

 

DD is a Distance Learning student and she is subject to the Texas regulations for high school graduation from public schools there. Under the new (1 or 2 years old) regulations, there are several types of diplomas. She will go for the most difficult, which requires 26 credits. That is 6 1/2 per year. I suggested she try for 7 credits a year,  which will be a total of 28 credits.  The workload for 7 will be very heavy. I think more than that wouldn't allow a student much time for anything else.  GL

 

I never knew to think of credit hours per year in terms of hours spent working per day. This helps tremendously, thank you!

[regentrude]

I never knew to think of credit hours per year in terms of hours spent working per day. This helps tremendously, thank you!

 

That's where they come from. A high school course that is worth one credit is one hour daily class, 5 days a week, all school year. Now,  periods are usually not actually one hour, and time is wasted, but OTOH the students have homework. So, eyeballing it as 1 credit= roughly 1 hour/day gives a reasonable estimate. It can still vary - some classes are time consuming, others are not.

 

As for extracurriculars: college applications specifically ask for those. It is worth remembering that not everything your kid does during the high school years has to be made into an academic credit. Some things look great as extracurriculars (there will be space to elaborate), and some things are just.. .life. My kids dabbled in learning several things that did not make it onto the transcript.

Just keep records for now - you can decide later what gets counted and what does not.

[Lori D.]

ETA -- I see you received a lot of other responses while I was typing up mine, so ignore this if it is all repeat. ;)

 

 

1. As I understand it, if a proficient student breezes through an Algebra 1 text in, say, 85 hours, and a less proficient student takes 225 hours to get through the same material, both get 1 credit for math. Is this correct?

 

Well, maybe.

 

Just me, but if a student breezed through Alg. 1 that quickly, I would guess the student was placed with a program that is way too light, and I would probably get a more rigorous program that covered more Algebra topics at more depth, and have the student work through excerpts of that for the rest of the school year to fill in gaps and deepen understanding. OR… if it was a solid math program, then I'd move on to Geometry, and we'd keep going with math, and not worry about matching up 1 credit per year. ;)

 

And if a student takes 225 hours to get through Alg. 1, it's probably a remedial issue and math is a struggle area, so it's taking the student 2 full years to get through the the material; I'd likely count that in a more remedial way as 2 credits: Algebra 1a and Algebra 1b, for example. And also be prepared for the student to only get up through Algebra 2 at the end of 4 years of solid high school math work.

 

 

2. What about more subjective subjects like photography? DD spends at least 120 hours (I assume 120 hrs is the standard amount considered 1 credit??) per year on photography. It's her hobby and takes most of her free time. If I add a photography class or video series, she will be well over 1 credit (like in the math example) but I still award one credit for Art or an Elective, right?

 

For courses you create yourself, if the course is not something easily counted by completion of a textbook or standard published curricula, then you can count hours. But typically, you try to come to a balance between hours, amount of material covered, and output.

 

If counting hours, here is a helpful chart for how many hours = how much credit:

 

. . . . . . . . . . . .lite . . . average . . rigorous

1.00 credit = 120 . . . 150 . . . 180

0.75 credit =   90 . . . 110 . . . 135

0.66 credit =   80 . . . 100 . . . 120

0.50 credit =   60 . . . . 75 . . . . 90

0.33 credit =   40 . . . . 50 . . . . 60

0.25 credit =   30 . . . . 35 . . . . 45

 

The amount of hours is derived from the minimum of 120, which is the Carnegie credit unit (120 hours of instructor contact, with the assumption that *additional* hours are put in outside of class), and the maximum of 180 hours (1 hour/day x 5 days/week x 36 weeks = 1 school year, or 1 credit) from public school requirements. Yes, school classes are typically shorter than 60 minutes, BUT, students also typically make up that time with weekly homework, papers, assignments and projects, so the 180 hours is still a valid measure.

 

For homeschooling counting of credits, consistency in how you measure your credits is important. If your student is a whiz at math, but more average in everything else, I would NOT use the math hours as the standard for homeschooling credits. Typically, History, Science, and English take a similar amount of more time, due to the volume of reading, writing, or doing of labs, so, JMO, but I would look at time spent on accomplishing those credits as my standard. Or I would use the average from the chart above and shoot for 1 credit roughly as 150 hours (say, a range of 135-165 hours).

 

So in your example above for Photography, if it were me, sounds like a solid 1 credit course, assuming 36 weeks of work:

2 hours/week = outside class

1-2 hours/week = projects

1 hour/week = TC videos

TOTAL = 4-5 hours week = 144-180 hours = 1 credit (average to rigorous)

 

 

3. It seems like it doesn't matter if one goes over a certain amount of hours per credit, as long as the minimum is met. Is this accurate? I ask because if I want to include everything for next year, it seems to be about 8-9 credits.

 

I think a homeschooler can do a great disservice to their student by not being consistent in the way they count credits, and by not assigning credit when credit is due. If a student puts in 200 hours on a single subject in a single year, I would credit it accordingly.

 

 

… if I want to include everything for next year, it seems to be about 8-9 credits. 

4. Is this too much for 9th grade?

 

Saxon Algebra 1  -  1 credit

Thinkwell Biology  -  1 credit

SWB's Ancient History  - 1 credit

Ancient Literature/Great Books  -  1 credit

French (haven't decided on curric) -  1 credit

Writing (maybe WWS1 plus IEW's Elegant Essay)  -  1 credit

Photography  -  1 credit

P.E.  -  1/2 credit

Music/Guitar  -  1/2 credit

Speech ??

Grammar ??  should these two be incorporated into Language Arts/English?

 

I read this as 7.0 total credits, with Speech as a possible extracurricular, or could be included as a unit within a future Englich credit:

 

1 credit = Math = Saxon Algebra 1

1 credit = Science: Biology = Thinkwell

1 credit = Social Science: Ancient History = SWB

1 credit = English = 1/2 Ancient Lit/Great Books and 1/2 Writing (WWS + Elegant Essay) *** 

1 credit = Foreign Language: French

1 credit = Fine Arts: Photography

0.5 credit = Elective: PE

0.5 credit = Elective: Music/Guitar

Total = 7.0 credits

 

*** = at the high school level, unless the student needs remedial work, Grammar is done as light review only if needed; also, you can easily use 2 writing programs, and so as to not take more time than a credit allows for, take 2 years to do them -- so WWS and Elegant Essay may be what you use for Writing for both 9th AND 10th grade English -- that is okay! and happens frequently :)

 

 

If you have a strong academic student who is ramped up and ready for the heavier load of work that high school courses require (reading, writing, thinking, labs), then this is do-able, especially if the PE happens as hours accumulated on weekends and over the summer.

 

However, if your student is not used to a heavy work load, and esp. is not used to the heavy time commitment and heavy *thinking* required by a classical coursework (your choices for History and English), then the student may quickly feel overwhelmed by a load of 7 or more credits.

 

A good rule of thumb is that each credit = 1 hour of work per day, 5 days a week. So this schedule would have your student working 7 hours a day, and then be sure to allot additional time in the schedule as needed for any extracurriculars.

 

If you want to back down a little on the amount of credits, here are some ideas:

- 6.5 credits = just enjoy the music/guitar as occasional personal interests, nothing formal -- or,

- 6 credits = drop the music/guitar elective and count PE from hours accrued on weekends/over summer -- or,

- 6 credits = don't start foreign language until a future year

 

 

Please don't panic about being college ready and number of credits -- really, 6 credits a year (total of 24 credits) will be just FINE and will get your student in the majority of schools. Above posters who mention doing 6.5 to 7 credits a year are looking toward competitive colleges and top tier schools. All of the public state universities I've looked at require a minimum of 20-22 credits for admission (4 English, 4 Math, 3 Science, 3 Social Studies, 2-4 Foreign Language, 1 Fine Arts, 2+ Electives).

 

More credits make a student more competitive ONLY if they are solid credits AND if the student maintains a good GPA with that amount of credits. If your student completes 24 solid credits (6 credits/year), and has a nice variety of extracurriculars, and scores well on ACT/SAT tests and keeps up a good GPA -- easy-peasy college admissions -- AND a good likelihood of some partial scholarship money coming their way. :)

 

Welcome to high school planning! Wishing you all the BEST in determining what works best for your family! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

[Lori D.]

Do you think reading and writing (short summaries or 1 page essays - nothing major) about Great Books would be included in 1 English credit? That's in addition to a separate writing curric, grammar, a short speech boot camp, and poetry study?

 

Typically at the high school level the student is no longer doing Logic stage types of writing (summaries and narrations), but is doing reader response papers and analysis essays on the Literature being read, as well as other types of writing (such as the research paper).

 

However, for your 9th grade English, since you'll be spending some of the English credit hours from the Lit. and Writing on a Speech boot camp, and since your DD hasn't probably covered literary analysis essays in too much depth at this point, I'd say it would be perfectly fine to stick with whatever Writing program you decide on, and whatever writing pops up in the poetry study. Perhaps 2-3 times during the year, set aside your Writing program for a week, and substitute a writing assignment on the Literature, using a prompt from whatever guide materials you might be using...

 

Just wondering: Does your student really still *need* Grammar? Usually by high school, the principles of proper sentence structure and mechanics (capitalization, punctuation, subject/verb agreement, etc.), don't need to be actively *taught* any more, as they are put into daily actual *use* through the student's writing and proof-editing of their own papers… Just a thought! :)

 

 

I was originally going to count Ancient Lit. separately but now I plan to award 1 English credit regardless of how many aspects it includes.

 

Just keep an eye on your time -- 5-6 hours/week on English, whatever you're using should be plenty for a very solid 1 credit. :)  I personally include that "slop over" hour a week to account for the extra time that reading and writing take, and still count that as just 1 credit -- reading and writing just DO take extra time. ;) If that doesn't work for you, then just cross off a book from the reading list, or cross of a writing assignment from time to time, if you are starting to run over on your year-long schedule, and to keep to that 180 hour maximum for 1 credit. :)

[MiMi 4under3]

 

 

More credits make a student more competitive ONLY if they are solid credits AND if the student maintains a good GPA with that amount of credits. If your student completes 24 solid credits (6 credits/year), and has a nice variety of extracurriculars, and scores well on ACT/SAT tests and keeps up a good GPA -- easy-peasy college admissions -- AND a good likelihood of some partial scholarship money coming their way. :)

 

Welcome to high school planning! Wishing you all the BEST in determining what works best for your family! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

Lori, your entire post was super helpful! Thank you.

[MiMi 4under3]

Typically at the high school level the student is no longer doing Logic stage types of writing (summaries and narrations), but is doing reader response papers and analysis essays on the Literature being read, as well as other types of writing (such as the research paper). Good point, thank you.

 

However, for your 9th grade English, since you'll be spending some of the English credit hours from the Lit. and Writing on a Speech boot camp, and since your DD hasn't probably covered literary analysis essays in too much depth at this point, I'd say it would be perfectly fine to stick with whatever Writing program you decide on, and whatever writing pops up in the poetry study. Perhaps 2-3 times during the year, set aside your Writing program for a week, and substitute a writing assignment on the Literature, using a prompt from whatever guide materials you might be using... 

 

Just wondering: Does your student really still *need* Grammar? Usually by high school, the principles of proper sentence structure and mechanics (capitalization, punctuation, subject/verb agreement, etc.), don't need to be actively *taught* any more, as they are put into daily actual *use* through the student's writing and proof-editing of their own papers… Just a thought! :)  SWB says in WTM book that it's the only subject you keep doing through high school. IDK?  :confused1: 

 

 

 

 

Just keep an eye on your time -- 5-6 hours/week on English, whatever you're using should be plenty for a very solid 1 credit. :)  I personally include that "slop over" hour a week to account for the extra time that reading and writing take, and still count that as just 1 credit -- reading and writing just DO take extra time. ;) If that doesn't work for you, then just cross off a book from the reading list, or cross of a writing assignment from time to time, if you are starting to run over on your year-long schedule, and to keep to that 180 hour maximum for 1 credit. :)

 

Thanks again!

[MiMi 4under3]

 

Just keep records for now - you can decide later what gets counted and what does not.

 

Good advice!   :coolgleamA:

[Lori D.]

 

Just wondering: Does your student really still *need* Grammar? Usually by high school, the principles of proper sentence structure and mechanics (capitalization, punctuation, subject/verb agreement, etc.), don't need to be actively *taught* any more, as they are put into daily actual *use* through the student's writing and proof-editing of their own papers… Just a thought!  :)  SWB says in WTM book that it's the only subject you keep doing through high school. IDK?   :confused1:

 

Don't know what to tell you there… You know your student best and where your student is in the grand scheme of Grammar. :) SWB would be the first to tell you that she REALLY WANTS families to look on her book as *suggestions* and that they should feel free to adapt her suggestions to fit the family's specific needs and goals.

 

Maybe try a compromise as a transition into 9th grade -- say, a little lite review of Grammar 2-3x/week, 10 min/day?? Another thought: once you start a Foreign Language you may find your Grammar needs are being covered/reviewed quite nicely there and that you don't need any other Grammar coverage or review. :)

 

[mommymilkies]

This is all very helpful.  I'm worried about how many credits dd can get in 9th grade, too.  She does a lot of languages on *her own* request (I only require one and she does French, Latin, German, Viking Languages-program, and Norwegian), and so it will look like padding but she really does work 9+ hours a day by her own choice outside of reading requirements.  :/ 

[regentrude]

This is all very helpful.  I'm worried about how many credits dd can get in 9th grade, too.  She does a lot of languages on *her own* request (I only require one and she does French, Latin, German, Viking Languages-program, and Norwegian), and so it will look like padding but she really does work 9+ hours a day by her own choice outside of reading requirements.  :/ 

 

Keep good records and decide just before making the final transcript for college applications which courses end up on the transcript with credit. It may be that some end up just half credits, some may fizzle out, some go strong. Document her work and wait.

 

If she has a very large number of credits, I'd make sure to substantiate a subset through standardized tests if possible so that you have some outside validation that supports your transcript.

But I would not worry about this just yet.

 

[mommymilkies]

Keep good records and decide just before making the final transcript for college applications which courses end up on the transcript with credit. It may be that some end up just half credits, some may fizzle out, some go strong. Document her work and wait.

 

If she has a very large number of credits, I'd make sure to substantiate a subset through standardized tests if possible so that you have some outside validation that supports your transcript.

But I would not worry about this just yet.

 

Thank you.  I have a spiral bound book I made where we are recording time spent/accomplishments for each area so that we can give credits correctly.  Do you have recommendations for standardized tests for substantiation? 

Thank you.  I have a spiral bound book I made where we are recording time spent/accomplishments for each area so that we can give credits correctly.  Do you have recommendations for standardized tests for substantiation? 

 

For French, Latin, and German, there's both a subject SAT and an AP exam, both of which colleges are very familiar with.  However, the former is probably not suitable until at least her junior year, and the latter her senior, assuming she continues that far with her studies.  In the meantime, for Latin, there's the National Latin Exam (NLE), which I cannot more highly recommend taking:  it is easy for homeschoolers to administer, it covers what students should be learning anyway, so there's little "teaching to the test",  there's lots of example tests on the web, and there's six different levels.  I believe all the European countries, including Norway, define standard levels of competency in their languages, and offer tests to those levels, but I suspect that admissions counselors are less familiar with those exams.

[regentrude]

Thank you.  I have a spiral bound book I made where we are recording time spent/accomplishments for each area so that we can give credits correctly.  Do you have recommendations for standardized tests for substantiation? 

 

SAT2 subject tests test high school level knowledge. AP tests test college level. You won't find standardized tests for unusual languages, though. But in my experience, not every class needs to be substantiated: if the transcript grades are backed up by outside validation in some subjects, colleges will be inclined to believe the rest.

 

[G5052]

FWIW, I keep an ongoing draft transcript in addition to my ongoing notes versus doing it all at the end.  As we went, there were indeed some changes, but I felt better having it all laid out.  I even listed my plans for the upcoming years with blanks for the grades, although if I had to provide it for something, I made a copy and deleted those.  We had to provide a transcript for local programs during their sophomore and early junior years.  We also have had to register for their outsourced classes in early January for the following September, so I have to pretty much know what the plans are for the following year then.

 

Late last week, I did the final updates on my graduate's transcript, and then updated my upcoming 11th grader's.  That was useful for the younger one because we had to make some tentative decisions about her senior year for financial reason and so we can also plan SAT II's.  She's 90% sure she doesn't want to do AP Latin (expensive outsourced class, AP exam fee, and SAT II exam fee), and will just take the SAT II this coming year.  Then she wants to do Studio Art II her senior year.  For that we have to register in January 2016, but it is low cost.  We also discussed two other classes that could go either way, one with a January registration date.  So making a decision in December should be pretty easy.

[8filltheheart]

This is all very helpful.  I'm worried about how many credits dd can get in 9th grade, too.  She does a lot of languages on *her own* request (I only require one and she does French, Latin, German, Viking Languages-program, and Norwegian), and so it will look like padding but she really does work 9+ hours a day by her own choice outside of reading requirements.  :/ 

 

I wouldn't worry about it.  Our ds took 10 credits one year (and none of them were DE credits.  They were all single credits.)  He is nuts and loves doing what he does.  It wasn't work to him.  It was just what he wanted to do.

 

Our dd has been taking 3 languages every yr, but made the decision to drop Latin next yr, 11th.  She is taking the subject test next Sat and has all of her NLE awards.  She has found it difficult to juggle all 3 at a high level. She has decided that she wants to focus on French and Russian and accomplish higher levels with them.  She has very clear objectives.  With French she wants to be able to completely function in French.....reading, composition, and speaking.  She is meeting a new tutor today who just moved to our area.   Dd is excited b/c it sounds like we might have found a good match.  With Russian, her goal is to be at minimum 300 college level.  Latin was consuming too much time for her to devote what she wanted to give to the Russian, so dropping it and giving the time to Russian has her very excited.

 

Unlike her brother.....she likes to do very non-academic things for large parts of her day and doesn't have his energy level where doing school from 6-6 still leaves 5 hours of free time to do whatever she wants.  Her brother would never go to bed before 11-12 and be up full steam ahead by 5 or 530 the next morning.