‘21-‘22 Midyear hits and misses

[jplain]

I’ve found Hits/Misses threads helpful in the past when planning for the next year.  I hope others will share here too!  What has gone well for your high schoolers this year?  What hasn’t met expectations?

Overall, 10th grade is going well here, aside from the darn pandemic.

 

Hits:

Clover Creek Physics w/honors option - Jetta Seboly

OnlineG3 Physics Literacy (1 semester)

Derek Owens Honors Algebra 2

WTMA French 4/5 - Françoise Agena

Integritas Lit & Comp - Cindy Lange

Aim Academy US History w/honors option - Lisa Hawkins

 

Miss:

Dreaming Spires Spanish 3 

Teacher in UK.  Website describes their Spanish 3 as similar to US Spanish 4, but that was not our experience.  The reading list looked great, but the rest of the (very small) cohort hasn’t reached the level of proficiency required to read and discuss Borges poems and stories.  I wanted her to give it a chance, but she was miserable, and we ended up missing the partial refund deadline too.

 

(At the end of the year I’ll be able to comment on what she did instead for Spanish, and also Russian.)

Edited January 19, 2022 by jplain

[MamaSprout]

Hits so far-

CLRC’s Conversational Russian

Christine Keen’s SciFi and Mission Possible

Science and Math DE 

Misses:

An elective engineering class that dd dropped immediately.

No other misses for fall classes. Some structural things could have been better- a grading scheme or meeting time stuff.

Spring we added an Outschool Comparative Religions class, and picked back up a government work text and imacs course we punted previously. More science and math DE. DE math prof especially good this round. Self- study for AP Micro with the AC/DC stuff. Verdict still out on all that    

Edited January 20, 2022 by MamaSprout

[cintinative]

15 hours ago, MamaSprout said:

Self- study for AP Micro with the AC/DC stuff. Verdict still out on all that    

I definitely want to hear how this went when you are done. 😃

[cintinative]

My kids tend to not feel strongly towards something, rather they feel a strong hatred, if anything.  Sooo . . .

Tolerable (aka hits??)

• TPS Comp classes (Comp 2 and Comp 4/5/6)
• Derek Owens Physics (although not so much for my youngest. Self-paced is really hard for him.)
• Avancemos 2 (taught by me)
• Dolciani Alg II and Jurgensen Geo (facilitated/taught by me)
• House of Humane Letters classes in Ancient Lit and Early Modern Lit
• Homemade history using History of Western Society as a spine and multiple primary sources
• Traditional Logic I
• The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study for my youngest

Misses:

• Derek Owens physics for my youngest. He's doing okay, but I think we need to avoid self-paced science.
• To me the DO labs are lame. I am super picky on labs. Unfortunately I have no margin to figure out what else to do and add it. And my youngest is on week 11 still of the 32 week class. So, yeah.
• driversed.com only because my oldest found it annoying. They have a certain time frame that you can read a page in, and if you are done before that, you can't move on. I am guessing this is because there is a minimum hours of instruction required.  But if you are a fast reader, it's annoying.  My guess is that the other online options are the same.  

Teacher Misses (my fault):

• Traditional Logic II. I made the mistake of thinking that because my son could do Trad logic I relatively independently and I could grade it, that we could do the same for II. I was not able to keep up with the text and had to switch to a different logic that had actual answers instead of "answers may vary" LOL. It's really a miss because of my lack of preparation.  So we are now using A Concise Introduction to Logic because 1) answers and 2) videos.

[alisha]

For my 9th grader:

Hits:

Friendly Biology-I'm amazed at what he's retaining. He wasn't looking forward to the subject (just because it's not as exciting as blowing stuff up for chemistry) but I think he's pleasantly surprised that he's enjoying it. Plus, it's independant, which we both love.

French through the ULAT-he's loving it! 

Misses: None, really. 
 

[Farrar]

No misses here for my seniors. 

The unexpected hit is dual enrollment through ASU Prep Digital, which... it just gives you access to the entire ASU Online course catalog. The whole thing. Anything your kid is qualified by pre-reqs to take. Since our dual enrollment is really expensive, this has been nice for us and the quality has been pretty good overall. My dancer is the one doing all his courses this way and he particularly liked the course Sustainable Cities. And he can now tell you a heck of a lot about sustainability in Boston.

I've been very happy with Mushroom's AP Comp Gov class on Outschool. Teacher is Jennifer Hughes. Course is well-organized. I think it's on the really light end for an AP, but whatever. I'm not complaining.

[Miss Tick]

4 hours ago, cintinative said:

driversed.com only because my oldest found it annoying. They have a certain time frame that you can read a page in, and if you are done before that, you can't move on. I am guessing this is because there is a minimum hours of instruction required.  But if you are a fast reader, it's annoying.  My guess is that the other online options are the same.  

My twins agree strongly with your oldest! They discovered that they could have another window open, so they did math while waiting for the timer to finish counting.

Hits:

Integritas Academy seems to be working, and they get a lot of feedback, which makes me happy.

WTMA French 3 and German 2 are both popular

Misses:

AP Physics 1 with PA Homeschoolers Not enough interaction for ds. The live lecture is just once every other week and he could use more feedback on whether he has the concepts down or not. I've been able to help when asked, but the tone has been set. There also seems to be no document outlining policies, so he has run into a couple of invisible barriers, and just discovered a test policy that might help him out. 

[cintinative]

1 hour ago, Farrar said:

The unexpected hit is dual enrollment through ASU Prep Digital,

I had heard of their self-paced classes where you pay $25 or something and then if you want credit it is $400 more. This looks different--it is $600 per college level course.  Can you explain how these courses work? Is there support from a teacher?

[Farrar]

23 minutes ago, cintinative said:

I had heard of their self-paced classes where you pay $25 or something and then if you want credit it is $400 more. This looks different--it is $600 per college level course.  Can you explain how these courses work? Is there support from a teacher?

Yes. This is just regular ASU enrollment but access for dual enrollment students. All courses are different... they're whatever they are for regular ASU and ASU Online students. All the ones kid has had so far have a real professor and real support from that professor - I assume they all basically do. They have also all been no live meeting but synchronous due dates. ASU is on a hybrid semester/quarter system so you can choose semester or quarter classes, depending on what's offered.

I was really skeptical because ASU Universal Learner is just basically MOOC's that you pay to get a credit for. This is real dual enrollment in "real" classes. I was impressed by the sustainability course. He had to meet with group members, write two papers that got actual feedback, record tons of response videos, write tons of little response posts for discussions, do lots of research together with his group. He also had a sociology class that I was way less impressed with. Prof was super charismatic, had a crazy and interesting life story, but grades were just these really tricky multiple choice quizzes every week and that was IT. My kid would rather write a long research paper. He's **** on timed multiple choice quizzes. And the prof was interesting, but the course was pretty disorganized - the order of information on the study outline, the textbook, and the lectures were all different. On one lecture he SPECIFICALLY SAID don't write any of this down, I just want to show you these figures, there won't be any questions about this on the quiz. And then there were two questions (on a 10 question quiz) about that. So that was just what I would call a real jerk move. Still, class didn't suit MY kid, but I can easily imagine that kids who do well on multiple choice quizzes would have loved it. Interesting lecture, quick chapter read and note review, quiz. Easy peasy. This is just like how we've had better and worse dual enrollment classes locally as well.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Farrar

[alisoncooks]

5 hours ago, alisha said:

For my 9th grader:

Hits:

Friendly Biology-I'm amazed at what he's retaining. He wasn't looking forward to the subject (just because it's not as exciting as blowing stuff up for chemistry) but I think he's pleasantly surprised that he's enjoying it. Plus, it's independant, which we both love.

French through the ULAT-he's loving it! 

Misses: None, really. 
 

Friendly Biology is going well for us this year, too. Very manageable.

We also like ULAT. 

[RubyPenn]

UPDATE:  Experience Chemistry is not only hated, but it is a  MISS.  We have changed course mid way through the year.

 

My 11th grader says he dislikes everything, so it's between hate and tolerable like cintinative's children.  I wouldn't say we have any misses this year.

Hated courses:

MUS Algebra 2

Experience Chemistry

Speech at co-op

 

Tolerable:

Dave Raymond's Modernity

Memoria Press literature selections (Oedipus the King, Macbeth, poetry, Tale of Two Cities so far)

Writing and Rhetoric Thesis 2

The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study

 

Edited February 15, 2022 by RubyPenn

[Eos]

Hits for junior dd:

DE Physics and Dance, trading in German for Italian

Misses: 

Sadly, her AP Lit with the brilliant in-person teacher who so thrilled our older son.  She can't get over his boomer-y personality to enjoy the readings.  I'm sure she'll do well on the test but it's been a bummer with too much griping.  I even offered to let her drop it, but she wouldn't do that either, just needs to gripe often and loudly.  I won't miss this year.

[mom2scouts]

I have a freshman. 

Hits:

  Mr D Algebra 2. We use the self paced because she likes to move faster.

  Apologia Health and Nutrition

  Foundations in Personal Finance

  Using dance for PE

Misses:

  Writing with Skill - She loves writing, but hates this. I'm trying something else.

  Tapestry of Grace Ancient History

Tolerable:

  Breaking the Barrier French (We tried ULAT before I bought BtB and she didn't like it at all.)

  CK-12 Biology with Guest Hollow labs and extras

 

[fourisenough]

Hits for senior DD:

AP Calc AB at Blue Tent

Senior Eng at Blue Tent

AP Bio at Blue Tent

Orgo Chem at Clover Valley

Latin IV at CLRC

Intro to Sociology* at ASU Universal Lerner
 

*She is only 2 weeks into the course, but finds the course organized and easy to navigate and the content interesting and totally manageable. Her only complaint is that you have to stay on the pacing of the course (1 module per week) and can’t work ahead. Instructor says it should be 18 hours/week of work, but DD says it has taken her exactly 3 hours each week so far.

Edited January 21, 2022 by fourisenough

[hollyhock2]

Hits:

MUS Geometry - he blew through it and is already done.

Python courses at Udemy - thank you to @RootAnn for recommending the Masterclass with Buchalka. He did really well with it. It was a good next step.

The physics chapters of PAC Integrated Physics and Chem.

 

Misses:

Math courses from my province. Far too wordy and unnecessarily complicated, especially for my senior's learning style. Just a bad fit.

Conceptual Physics by Hewitt. I'm embarrassed to admit, but I am not enough of a physics teacher to help anyone through this course. The wording of some of the problems was so confusing, we didn't even know what they were asking. Doing it with an actual teacher would be the way to go.

Physics 101 DVD. I was using this as a supplement. He thought each segment was too long and not to-the-point, and claimed he already knew everything in it. So unlike the last son, who loved it.

Edited January 21, 2022 by hollyhock2
Thought of another miss.

[MagistraKennedy]

Hits for my 10th grader 

Chemistry with Dr Kristen Moon via True North --- she is a gem.
Spanish I , again with True North. 


Misses: 
Algebra II with MPOA --- it wasn't a teacher issue, but it became very evident early on that my daughter hadn't solidified her Alg I concepts. 😭
Math concepts take a while to gel with her. 

[cintinative]

29 minutes ago, MagistraKennedy said:

Hits for my 10th grader 

Chemistry with Dr Kristen Moon via True North --- she is a gem.
Spanish I , again with True North. 
 

It's so good to hear something about this provider. I keep seeing them mentioned but no one had used them yet.

[MagistraKennedy]

16 minutes ago, cintinative said:

It's so good to hear something about this provider. I keep seeing them mentioned but no one had used them yet.

I've been very pleased. We will stick with them for Spanish II. We would take Anatomy and Physiology there with Dr Moon, but my daughter will take that in person with a friend here locally. 

[ScoutTN]

All hits here for my junior, but some are enjoyed more than others.

She loves:
French 2 at our local tutorial
Med/Ren Lit with Angelina Stanford
Shakespeare intensive with Roy Speed
PE - dance

She likes:
PreCal at WHA with Eric Reini (loves him as a teacher and likes math, but the workload is challenging)
Physics at our local tutorial
Essay and Research Writing at our local tutorial

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by ScoutTN

[kristin0713]

My biggest notable hit or miss has been a HUGE MISS with Center for Lit American Literature.  DD is an avid reader who *loves* to read and discuss books and she hates this class. She has loved all the books, but finds the instructors kind of snooty, not engaging, not really leading a discussion as much as lecturing in a way that I think would be more appropriate for a college class. There are discussion board questions and assignments for every selection and they never give feedback on the students' posts. Not once. I wish I could have pulled her mid-year and gotten half my money back. What a waste of $450. 

Everything else is going fine. My kids are in a mix of Aim Academy, Open Tent, CLRC, and MHMC.com. Generally, putting them in online classes has been a HUGE WIN! 

[cintinative]

1 minute ago, kristin0713 said:

My kids are in a mix of Aim Academy, Open Tent, CLRC, and MHMC.com. Generally, putting them in online classes has been a HUGE WIN! 

Do you mind sharing what you have taken and liked? Also, what is MHMC.com? It's not coming up in a google search.

 

[kristin0713]

Just now, cintinative said:

Do you mind sharing what you have taken and liked? Also, what is MHMC.com? It's not coming up in a google search.

 

Sure 🙂

DD 10th grade:

CLRC German 1 - we had some bumps in the road with this initially, but it has turned out to be a great class. The teacher has gone above and beyond in addressing my concerns. 

CLRC US History- this has been fine. DD really likes the teacher. He teaches and explains things well and promotes engaging discussion. Sometimes his assignments are all over the place in difficulty level, but he is very lenient with grades. He strikes me as kind of scattered and I'm not sure how a super-serious honors student would feel about the level of challenge. But for my DD, who doesn't really like history, it has been a win because he's nice and she is getting something out of the class 😂 

MHMC.com - myhomeschoolmathclass.com - Geometry - this has been fine, but DD is struggling somewhat. Jann explains concepts very well and thoroughly. But I have realized that my DD needs a program where there are designated office hours / live online help that is scheduled so she can drop in and get help with homework regularly. 

Lantern English - not online, just correspondence.  This is our third year using them and it has always been a great experience. DD took Creative Writing: The Short Story first quarter and ended up doing another quarter with the same teacher to turn her story into a novelette. They worked with us to modify the class for her for second quarter so she could continue it. She feel so accomplished having written a novelette! She's now taking two more quarters of essay writing. 

Experience Astronomy - self paced. This is fine. DD is not a science kid and doesn't love it, but doesn't hate it. It checks the box. There is some Greek mythology incorporated into the course which DD has enjoyed. Heads up, the company teaches from a Christian perspective. 

DS 8th grade:

(Not sure if you want our 8th grade classes posted here, but since it may offer insight to online providers, I'll include them.)

CLRC Physical Science - This class has been FABULOUS. The teacher is excellent. The class is thorough and challenging and DS really enjoys it. 

Aim Academy - @Farrar 's Secret Codes and Mysteries. DS loved this. Huge win. 

Open Tent Academy - Perspectives (lit and comp) - This class is also fabulous. I was on the fence about it because the writing is IEW based (not my jam), but it's been a good fit for him. The literature is short stories which has been excellent for DS, my non-reader. The class is thorough and challenging and excellent. I will say that DS finds it hard and doesn't love it for that reason, but he enjoys the teacher and the class. 

MHMC.com - myhomeschoolmathclass.com - Pre-Algebra - this is fine. DS is good at math, and could have gone into algebra 1, but wasn't ready to put in the work. I think he is happy that he is not struggling with the content and he will be super prepared for Algebra 1. 

Athena's - Story of Science - this has been a miss for my DS. The kids are just too much younger than him. I knew it was probably a stretch, but he picked it out of several "history" options that I gave him. Lesson learned. 

Lantern - Essay Basics - Again, always a win for us. 

[MagistraKennedy]

On 2/13/2022 at 8:11 PM, kristin0713 said:

Sure 🙂

DD 10th grade:

MHMC.com - myhomeschoolmathclass.com - Geometry - this has been fine, but DD is struggling somewhat. Jann explains concepts very well and thoroughly. But I have realized that my DD needs a program where there are designated office hours / live online help that is scheduled so she can drop in and get help with homework regularly.

 

Thanks for this --- I have this Geometry class as a possibility for us.

[NittanyJen]

My 12th grader:

Hits:

Rhetoric III at TWTMA— he loves it (plans to head to college as an English major, and chose this course over AP English)

Data Science with me— going fine with our eclectic approach, but I would not turn this into a repeatable curriculum

Anatomy of Story— doing this with me. He’s been thrilled with this course (again, future English major) working his way through books on plot, dialogue, scene, questions for writers, tying in historical accuracy to writing (or not), and other writer’s toolboxes

History of Science— small group class that I’m teaching— again, he’s really enjoying this one. I’m offering it next year as an honors class through PA Homeschoolers, because I’ve had 2 years of kids locally who have loved it.

Independent History Research— he’s really enjoying this. He used articles from Smithsonian Magazine to identify some research questions, focused on 5, and in the process of completing about 5 weeks of work investigating and writing up his findings on each. He enjoys writing and the research, and finding new ways to discover information related to the questions he is asking.

PE— he loves his swimming lessons. 

Get it Done:

the basic life skill stuff— personal finance, health, nutrition, cooking, home maintenance, dealing with “the world” (doc visits, forms, taxes, organizing bills and important papers, etc). These things don’t bring too much excitement to his life, but he’s doing them willingly enough. 

What I wish we were spending more time on: 

I really wanted to follow up more with his photography this year, but we haven’t really sat down and spent the kind of time I’d like on photo editing or just heading out on more photo trips. Between me teaching and him doing other schoolwork, this one seems to fall by the wayside.

 

3 months and counting…. And we’re all done here…

 

[Farrar]

2 minutes ago, NittanyJen said:

 

History of Science— small group class that I’m teaching— again, he’s really enjoying this one. I’m offering it next year as an honors class through PA Homeschoolers, because I’ve had 2 years of kids locally who have loved it.

Ooh, cool. More science or more history credit? 

Okay, I found the listing. Nice. You have a live session. That's excellent. 

Edited February 27, 2022 by Farrar

[Eos]

16 hours ago, NittanyJen said:

3 months and counting…. And we’re all done here…

Woo hoo! 

I've always wanted to tell you that I love the You Might Be a Homeschooler If list on your blog, so funny.

[pehp]

The big hit for my son (14/9thish grade) is Honors French 2 through The Potter's School with Madame S.  Great teacher, great course.  LOVE!

We're also enjoying the British Literature course I crafted myself--I'd say it's a hit.  I appreciate that we/I set the pace, too, because he's got some intensive hours devoted to his languages, piano, and math this year!

We had a bad miss earlier this year with an online science course, but bailed before too much damage was done.  We're using the Miller Levine Bio text and reading through together, supplemented with The Way Life Works, some online resources, and some cool books (like Microbe Hunters).  That online course was the only miss.  

All in all, we're having a mighty nice year!

[TheAttachedMama]

Miss:

A Huge (HUGE!) miss for us this year was the TPS French I class.  It was the worst experiences I have EVER had with an online class.  (And I am no stranger to online classes.). A friend of mine had a son enrolled in this class, and she jokes that she has "TPS PTSD"

Hits:

Clover Creek Physics

Clover Valley Chemistry

Integritas Academy

Derek Owens (saved the day again when my daughter needed a break from AOPS)

AIM Academy AP Government

AOPS books... and Alcumus

Susan Wise Bauer Grammar and Writing resources

WTMA History Class with Mr. Caro.

CLRC Latin II (My son seems to go back and forth about my choice to move him from MPOA to CLRC)>

Edited March 9, 2022 by TheAttachedMama

[TheAttachedMama]

16 hours ago, pehp said:

 

We had a bad miss earlier this year with an online science course, but bailed before too much damage was done.  We're using the Miller Levine Bio text and reading through together, supplemented with The Way Life Works, some online resources, and some cool books (like Microbe Hunters).  That online course was the only miss.  

All in all, we're having a mighty nice year!

What online science class was this?  You can PM me if you don't feel comfortable posting online.  

[fourisenough]

On 1/21/2022 at 1:05 PM, fourisenough said:

Hits for senior DD:

AP Calc AB at Blue Tent

Senior Eng at Blue Tent

AP Bio at Blue Tent

Orgo Chem at Clover Valley

Latin IV at CLRC

Intro to Sociology* at ASU Universal Lerner
 

*She is only 2 weeks into the course, but finds the course organized and easy to navigate and the content interesting and totally manageable. Her only complaint is that you have to stay on the pacing of the course (1 module per week) and can’t work ahead. Instructor says it should be 18 hours/week of work, but DD says it has taken her exactly 3 hours each week so far.

Quoting myself to say that DD ended up LOVING the Sociology course from ASU and is sad it’s over. She found it easy, but very engaging. She learned a lot and looks forward to taking more sociology courses during college, if they fit into her schedule. 

[MagistraKennedy]

On 3/9/2022 at 4:29 PM, fourisenough said:

Quoting myself to say that DD ended up LOVING the Sociology course from ASU and is sad it’s over. She found it easy, but very engaging. She learned a lot and looks forward to taking more sociology courses during college, if they fit into her schedule. 

Thank you for your comments regarding this course --- I have it on my radar for my daughter. I appreciate the breakdown of time per week. 🤗

[mmasc]

I always like these threads! This is for my ds (11th grade). Like a couple of PPs, my ds doesn’t really love any class, but I think the following are still “hits” because they’ve been good. 😊

HITS:

Derek Owens Algebra 2. My ds likes this class and DO’s teaching style. The class has been good for him. Will do pre-calc next year with him, I think.

Clover Creek Physics. Ds isn’t liking physics as a subject, but the class is good. 

Lantern English-all of the ones he has taken were good (advanced writing skills, choosing and using sources, expository essay). But he really, actually enjoyed the American Lit 1 class. He liked the content and the teacher, so that was a hit for sure!

Not misses, but oks:😁

Spanish 1 through Acellus. This is a check-the-box class for ds. 

MasterBooks American History. It’s fine-nothing great or bad  

MISS:

electives! We can NOT seem to actually get to any of the “fun” stuff! We still need to get some of these done. Archaeology is sitting on the shelf waiting *sigh*

Oh, and add us to the list of people who thought driversed.com was a slog. Ugh. Such.a.slog.

[Miss Tick]

40 minutes ago, mmasc said:

Derek Owens Algebra 2. My ds likes this class and DO’s teaching style. The class has been good for him. Will do pre-calc next year with him, I think.

Clover Creek Physics. Ds isn’t liking physics as a subject, but the class is good. 

Just a heads up that 6 out of 7 DO classes here have experienced times where I discover we are 4 to 8 weeks behind where they should be and then there are serious discussions, a few tears or angry outbursts, a panicky right schedule for 2.5 weeks, and then voilà back on schedule. Repeat 6 times. 😛

How was Clover Creek for a high school level physics? It is on my list of possible classes for next year's for one of mine. I know it is so highly regarded, but the age range is big and I am looking for reassurance that it is a legit check-the-box high school physics class.

[mmasc]

47 minutes ago, SusanC said:

Just a heads up that 6 out of 7 DO classes here have experienced times where I discover we are 4 to 8 weeks behind where they should be and then there are serious discussions, a few tears or angry outbursts, a panicky right schedule for 2.5 weeks, and then voilà back on schedule. Repeat 6 times. 😛

How was Clover Creek for a high school level physics? It is on my list of possible classes for next year's for one of mine. I know it is so highly regarded, but the age range is big and I am looking for reassurance that it is a legit check-the-box high school physics class.

Ha! We’ve already done that a couple of times as well, but I definitely appreciate the heads-up! 
 

Sadly, I’m probably not the best judge on rigor for physics. I never took physics, at all, and know nothing about it. 😳 I will say my ds is a very average/get-er-done type of kid, and he does what’s assigned, studies a bit for tests, and has a B (87). He’s perfectly fine with Bs, but I’m sure he could do better in this class if he wanted. She does say via email what the class average is on the tests, as well as high scores, and it is often a high B average with at least a few students making 100+ on the tests. I’d definitely say it is legit though. He’s read the whole book and done a lot of labs!