Thank you everyone for all of your suggestions and comments. The only reason the trig question came up was because DS12 believes that the Honors Trig/pre-calc class will be easy and he likes the idea of being challenged by harder work. I have my own miss giving's about his choice because of the increased work load. I normally have never worried about his comprehension, but I also do not want him to be over challenged. I did ask the HS if we could review the text books this week. Also I am older and from a small school that had no honors or AP, and my son as an 8th grader has no experience with AP classes. I am concerned that taking two AP classes in 9th along with Marching Band and his other courses may be overwhelming. This year Honors Algebra 2 has about 6 hours a week of homework. This was a 1st for him in Math. Val we have used some of the AOPS and some of their books (Great books). This looks like something we will need to talk about more with DS 12. So far he has made all his own choices for HS from 9th -12th and map out a plan. This was with my input; perhaps I undervalued Trig with him.
The reason for looking at an AP science course in 9th is because our district pushes most AP courses into 11th and 12th. He would prefer to complete some of the AP courses in 9th and 10th and reduce his work load for 11 and 12th. I have seen this with some of the older boys in my son's scout troop. They have to take up to 4 AP courses in 11 and 12th to be competitive in there college applications. Currently DS 12 wants to go to Cal Tech (I can only hope he sticks with this choice, who knows what he will want down the road). I understand that his goal my be a bit lofty, but I am trying to find ways to best support this in and out of school. Because math and science are his strengths we are looking to advance in these areas within the school, and use outside sources like AIME. There is unfortunately nothing in our area for outside science competitions.
I will also explore the idea of AP Chem in 9th vs. AP Bio. DS is willing to do some work over the summer; however this year is pretty booked up.
