Hi folks, I've been on here for years, at least sporadically, learning about how to support and advocate for my kids. Sometimes I've felt like an imposter, since my kids are not tested and have not applied to DYS, but I've still learned a lot about helping them. But...now that my oldest is in high school, I'm feeling like I'm tossed into the deep end again and figuring out how to help him succeed.
Last week out of the blue, his math teacher told him that because he was getting 100% on everything they'd done in the first month, he suggested accelerating up to Precalc and skipping Algebra II completely.
Now, I had just seen quite a lot of conversation on math Twitter complaining about how school Precalc is usually so heavy on Algebra II review. So I don't THINK I'm worried about gaps if he takes this route. But holy cow. I had hardly thought about college prep at all before, but now I feel like there is so much to decide.
I had honestly pushed back against acceleration (for example, homeschooling with AOPS Geometry for depth rather than following his math teacher's advice to dual-enroll in Alg II and Geometry for acceleration) because I wanted him to get a solid university-quality Calculus foundation, one I'm not convinced he will get in our small public school, even if the coursework is adequate to prepare for the AP exam. So should he look to AP courses or community college or somehow enroll in a proper university for his upper level classes? Our nearest four-year schools are several hours away, so it would have to be online. What more could/should we be doing for his other subjects? Our school doesn't offer AP science courses, to my knowledge, so he's on track to do (boring and simple) Earth Science, then Biology/Physics/Chem I believe. I don't think I necessarily want him going to a highly selective school, but I also don't want that to be ruled out by making the wrong choices. How do we figure out what the right choices are? Do I need to join one of those forums like College Confidential?
I know a lot of parents curate their kids' school careers with an eye to college apps starting much earlier than this. I guess I've just been of the mindset to let them be their best, most authentic selves and let the right college fit happen. Now I'm second guessing that. High school parents, especially BTDT, what have you done and do you have any regrets?
