<p>I'm a 13 year old homeschooler finishing 8th grade. My parents are letting me design my own "school" plan for next year, so I was wondering what you think the ideal plan would be. </p>
<p>What I'm doing currently is studying calculus I at the University of Minnesota, taking an honors biology class in a lab space with other homeschoolers, learning Java at a commercial college, taking a CTD distance learning class in Logo, and continuing the EPGY C11C programming class. I also took an AP Chemistry class earlier this year with my homeschooler support group. </p>
<p>Now I'm looking at different possibilities for my next school year. It might be that I could enroll full time at a community college, I can do full time distance learning, I can do full time at a strong high school. I could also do a mix of two of the last three. My main interests are math, computer science, and computer graphics. I do a lot of math competitions and have scored the highest score in my AMC region on the AMC 10, but I haven't done any computer competitions yet.</p>
<p>I spend most of my free time working on a computer role playing game, which my friends and I work on over a Google Group. I do most of the programming and graphics design in addition to beginning the script; at our current rate of progress this will probably take two years :). I also play travelling soccer. </p>
<p>I'm very open minded about where and when I will enroll in college.</p>
<p>What kind of plan for next year would you recommend? What kind of learning experiences do you think I should be sure not to miss? I would appreciate any advice you have for me. </p>
<p>And if you would like to post your ideas about your own ideal 9th grade year, that would be cool too.</p>
<p>Hi A+ -- I am a mother of 2 homeschooled kids. I would suggest that you branch out of your current emphasis in math and computer science and looks at other things that you might like. I am not sure what to suggest, but look at people in the math and computer science world that you admire and see what their other interests are. I have heard that math people generally also enjoy music -- so that is a possibility. Have you done physics yet? How about a really off the wall subject that just plain sounds interesting? (for example, my son is taking Biological Evolution as one class this summer and another on the effects of fundamentalism in montheistic traditions).</p>
<p>Are your language skills as advanced as your math skills? Maybe you need to add in some composition and literature.</p>
<p>How about some philosophy? What about another language?</p>
<p>There is so much out there, don't loose your passion for math and computer science -- look for something that will complement it.</p>
<p>You should definately travel sometime in your HS career if you are into that type of thing....especially if you have all those courses behind you. Maybe do something like School Year Abroad. If you have not yet taken any courses that colleges look for then I'd go ahead and get those out of the way (ie some foreign language, history). If I were in your position I would plan to see more of the world. Also start thinking about a major.</p>
<p>No, its what happens when you concentrate on one subject a day, seven days/week, for eight years. I was nearly at the same level as that was what was done for four years; of course, my integration into school was very difficult and is little farther from happening now in grade 11 than when I was in grade 5.
And I would try to learn a language as well-you have lots of time to basically self-study it.</p>
<p>Along with following that advice, a language would be a great suggestion. Of course you need to be well rounded and take your history and english classes, and pursuing computer programming classes looks like a great area to do some study in. Maybe look for some research programs once you finish a lot of the science curriculum to get some hands-on experience and such.</p>
<p>Yea, I'd suggest studying abroad too. And maybe try some more on history and english classes.</p>
<p>And if you're looking for programming contests, there's the USACO (at usaco.org), and itestcs (at itestcs.org). I know the registration for the itest one has passed, but I think they're still accepting applications for this year.</p>
<p>No I don't have much T.V. watching skill. :p But my neighbor's dad works as a movie distributor, so I watch a lot of movies at his house and have movie watching skills. </p>
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[quote=celebrian25]
I hate freshman like this
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<p>No offense taken; there are plenty of annoying kids like that.</p>
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<p>I get most of my history from reading. I dislike history courses that are just memorizing dates. I really like James Loewen's books about history. </p>
<p>I also kind of down played my verbal side; I've taken writing classes and enjoy creative writing. I surprised myself when I took a poetry class and got very caught up in it. </p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to reply. What would your ideal 9th grade schedule look like?</p>
<p>I think it would be healthy for you to play a sport. Is there a community soccer team for ages 13-17 or something? I am sure you have friends your age, but not being in a real high school enviroment might prevent you from developing good social skills. Also, sports are fun and colleges LOVE athletes. </p>
<p>I would also suggest that you do some type of in depth writing program. You could be a great scientist one day, but you need to be able to write a decent lab report. </p>
<p>I think you are doing great, but remember to try and be a kid.</p>