@crowlady - the “flipped classroom” is kind of in vogue now for science classes. As a science teacher, I don’t always like being pressured to use those methods in cases where it would be so much more straightforward if I were allowed to do more lecture 
- but luckily there are a lot of online resources these days for your son, and maybe you could help him find those?
Almost all my D’s classes this year are dual credit at the local community college. If fall semester is any indication, this is a much better learning style for my D over her previous AP classes. They all had accumulative finals, but without the “all or nothing” pressure she felt with the AP tests. She has enjoyed the greater autonomy, the variety of students (her study partner in Microbiology was a grandma 
), and the wider selection of classes than AP offerings at her high school (last semester’s English class was exclusively short stories that were made into films, which made for some wacky family movie nights). The fact the community colleges have AC, whereas none of the public high schools in Hawaii do, was a huge bonus at the beginning of the year.
Apropos of little, but perhaps the IEPs: we did a family game of Pictionary the other night, and my youngest with dysgraphia drew a recognizable “Massachusetts” (!)
The less said the better, however, about how the teenagers depicted various verbs.
D’s school does not have AP or IB, though the kids are allowed to take either at a traditional HS in the district for some or all of their courses, while remaining at her school for other classes. Most kids who want AP just go to their “home high school” though. All of the classes at D’s school are considered “honors” though.
As fro flipped classrooms, her school does use this type of method for most all of the classes. School itself is project-based and they do exhibitions of their work 4X a year, plus smaller presentations in all of the classes.They actually have very little homework unless they are behind in reading or writing something. There is very little straight on lecturing in any class.
D’s friends from school who are already in college say that the greatest challenge to their classmates is learning how to do presentations and work with online resources, powerpoints, visuals, models, etc. Her friends end up helping them do what started for them back in 6th grade. Today the juniors and seniors are at an elementary school that started using this method in September mentoring the little kids as they get ready for their first exhibition.
I hope D decides on a school before the deadline for signing up for AP’s. She took AP Language last year and received a 4 which is enough to get out of the basic English class at every school still in the running for her. Only one of her schools will give any additional credit for AP Lit. I’d like to not pay that fee if she isn’t going there.
She is also taking AP Environmental Science and AP Gov and will be taking both of those tests. Some of her schools will give credit, some will just let you use them to fill requirements. Either way, they have value.
We’ll have 5 APs at our house - 3 for S1, 2 for S2 (a junior). S1 graduates at the end of May - it’s going to be a stressful two months at our house beginning April 1. Between taxes, APs, ACT for S2, and cleaning/prepping the house for graduation season… ugh! At least the school district pays for the AP exams.
I’ll be taking AP Lang- at my school if you take an AP class you have to take the AP exam. Let’s hope they give me a decent room this year(I get accommodations) and last year I was literally in a closet off of the falculty room(everyone else takes AP’s in the basement of a local church) with a cranky proctor who didn’t even know I got extra time and the room didn’t have a clock which is clearly stated as required by college board(but I got a clock).
@fretfulmother The problem is that he resents being asked to do this in out-of-class time, whatever it is. He’s used to learning it all in class. He also doesn’t mind doing worksheets outside of class time, at least when they are graded. It’s a discipline and time management thing. He cannot be motivated to do non-graded work at home. I’m going to try making him pay for a tutor so he might realize that it would be cheaper for him to just watch the videos on his own.
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My husband is college science teacher. I do not think flipped classes are common in college sciences. Seems more of a middle school/high school thing. Most commonly, college science is going to involve large (how large depends on school) lecture courses, plus labs.
The only reason I would suggest taking the AP exams (and trying your best at them) is even if the college you are going to will not give you credit is because you never really know what life has in store for you around the next corner. As I have mentioned on here a few times, my S14 thought he had it all figured and worked out from January through July of his senior year. Then suddenly (or at least that is how it was portrayed to us) he was not sure of his plan that was pretty much set into action. Needless to say he went to 3 different colleges in 3 semesters and is now loving his third choice. I mention this because if he had not taken the AP Exams for the classes he was enrolled in he would not be sitting with 39 AP credits and 6 or 9 DE credits at college now! Motto is…you just never know what may happen. At about $91.00 a pop or so it’s really inexpensive as compared to the cost of taking it at most colleges.
@booajo That was certainly the case when I was teaching college science, but I wasn’t sure if it was changing. I am not philosophically opposed to the approach, but students aren’t used to it and it may not work well for kids who don’t need in-class help (or are the ones providing the help to others, keeping them from getting their own work done).
Good point @lvmjac1.
D has 4 AP classes this year. 4 tests for us to pay for. In several classes, if she takes the AP exam, she can skip the class final.
@Undercovermom1 My S has the same option, so he is taking three AP tests, not solely for that reason, but it is definitely a big motivator for him.
Yes, one of the reasons my administration encourages “flipping” is so that we have more time in the day for our labs. (Woo hoo! I think this is my thousandth post!)
@fretfulmother I am under the impression UTMA accounts can have a name change if you dont want to spend the money assuming your in laws have other grandkids? On a side note, do I have it right that you attended MIT but teach at a school? It would break many an engineers hearts!
speaking of AP and IB fees, our school district pays for them. I think I might be saving almost a 1000 this year.
DS will take 5 AP exams–some of his friends will take 8. Glad I don’t have to pay for that.At his school, if you take an AP class, you have to take the exam.
I strongly suspect that he will not bother studying for AP government. (He hates the class and doesn’t intend to study it in college so doesn’t need the credit. More time studying calc and physics).
We did liquidate a small UTMA account before my son turned 18. We’ll just pay the taxes on it (he’s not filing this year) as it hadn’t made that much since we started it at a bad point in investments and then switched to 529 when that became available. Except where they specifically ask for sibling assets at least I don’t have to claim D17’s UTMA and we’ll liquidate that one some time this year. We have a pretty sizable cost for dual enrollment so most of it will be used for that anyway. @fretfulmom we also have an IRA with that great Janus 20 fund too! I think that was only investment my husband’s financially savvy grandpa ever recommended that was a winner for us. I’m definitely buying computers, plane tickets for April, paying ahead on car insurance, dog getting his teeth cleaned, etc this month.
@GoodGrief16 My best friend has a son who will get his Dad’s GI Bill but it is very complicated how each school implements it. They are sticking to the public schools that clearly fall within the budgeted amount but room and board varies a lot. It will be tough for them with private schools though. They count all the locality pay, etc as income even though they will 100% be moving to another area when their son graduates with a fraction of the housing and locality pay so he won’t qualify for what they realistically need for him to go to the 100% need met private schools.
@lvmjac1 There really is only one more unit of study for BC Calc which your daughter could self study for. Even if they take BC they still also would get an AB score so it’s not like they risk losing all credit by trying for the harder test.
@dcplanner Yes, I totally agree as does her brother who offered to tutor her for the BC unit…but so far she will not hear a word of it. I will mention it to her again a few times before we get to that point but she is just so not confident in her math skills that its like she is retreating into a safe domain. She could have taken AP Calc BC but did not for the same reason. Now she feels like an Einstein in AP Calc AB because they are all struggling. Sometimes with my D, you just cannot win…LOL.