Homeschool or Online HS

Look into duel credits - high school classes that count as college credits as well. I know Texas Tech and Collin County both offer this program.

K-12 Texas Virtual Academy, (google it), has online curriculum supported by the State of Texas, but you have to jump through some hoops, (TEA required), and take the TAKS test. They provide a microscope, textbooks, various resources, at no charge, but there also might be a waiting list at this point. There is also a paid version which does not involve the state, no TAKS, no hoops other than the ones you set for your own child. My daughter had her two boys on the Texas Virtual (charter)and didn't care for the social studies curriculum, but the rest seemed alright.
My brother and sister-in-law are using the paid version, and are very happy with that experience.
There's another, based in Portland, Oregon, can't think of the name, which has various program options, Aventa, Keystone, and a third...you can probably google it from those key words. A teacher friend is teaching French for them, and liking it from the teacher's perspective.
All of these involve a teacher on the other end of the online system, who grades work submitted and writes comments and suggestions, so there is feedback. It requires weekly phone conferences with the teacher, both student and parent, as well as chat room dialogue with the rest of the class. It seems to work well.
My French teacher friend is impressed with the caliber of students she is teaching, how motivated they are, and much harder they try compared to the students she had in her public school campuses.

The online public school that one of the moms mentioned is Texas Virtual Academy (TXVA). My 3rd grader is enrolled. It is a great program, but sometimes the extras that they expect can be overwhelming. I had 2 children enrolled the first of the year. The program works well for my dughter, but my son who has a different learning stylet sruggled. The curriculum is excellent, though.

www.k12.com/txva

One consideration is whether you went to college, and whether you would like/expect your daughter to. I'm a college professor, and the best student in my freshman English class this semester did online HS. His parents aren't college educated, and they felt (probably correctly) that he needed more advanced HS work than they could help him with if he was going to succeed in college. For writing, he would send in his essays, and have them very thoroughly critiqued by teachers. It definitely paid off--he's getting straight A's in my class, and doing MUCH better than most students who went to traditional HS.

There are online high schools like thru Texas Tech that are great and then there is what I call public school on line where you still are answerable to the school district and must take tests. I am degreed myself and my kids are using the American School of Correspondence which is over 100 years old and solid books and paper - no online. My friend who was Law Review at Brigham Young and her hubby with multiple degrees recommended it as they use is for their kids. It is a very complete program. My son is starting Junior College in January at 17 and my 16 year old daughter will be taking some dual credit there as well....good luck in your decisions and feel free to contact me....

Tanya,
Here is how Texas sees homeschooling- you are allowed to. However, if you homeschool and then say in a year or two decide your child will go back to public school, she will have to start as a freshman. Yeah, really. Because I looked at doing this with my son (pulling him out to homeschool so due to health problems) but was told if we do not use the state approved on-line then he would have to start as a freshman, no matter what "grade" he was in for homeschooling.

There was a young lady who was a junior (Had been homeschooled from kindergarten to junion) and she had to start with freshman classes, now they do have a fast track to help but still.

Now if you homeschool then send her to a private school they will do placement tests first then place her in the appropriate level of classes.

Hope this helps. If you are looking for Christian based curriculums then check out Alpha Omega Publications, they have some really good curriculums.

My daughter finished out her high school on-line through Texas Tech University High School. It was a great program and wonderful teachers. She also got 9 hours' college credit by taking designated college credit courses.

A lot would depend on your reasons for homeschooling. Since it sounds like she's been in public school up till now, though, I'll repeat the information on virtual schooling. K12 isn't the only option anymore. There's also Connections Academy, as well as a few others. If she's self-motivated and you're willing to oversee her assignments, etc. (at her age, it's mostly self-guided), virtual school might be the answer until you figure out for yourself whether you're willing to go the entire homeschool route and how to choose your curriculum, etc. Good luck!!

<<However, if you homeschool and then say in a year or two decide your child will go back to public school, she will have to start as a freshman. Yeah, really.>>

That's not exactly the story I got from our local school district (Lewisville ISD). What they said was, that if the student uses an accredited program (in our case, they wanted it accredited by SACS), then the student would accept the credits and enroll them in the grade that the accredited program says they are in. If you use an unaccredited program, then the student will have to take placement tests to determine in which grade they belong. That's where the trouble starts. The ISD could be testing them on material your child has not had, and so, therefore, they could potentially put them in a lower grade level.

The best way to assure yourself that your child can get back into PS (just in case), is to call your local school district and speak to a high level executive (like the Superintendent of Secondary Schools) and question him/her directly. You might even document the conversation to make sure you have proof of what was said, should you ever need it.

We homeschool our 7th and 10th grade boys and used Texas Tech ISD in elementary and middle school. We loved the elementary, but not so much the middle school. We just thought the middle school program was dry. I just got an email yesterday (as a matter of fact) that TTUISD is now offering more than 25 courses online; the rest are still offered in print. Here's the link to the demo:
http://www.onlinecourses.ode.ttu.edu/sample/moodle/
Our biggest concern was that in the middle school program, there didn't seem to be very much connection with the teachers. Perhaps the person who posted that they used the high school program can better speak to that. Even though we quit TTUISD (because it was dry) and are now with an online program that we love, we are using TTUISD for Texas History. They are the only game in town for that, as far as I know.

Please feel free to contact me, if you have any other questions.

I home school my 4 children. My oldest daughter is in 9th. I use ACE and it is a self taught curriculum for the most part. I use it mainly because they use to go to private school and I didn't want to change mid stream.

I've seen both formats be successful. If you run into needing more one-on-one instruction with your daughter, look for a private tutor to get through the harder parts of a curriculum. I know as a private tutor myself, I have been able to take students through a year's worth of math in the summer time alone to help them accelerate quicker. (I've done this with middle- and high-school level math courses).

i was homeschooled in high school. i would recommend some sort of curiculum that has accountablility. someone that you turn your work into to give you a grade. it can be very easy to slack off from school work when you don't have the accountability.

My boys go to Coram Deo Academy which is 1/2 homeschool and 1/2 school. I don't think I could fully homeschool on my own. We love it because it is an amazing Classical curriculum and they provide us with what we do on homeschool days. It works out really well for us. They also started a full-time homeschool program that one of my friends does with her son and she is very pleased with that. You can contact me or check out their website for more details: http://www.coramdeoacademy.org/