Pennsylvania Homeschoolers

AP* Online Classes

Who are we?

AP Homeschoolers Inc. is a Richman family corporation. The owners are Howard and Susan Richman and their daughter Maya Inspektor. It grew out of a family business, Pennsylvania Homeschoolers, started by Howard and Susan Richman, that has been serving the homeschooling community in Pennsylvania and nationwide for more than thirty years. Howard and Susan Richman wanted to find a way to give their own high-school homeschooled children-- and the many other homeschool high school students they worked with, outside structure, challenging coursework, and academic community: these online courses were born.

AP Homeschoolers was one of the first online providers for AP® test preparation courses for homeschoolers starting with the 1996-1997 school year. From just a few courses and a website initially programmed by Howard and Susan's teenage son, these online courses have grown through word of mouth into a well-organized extensive roster of high-quality courses, fueled by passionate teachers and satisfied students. In fact, many past students have gone on to teach online courses with Pennsylvania Homeschoolers themselves, including Daniel Burns (AP® US History, AP® Macroeconomics, AP® Microeconomics, AP® US Government),  Howard and Susan Richman's own daughter Maya Inspektor (AP® English Literature, AP® English Language), Ty Stuart (Honors English Language Arts), Caleb Alons (various Summer Enrichment Classes, including Learn to Bird: Elementary Ornithology, SAT Math Prep, Calculus: Prep for the AP® Class, and Group Theory in Mathematics), Odelia Chan (co-teacher with Maya Inspektor, and Summer Enrichment Class: Writing the Sentence Workshop). Today, PA Homeschoolers offers dozens of AP® and Honors courses and has served thousands of homeschooled students worldwide.  We seek out master teachers who combine passion for their subject areas with understanding of the homeschooling community's unique needs. We hope your family will find courses here that help you fulfill your goals for the coming school year.

AP® Classes Online

While our full-year AP® courses are focused on preparing students for the Advanced Placement® exams in the spring, they offer much more than mere test preparation. Our courses run from early fall to late spring, offering personal interaction with master teachers and motivated classmates. Each course is individually shaped by its instructor and offers its own structure, degree of interactivity, and academic goals, with everything aligned to the College Board AP® program requirements. By reading course descriptions and class reviews, prospective parents and students can find courses appropriate to any learning style. We feel that online courses should do more than replace a brick-and-mortar classroom with an automated website, so we seek out teachers who understand the unique needs of homeschooling students and the potential of online education. 

All of our AP Online classes are authorized through the College Board Audit process— our teachers each have their syllabus approved by experienced course reviewers, meeting all College Board AP® guidelines for course coverage. PA Homeschoolers AP Online now also sends out official transcripts verifying AP course completion and course grades—we can send these on to colleges, NCAA, the military academies, or scholarship programs as requested by the family, for a $5 fee (AP Transcript Request Form can be found via the link on the sidebar).

Perhaps one of the best aspects of our classes is that in the many years that we have offered AP Online, we have developed a community of homeschool student scholars who bring to each class the positive ways of interacting that they have learned in previous classes. It’s not unusual for students to take one AP Online class in 10th grade (and we’ve had some very bright 9th graders also), and then take more in 11th and more in 12th grade— first checking with their new PA Homeschoolers AP Online friends, so that they can plan to be in class together once more. Many students form positive friendships that last well beyond their high school at home years—and at least a few students have opted to be college roommates after learning together in PA Homeschoolers AP Online! We host dozens of students from all over the country each spring for a June weekend party at the Richman Farm in Western Pennsylvania, and it's a pleasure to see online friendships transition into the real world. 

Honors Classes Online

We offer honors classes to help students be ready for PA Homeshoolers AP Online classes: Several years ago we began adding several HONORS level high school courses designed to help students get ready for eventual AP level coursework, based in many ways on the guidelines for the College Board Pre-AP program (note: we are not officially part of the Pre-AP® program, as they have restrictions that don't allow distance programs to participate at this time). 

Summer Enrichment Online

Continuing in Summer 2024! After realizing in spring of 2020 that many students were dismayed to find that the special summer programs or internships or classes they had hoped to attend that summer had been cancelled due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns, our program of dedicated teachers began brainstorming. We wanted to fill this gap in summer opportunities with a full series of classes-- some as short as 3-weeks, some as long as 6-weeks-- that students can complete fully online. These were so popular and enjoyable (for both students and teachers!) that we are continuing to offer a full slate of fascinating and unique online courses. Some will start in early June, and others will start later in the summer, giving a range of time-frames for courses. There is a choice here to fit all interests and all vacation plans, and all teachers are developing ways for students to interact with one another. You won’t feel like you are just ‘learning by yourself’-- you’ll have a special summer community!

Our dedicated teachers have truly gotten excited as they have developed these classes-- and we know your students will really benefit from these unique ways to approach a full range of subject areas in engaging and active ways. They’ll have a chance to explore new topics not always covered in standard high school classes-- and very often have the chance to develop a major hands-on project related to their learning. 

We hope you will let your homeschooling friends know about these summer classes-- and we also welcome students who normally attend brick and mortar schools during the school year to join in! Together we’re going to make this summer one to remember -- we’re going to learn cooperatively and with shared energy and enthusiasm. It’s going to be an amazing summer once again, with Summer Enrichment Online!

We hope you find a class that will help your student have a meaningful summer ahead!

Who can participate?

We welcome homeschoolers from all over the US and from abroad to take part in our classes. You do not have to live in Pennsylvania to enroll.  Our full-year PA Homeschoolers AP Online and Honors classes, as in the past, are only available to homeschooled students – full-time public and private ‘brick and mortar’ school students, as well as Pennsylvania public cyber-charter school students, are not eligible to participate. We fully realize that a growing number of homeschool students may take part-time coursework at a local public or private school or college, or have oversight from a homeschool program such as Mother of Divine Grace School, Clonlara School, or a private school set up to help homeschoolers (this option is often used in California). If you have a question about your student's status and eligibility, please send us an email at aphomeschoolers@gmail.com. 

NOTE: The EXCEPTION on who can participate in our courses, is that we welcome 'regular' school students to join with our homeschoolers in our special Summer Enrichment Online classes.

How do students apply?

On February 1, registration opened for the 2024-2025 school year, for both our Summer Enrichment Online classes, and for our PA Homeschoolers AP Online and Honors classes (tuition payments can be made online for our *school-year* classes starting on February 1, 2024-- the online store will be updated for all summer classes by February 1, 2024 also). Courses accept students based on rolling admission, so some will fill up as soon as May or June, while others may accept students up through the start of the school year. To apply for PA Homeschoolers AP Online or Honors courses, apply directly through each individual teacher by following the directions in the course description; admittance requirements for each course varies. Once a student has been accepted into a course, the student should submit payment for the course through our secure online store, or via check (we also have a payment plan).  NOTE: a couple of classes do *not* have a specific application-- if you meet the criteria set by the teacher, just pay tuition and you're in. 

Our Summer Enrichment Online classes do NOT have specific applications-- interested families will simply pay online through our Online Store for these classes-- the online store is updated right now! We will then send each teacher an updated listing of enrolled students, and teachers will then contact both students and parents with further information on getting ready for the class and within a week of the class start date full info on how to log-in to the class website. 

Who recommends our courses?

We have done very little advertising of our courses over the years, and our student body has grown through strong word of mouth and repeat customers. Many college admissions consultants working with bright homeschool students specially recommend our courses. For example, Denise Boiko, author of Homeschooled and Headed for College www.homeschoolroadmap.com, regularly recommends our PA Homeschoolers AP Online classes to the students they work with. Our classes are discussed frequently on high school at home Facebook groups and online forums— and the parents and students involved are the best ‘promoters’ of our classes!

Probably the best way to see what others have thought of our courses is to be sure to read the student reviews listed after each course description. These reviews are automatically posted, unedited, and represent the opinions of past students, as well as some parents.

Yes, our courses are recognized as meeting NCAA eligibility requirements!

Several years ago, our program completed the process to have our AP® courses approved as *core courses* for the NCAA eligibility requirements for student-athletes seeking to play Division I and II sports in college. (The only AP® courses we offer not considered as 'core courses' are AP® Art History and AP® Music Theory-- these don't count as 'core courses' for public schools, either). We now regularly submit our Pennsylvania Homeschoolers AP Online transcripts for our student-athletes who are registered with the NCAA. Hooray!!!

How can you find out more?

Because we believe in giving individual teachers creative control over their courses, the best way to find out about each course is to read each course description and the reviews from past students. In addition, you are welcome to contact individual teachers with further questions-- each teacher's email address is listed with their course description.