:iagree: Waiting, waiting, waiting... I hope those who are chosen will post their impressions, too!

Wow... :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

I gave HST+ a trial... It's not quite what I'm looking for, so I'm really hoping the Well Planned Day will be closer to what I need! And it would be awesome to get to try the beta! :D

YES. Our church now has "unofficial" security guards standing at every entrance, and I've wondered whether they're armed. (Off-topic - they're totally awesome. Taking four tiny kids across a parking lot is so much easier with them there.) With the rash of shootings in schools - and even in churches - in recent years, I think more people have begun to carry concealed weapons for protection. OTOH, I have a family member who lives in a country where she could face persecution for her faith. (She is married to a native of that country.) I don't know whether it really helps to prepare someone for this, or whether the "trial run" only gives them PTSD.

Technically it was my 3rd delivery, but 4th baby. My labor was 2 hours from start to finish. I'm a little fuzzy about how far along I was... I think I was approaching 39 weeks.

:lol: At least once a week, DH tries to convince me of the benefits of some *new* animal that he wants to buy. It has become a joke between us. I think the highlight was when he considered buying an alpaca, because I could spin the wool to make sweaters!!! And historically I've been so good at finishing these types of projects. (Not really. :tongue_smilie:) At least our local farm store doesn't sell baby alpacas! ;) Turkeys can be tame. I'd probably be thinking about buying him a buddy, but I might head to the farm store myself to do that... :001_smile:

Well, I planned to join in a couple years, when my kids reach the required age for truancy. But now I'll be checking into it a bit more. :001_huh:

In light of another thread here, I thought I'd add that I'd never want to cause problems or place burdens on anyone. I want to know the law so I can feel like I'm protecting our family.

Awesome! I was just getting ready to post this looong reply when I thought I'd check to see if anyone else posted - yep! Well, here's my long reply anyway: Yikes! That is old - thanks for pointing that out! Thank you - I found what I needed on our KSDE site! This page does say "substantially equivalent" to 1116 hours (186 six-hour days). I'll print that for our records along with this PDF [the one d.g. posted] ("What You Need to Know About Homeschooling in Kansas"). I also found this version of the actual statute, dated 2010 (hopefully the most recent): Attendance may be fulfilled at "a private, denominational or parochial school taught by a competent instructor for a period of time which is substantially equivalent to the period of time public school is maintained in the school district in which the private, denominational or parochial school is located." The minimum number of hours required for KS public schools is covered in another statute: (2) for pupils attending any of the grades one through 11, not less than 1,116 school hours in each school year Interestingly (ok, probably only interesting to me :001_smile: - but it's in that PDF), the suggestion that the instruction should be "planned," "scheduled" and "tested" didn't come from the statutes. It came after a 1983 law suit, which ruled that a particular homeschool did not qualify as a private school because it did not provide planned, scheduled, tested instruction by a competent teacher. Now I feel like a completely obsessive nerd... but at least I know the requirements here!

Thank you for looking into this! Yes, the homeschool/private school option was clarified (along with other topics) when I found this link, which has more direct wording of the law. HSLDA used to have this info on their web site (including the 1116 hours), but they seem to have changed their summary in the past year or so. For the convenience of anyone who stumbles across this thread :) here's the most applicable paragraph. As far as I can tell, it gives the direct wording of KS law: Homeschooling: The Kansas compulsory attendance law requires that the parents of children ages 7 through 18 have those children regularly attend school during the school year. The compulsory attendance law can be satisfied through home schooling, provided it is operated for substantially the same length of time as the public schools (1,116 hours per year), be taught by a "competent instructor", offer planned and scheduled instruction appropriate to the age-level of each student being educated, and monitors and keeps records of the achievement and progress of its students. Additionally, private nonaccredited schools, including home schools, must register with the State Board of Education. "Logging hours" may not be a good way to put it, but I do need to "plan" and "schedule" hours that are "substantially equivalent" to the public school's 1116 hours. I also need to "monitor" and "keep record" of my kids' progress. I'm sure that leaves plenty of room for interpretation. I tend to play it safe, so I'm working on scheduling roughly 1116 preplanned hours (which can include a variety of "subjects," as this is not regulated). I also plan to use some form of standardized testing, "keeping record" of the progress. (This part is probably playing it safer than I need to do, but it seems like the most straightforward way of complying with the record-keeping, especially since I planned to use standardized tests anyway.)

This may not be such a bad idea - really. :iagree: It was funny watching my 4yos try to figure this out their first night at Awana last fall. I hadn't thought to teach it to them. But I admit... sometimes I get so frustrated with the noise level that I make them raise their hands to talk. I feel a little bit like I should be wearing a denim jumper in those moments. :lol: I bought some transition cards for ideas, because it can be difficult to get just 3 or 4 kids to do the same thing all at once. I guess I should be grateful for our slight similarities to ps! (Adding "classroom behavior management" to our objectives...)

True! I guess if I'm short on hours, I can write in "substantially equivalent to class switching and paper shuffling." :001_smile:

Translated: I'm making this more complicated than it is, as usual. :tongue_smilie: I'll aim at checking off our assignments for about 186 days and stop stressing over the rest! Thanks so much for taking a look at it! :001_smile:

:lol:

Yes. :001_smile: Are you nearby?

Thanks so much, d.g. All of that was extremely helpful. We moved to KS last summer, and I've been holding my breath for the June conference when I hope to get connected with people and get more questions answered. We haven't been recording school hours yet. This coming year will be our first time using packaged curricula. After I establish our schedule, I hope the record-keeping won't seem so daunting. :) I'll look at DORA and DOMA. I'm not opposed to adding to the data on homeschooling by taking standardized tests, but I haven't considered possible issues surrounding this.

While I was searching for the 1116 hours (186 six-hour days), I found this, which is pretty comprehensive (scroll to the second-to-last paragraph): http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/RegPrivSchl/kansas.html This mentions the 1116 hours. It also answers my question - there is no other option. It will be a private school - non-accredited. It is good to know that the subject requirements won't apply to us. I did find a couple of other things I didn't know, if I'm reading this right: - I need to provide vision and hearing screening for the kids at least every two years. - I need to fly the US & State flags from a flagstaff. (Am I reading that right?!) I guess I should have done more digging before I posted, but sometimes it's easier to figure these things out if I'm having a conversation about it. :blush:

We're in Kansas. As far as I can tell, it's because this is the option that offers the most legal protection. I also think it's easier to qualify for special ed as a private school. At this point, that's not an issue for us, but who knows what will crop up as the kids get older? ETA: As far as the pros/cons of being a homeschooler instead of private schooler, I don't know. I was guessing there would be fewer regulations, but I didn't even see that option on the HSLDA section for Kansas.

In our state, the HSLDA recommends registering as a private school instead of a homeschool. Of course, that means complying with the regulations for a private school, including logging 1116 hours per year (roughly 30-hour weeks during a regular school year) and meeting certain subject requirements. Does anyone else register as a private school? Does that add a lot of extra pressure, especially in the early years, when learning is less self-directed? The regulations here start at age 7. Our two oldest will turn 7 during the 2013-2014 school year. I'd like to follow private school requirements anyway. (I'm a rule follower... for example, we plan to do standardized testing.) But I'm also trying to account for: a) the fact that my kids may learn more material in a shorter time than they would at a traditional school, and b) the other types of activities that are important to our household and that may or may not count toward "direct instructional time" for the school record. Even though I want to meet private school requirements, I'm not sure how I feel about having that hanging over my head every day when my kids are 7 years old. Should I see if I can register as a homeschool instead, to give us more flexibility? I also wondered if other states are very different. People talk so much about unschooling, and I can't imagine these types of homeschools are registered as private schools!

My dd is only 4, and she's well on her way to being just like your dd in that sense. Please let me know if you find a green necklace in there. Someone gave it to dd yesterday, and we need to return it because the giver found out it belonged to someone else (oy). Darned if I know where dd stashed it. In the process of looking, I found purses full of flashlight bits & decorative pebbles, desks crammed with pads of paper and hair clips, and a closet full of absolutely everything. I can't complain too much because I was just like dd at that age. :)

I ran across this thread while I was looking for devotional resources, too. (I have a ds who is about to turn 5 as well.) This book looks good: Five-Minute Devotions for Children by Pamela Kennedy. Each devotion looks at a different animal, discusses an aspect of God, and includes a verse. I plan to buy this for a more "fun" reflection in addition to other material. I'm considering using Telling God's Story as our primary devotional, but I may wait until next year for that.

Yep. I'm phobic. One of the first things we did when we moved here was treat the house with diatomaceous earth and pyrethrins. No more brown recluses! :D

I loved the first post, but I left the thread several posts down. Maybe when all my kids are out of diapers...

:grouphug: My kids have learned their letters and sounds with starfall.com (free interactive web site). Then we move on to the other readers.

I voted no. But I want one!