And for anyone who's wondering, whether or not your county board has such an arrangement with your school district doesn't matter--you still mail your notification to the superintendent of your school district. If they do have this kind of arrangement with their county board, then they've just hired out the review process...they still need to receive the notifications and send the acknowledgement letters out.

We have a homeschooler on our county board--she's the president! :hurray: She's been keeping us well-informed of the changes. She says that the county boards have arrangements with some of the school districts to review the notifications, but you still notify your school district and (if I recall correctly) the school district still sends the acknowledgement letter. This means that for those districts, you still send your letter to them (the school district), they send it to the county board, county board reviews it & ...this is where I think this is the way it goes...sends it back to the school, and the school sends you the acknowledgement letter. I suppose your county board has this arrangement with your school district, OP, and perhaps wants to let you know that they received your notification from the school & everything looks ok--but the official letter has to come from the school district.

I do not track hours, as we are not required to track or to show anyone that we have. I don't worry about it. They're learning all the time--it's hard to quantify everyday out-of-the-box learning experiences.

Primary? All 3 editions are Primary Mathematics. Did you mean U.S. Edition? (there is also Standards and Common Core Ed.)

I use U.S. edition & no teacher's guide. I work through the problems with my kids if they need help, or if they are able to do it without me, I work through them--mentally or on paper, as needed--when I check their work. I don't really know what's in the teacher's guide besides answers, but I figure I need to do the work myself anyway--my math has gotten very rusty. I plan to do the same all the way through high school--I do occasionally check answers at the back of the book (for books that have answers). I just got Lial's Prealgebra & Introductory Algebra (one book) to use after SM 6 a & b. I started working on it myself last night. Life without answer keys... http://homeschoolmath.blogspot.com/2006/07/life-without-answer-keys.html

The first edition of TWTM (also referred to as WTM) was published in 1999. The first edition of SOTW was published in 2001. So it sounds like you have the first edition of TWTM. When you say do you mean no need for these because you're using other sources?

Same here.

Neither of those websites go anywhere.

What I like is that it looks daunting, but isn't at all. If someone (a non-homeschooler who is not looking for advice re: becoming a homeschooler) questions what we are required to do in Ohio, I tell them all about our regulations. ;)

I wouldn't assume that. When I ask a kid (or their parent) what grade they're in, I really do want to know what grade they're in.

Each of my dd will be in 6th grade when they turn 12 in October (not this year, but the years in which they turn 12).

I only commented on it because someone else brought it up. With advent of the year 2000, we all had to figure out how we were going to say the year(s) after being used to saying ninteen- for so long.

The CAT E has been discontinued. Seton will continue to rent them as long as they have them--the write-in book for up through 3rd grade, I think, and book + scannable answer sheet for 4th grade and up. After they run out, or materials get in bad enough shape that they can't be used, they're done.

....but I'm interested in the CAT. I know there are a lot of other tests out there. ETA: it looks like the SAT 10 is complete battery, also. The benefit of CAT E was that it was a survey--language arts and math only. At least the CAT 6 has a choice to do survey only; the question is, how does this show up on the test results?

I couldn't answer the poll because of the way it's worded. I would say no because we haven't gotten to them yet in our history cycle, not because it's a waste of time.

For the Terra Nova/Cat 6 (which replaces the old CAT test), it says for the Survey/Plus Battery test, "If you opt to do just the core portions of the test (Reading, Language, and Math), administration time will be substantially decreased." So apparently you can choose to do just the Survey portion. We use the CAT also, but were able to purchase the CAT E/Survey again this year through Seton. As long as they still have them in stock they'll keep renting them. I tested a 2nd grader & 4th grader this year. Looks like we'll have to gt the CAT 6 next year, at least for my 3rd grader. I wonder--if we do only the Survey portion of CAT 6, how will the results be displayed? Will it look bad that we did not do the rest of the test? Does anyone have experience with this?

I had a weighted tape dispenser for dc that I got at a dollar store. It went missing for a while--they do walk away, apparently--and I thought I'd have to get a new one. I looked at one store, Walmart, (forgot to look at the others because it wasn't on my list), and the only one I could find was this: http://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Dispenser-Magic-Inches-C30-SHOE-B/dp/B004LP6NLK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1406223728&sr=8-2&keywords=3m+tape+dispenser+shoe Not really what I want for the kids, in the schoolroom. Not to mention it costs a lot more than the $1 one. Fortunately dd10 found the dispenser on her (very messy) dresser.

Prong folder w/o pockets? Edit--Just looked online, I can only find them with pockets. Those are .15 at Staples & Walmart.

Thank you. I think I'll get the other one.

To clarify, I don't think the Preamble is diagrammed in her book. She did say in her talk that this particular diagram was done by someone else. The book that we discussed was a book that would take several years (perhaps a dedicated 10th-12th grader could do it in a year, I suppose). At the time I was hoping to find books that would cover one or two grades at a time. I will probably get one of her diagramming books in the next couple of years and plan to spread it out over several grades.

I do.

:iagree: :iagree: We also use NAC by MP.

Did she do the entire book? E. O'Brien has a few diagramming books, but I think this is the one I talked with her about at her booth. She said it was for beginning grammar (3rd grade-ish) through 12th grade--it would likely take most students several years to get through. It gets pretty complex. In her talk she went from simple subject/predicate diagramming to showing the diagram of the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, which is a very long sentence (there's actually one shorter sentence in the Preamble before this): It was a huge diagram. She talked about how a college professor had asked his students what this sentence means. They came up with all kinds of off-the wall explanations, most of which had nothing to do with what this sentence is about. It was partly about not knowing grammar, and partly about reading comprehension, which probably relates back to grammar, etc. She said that being able to diagram a complex sentence like this can help you see the essential meaning of the sentence. She has some other books, like this one, which is thicker--this may be the one I specifically looked at at her booth; it looked a bit overwhelming at the time, as my oldest was in 3rd grade. http://www.amazon.com/Stay-Smart-Workbook-Diagramming-Exercises/dp/1470051109/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=103KPRD5VXJ229EN8T07

The Elmer's school glue seems to be $0.50, at least at stores around here. You might find other brands for less.

The group work doesn't sound like things that can be done in the car.