Oh no that stinks! I hope you can find it again cheap!

So you would have just submitted your portfolio recently, right? I'm very curious to know if they are going to try to ask you about that third grade testing, or if they are just going to let it go and wait for fifth! Let me know if they do end up saying anything to you about that! Of course, not all districts will respond the same way to a given situation anyway as we all know- yours might be fine and mine would likely be the PITA's who would demand the test results lol. Thanks for all of these responses, everyone! I still have some time to think on the standardized test thing, try to find out other peoples' experiences, etc. Maybe I'll even run it by the PDE and see what they have to say off the record.

Well I say it like you do, but I'm kinda from the same area- originally from New York, now living in Pennsylvania. I've never heard anybody use a kw sound, actually.

Hm. I don't know if I'd do the sleepover thing. But if they enjoyed spending time with each other during the day on that great property of yours (I'm so jealous of it, it sounds awesome lol), then I don't see the harm in that. After all, one of the things many homeschoolers say they like about homeschooling is that it doesn't put their kids in that artificial environment of being in a controlled group of 20-something other kids their exact age. They get to be more in the real world, where they are around a variety of different people of all different ages and get to choose to spend their time with them based on personality and interests and whether they enjoy each other's company.

:bigear:

As you guys know, the compulsory attendance age here in PA is 8. Now, this is still a ways off as my son hasn't even turned 5 yet, but I just want to clarify a couple of things! When he does have his eighth birthday, it will be in early November. So does that mean I won't have to file an affidavit until the following August, just a few months before he turns 9? And I won't have to submit a portfolio for him until the end of THAT school year, after he's already turned 9? If so, that leads me to my next question. What if when I first register him at that point, he's in 4th grade for all intents and purposes here at home? That may well be the case since I use Oak Meadow which is much more laid back in the early years, it's very hands on and story and nature and art based etc, so we plan to start it a year sooner than he would have started public school Kindergarten. So if he's in fourth grade at the point where I first have to register him as a homeschooled student.... ....what happens about the mandatory third grade standardized testing requirements? Do we get to legally just skip it altogether since he wouldn't have been of compulsory school age at the time he was doing third grade level work, and I get to wait til 5th grade to submit test scores? Or do I have to go by the fact that while I have him in fourth grade, they would have had him in third grade that year due to his age if he were in public school? I hope this made sense and didn't sound too confusing. Like I said, I know it's a ways off but I was just thinking and wondering about it and thought I'd try to clarify so I have it straight in my own mind. Thanks! :)

I think you're going to have to wait until you know where you're moving to, and then figure out what that particular state's laws are. Here in PA for example, compulsory school age is 8. As long as they are under 8, and have not attended public or private school in 1st grade or above, we don't have to report at all. However, if the child was previously enrolled in public school here within PA in 1st grade or above, they are then officially "compulsory school age" and we have to report each year thereafter even if they are not yet 8. If they only went to Kindergarten, that doesn't count. We can wait til they are 8 to report. But if they've been signed up for 1st grade- it is mandatory from then on to report to the district. (Confused yet? lol). If they attended school in 1st grade or above in a DIFFERENT state, that's a "gray area" and there seem to have been different responses given from within the Pennsylvania Department of Education as to whether they would be considered "compulsory" or not. This may vary widely from state to state though, so there doesn't even seem to be any sense in speculating as to what you should do until you know where you're going.

I figured I'd throw out there that I use Oak Meadow as a complete curriculum (I see you have that one noted in there) and I absolutely LOVE it. It's not at all dry and textbookish, but it's still very complete. It's a lot of hands on and creative stuff, which we really love. It isn't boring! We just finished using it for fourth grade for my 9 year old daughter and I am really looking forward to using OM5 in the fall with her, and starting OMK with my son.

Wouldn't the shaking thing develop into other shaking things? Yeah, I didn't get that either.

We teach him to do a little wiggle/shake to make sure everything is finished dripping before he pulls his underwear back up :)

My kids have them, trade them, love them. We do not pay $6.00 a package though. I've gotten packages of 12 Silly Bandz for $1.49 a package at a convenience store near my house, and they had I think six different package varieties.

No, because he's self-employed and it's only ever him and sometimes an apprentice working with him.

Fashion Bug.

We'll be starting TT5 in the fall over here, and I plan to do one lesson a day, four days a week.

My son (4.7) doesn't like to play outside unless there are other kids playing with him, either, most of the time. When his cousins or kids from the neighborhood come over- then he's fine playing out there.

Me either. I actually wondered what it meant, too, but never asked. I did figure it either meant that, or meant that they were more at that grade level than the one they are actually doing.

Sounds like you all need to go out and do something fun for the day :) Hang in there!

My POV is not that time shouldn't be put into your child's education, but that said time doesn't necessarily all have to be spent sitting down with textbooks and workbooks and multiple curricula etc. We do what I consider formal schoolwork for only a few hours a day as I said above. But we also do plenty of educational things that have nothing to do with sitting down and doing worksheets and workbooks and textbooks, that I don't necessarily consider "school" because they are separate from the curriculum stuff we do, but that are still definite learning experiences, many of them hands on. Things she'd never have time and opportunity to do if she were in public school and that absolutely do give her an advantage over where she'd be if she were in public school. To me, that still equals a very good education. To others it may not. I guess that's the good thing about homeschooling, we all get to do what we think is best and what works for us :D But I don't think someone should have to worry that they are not "doing enough" if their second grader is spending 4 1/2 to 5 hours a day on school work.

Keeping things as hands-on, fun and creative as possible. (That's what I love about our Oak Meadow curriculum)! Also lots of outings and field trips. Not adhering to a rigid schedule. Sometimes we'll get all of our schoolwork done in a few hours in the morning. Other times we do a bit then go outside and enjoy the weather or go on a field trip, and then get back to school stuff later in the day. Or evening. Whenever we feel like it. We do get everything done in the end. We're having fun. We're not burnt out. I can see my daughter is learning and doing fine. Mainly, I like to "do school stuff" around life, not live life around school stuff.

I agree. My daughter (9) and I always play a "What If" game where I bring up various situations, keeping them casual, and asking her what she would do in that situation. I listen to her answer, find something positive to say about it, and then if I feel it should have been different or elaborated on, we have a conversation about it. She knows that it's fine to say hello to people when they say hello to her, it's okay to chat with the neighbors if she sees them outside, it's okay to ask a mom with kids or a store clerk or somebody for help if she finds herself lost in a public place. But she also knows she should never leave a place with anybody or go alone into a room with somebody even if it is a store clerk or a mom, that she should never approach or get into a car with anybody, that she should never 'help' anybody if they start talking about needing help carrying something inside somewhere or finding a lost puppy or whatever. That if a neighbor invites her inside she always has to say she needs to ask her mom. That even if she's just going from one friend's house to another she should come tell me first, that I always need to know where she is. That if somebody ever did try touching her or grabbing her or trying to get her to go with them, she should yell loudly and run to the nearest safe place she knows (whether that's home, or a friend's house up the block) etc. But I don't want to give the creepy message that "strangers are bad." Usually they're not. Yet you do want them to know they can't always trust everybody and should be cautious and protect themselves. So far we've just done this with conversation and role playing, we haven't used any books and videos (but then again this daughter was in public school from K through most of 3rd grade so she's already gotten whatever stranger safety talks the schools gave).

My opinion? You are already aware that your daughters have very different learning styles. That's the first step. The next, as a homeschooler, is allowing for and respecting those differences and then planning for them. They are individuals and should be treated as such. Something public schools can never do, but you can.

Don't psych yourself out. Your kids are very young! They don't need multiple math curricula to keep up with the Joneses. Just introduce them to the subject and keep it as FUN as possible! :)

Oh, I totally agree with you. A homeschooled student getting one on one attention can complete the same amount of work in WAY less time than someone sitting at public school can. My daughter just finished fourth grade. We spent anywhere from 2 1/2 to 4 hours a day on schoolwork, depending on what we were doing. Like, if we were doing some sort of hands on project it might take longer than if we were just doing more of the basics. (Like when we did various colonial crafts and recipes, or made a covered pioneer wagon out of a shoebox, strips of cardboard and an old teeshirt, or went to the creek to examine, sketch and collect samples for a landscape model we were doing etc). And the time spent on school stuff included her illustrating her daily journal entries, us reading together, etc. Most days we never spent more than 3 hours on school stuff. Now, that doesn't mean when that time was up that she never did anything educational. Outside of school stuff, we watched educational shows, played educational games, continued reading together, went on many outings and field trips, and activities and programs, most of which I considered educational. I think next year for fifth we'll be doing pretty much the same thing, spending the same amount of time on school stuff. I don't feel that we're not doing enough. We do a variety of things she could never, ever do in public school, she's benefiting from the learning intensive nature of one on one instruction, and I can see that she's learning. So really there is no reason for you to think you aren't doing enough. You are, and then some. :)

Looking through Saxon 5/4 for my 9 y/o daughter to use this coming fall when she goes into fifth grade, I could tell it was going to make us both absolutely miserable. Very long, dry, textbookish, technical, etc. I knew if I used it, we'd both hate math (as opposed to just not loving math). After reading, researching, looking online, weighing all the reviews (good and bad) against my family's capabilities, interests, and needs, I decided to go with Teaching Textbooks for the fall (also known as "TT" around here). We looked at the demos and samples on their site, my daughter tried it out, and we both fell in love with it. I've got a huge sense of relief because of it, and she's got a huge sense of excitement (about math! Who'd have thought!) and can't wait to start using it. Some people think it isn't the "strongest" math program you can use. Well, maybe that's true, I don't know if it is, but I don't care. My daughter's only 9. My goal for her is to understand the math she's doing and not hate the math she's doing (no tears, no misery, no "I'm bad at math!" comments). I believe Teaching Textbooks will do that for her (and for me). And that is worth its weight in gold. IF it is the case that when she gets older she's looking at some sort of career path or whatever that seems like she needs more advanced math, and she and I start feeling like TT isn't doing for her what she needs, then I will be happy to look into whatever I need to look into for her, be that videos, tutors, some sort of class, whatever. At that age, feeling like it's more her choice, she'll have a good foundation to start wading her way through whatever it is she feels she still needs to learn or whatever direction she feels she should go in. Without crying about it. ;) But that may never be the case and I think she may do just fine using TT. If you don't know what TT is, you get computer discs (along with the consumable workbook) where she will first watch a "lecture," then try some sample problems, and then do the lesson itself. The friendly computerized tutor will explain to her exactly what she needs to do (much more clearly and patiently than I can, for sure, as I'm not very mathy myself!) while giving her a visual example too of how to do it. If she gets it wrong or needs it explained again, it will show her how to get the answer step by step- both audio and visual explanations. What's more, in the elementary grades anyway, it keeps a gradebook for you. You can see what they got wrong, what their grades were, etc. It has period quizzes in between the lessons, too. We're both very excited about using it.

I pulled my daughter out of public school at the end of third grade because there were just way too many things I couldn't stand about the school system. We homeschooled for the rest of third grade, all of fourth, and we're looking forward to fifth. I love homeschooling her and wish I had done it sooner- or all along! My 4 y/o son on the other hand is being homeschooled right from the beginning. As of NOW I have no intention of sending either of them to school. But could I swear that it will NEVER happen? Not necessarily. I don't know how I will address things yet as they get older- if they want to go to public school in high school, or if I feel like I'm not able to do an adequate job homeschooling a high schooler when the time comes, etc. So I say that I'm taking it year by year and seeing how it goes. But as of now, there are no plans to send them to school.