I think the beauty of homeschooling is the flexibility. I remember one September years ago when my younger son figured out on his own how to carry numbers--and that happened to be the last math concept taught in the age-appropriate math book we were using at the time. So I just ordered the next level up and in two weeks he was working away. We had pulled our kids out of a private school and I was thrilled that I did not have to have a series of conferences with teachers and principals to convince them that he should be moved up. We just did it. Now, my kids work at different levels in different subjects. Most of them are ahead of their grade in everything, but in some subjects they are at grade level. Our state does not require any reporting, so we are free to make these decisions based on what is best for each child. MariaT

Hi, this is my first time responding, I just joined this group a few weeks ago. There is so much experience here, I already have learned so much! I had my three kids evaluated because the evaluation itself opened doors to programs and opportunities for them that I cannot duplicate at home and it gives them the chance to be with other kids who have the same interests. My sons were evaluated when they were each 8 years old. My husband and I have an eye on future opportunities, and we wanted to build up a paper trail of our kids' accomplishments/abilities. While I was at it I had my daughter evaluated when she was 4, and we redid the evaluation again a few months ago because I noticed significant improvement in some areas and I wanted to quantify that. For what it's worth, my sons were quite squirrelly when they were 6 years old, and they have both settled down quite a bit. Except on beautiful spring days..... Maria