Homeschooling for kindergarten

[sunnypia]

Hello,
I'm looking for some help with my decision to homeschool my little boy for his kindergarten year. He will be 4 in August and I'm already stressing about it. I work from home and feel this is the perfect oppurtunity to really make the most of my time with him. We have all day kindergarten here and I feel that it will be too much for him. Many parents hold their young 5's back a year but I thought it would be better to teach him myself and send him for first grade.
I'd appreciate your input!

[sassy mom]

My opinion is that kindergarden is more about learning to work and play in a group and an introduction to school in general. Do you send your child to playdates or a pre-school thing? My daughter is 4 and she knows all of the academic kind of stuff, but I am sending her just to help her social skills -- she needs to learn to follow instructions and stay on task amid distractions and to share and get along with people she disagrees with.

[Suz]

I was a kindergarten teacher at a school that had 1/2 day kindergarten with optional full day. Let me just say that from my experience the kids that stayed all day were exhausted and needed to be home with their moms. It is a very long day for a little one. Would be nice if you could find a 1/2 day kindergarten - although homeschooling is wonderful if you are able to do it - I'm homeschooling my dd and ds and it has been my best teaching experience ever!
Good luck with your decision! :)

[Mickey]

Sunny, if you intend to only homeschool for Kindergarten, I suggest you look up North Carolina's education standards online (or contact the board of education directly) to make sure your child will be in the right place academically when mainstreaming him in first grade. If he's behind, that could be awkward and difficult for him.

[Lynda-WA]

I send my kids to public school for the extra stuff. Mainly the socialization skills. I do the academics at home since I generally don't feel that need is being met at school.

Are you thinking of only homeschooling the one year? Then on to public school? If that's the case I'd start off with public school right away.

One thought occured to me with kindergarteners getting tired during full day school. Do you think part of the problem is that they are unaccustomed to the routine? Or is it exclusively an age thing? He'll have a full day in 1st grade. Would it be better to wait that year forcing him to adjust to school all day when it matters instead of in K, which many consider more of a school introduction and getting ready to learn period? Those students that went to K will already know what to expect during a full day. I can see that a half day is preferable to a full day. (DD has 2 hrs 40 min a day)I'm not so sure that no K is better then a full K day. At least if he's going to be public schooled from 1st on and not homeschooled.


And if you do have your heart set on homeschooling, then I agree with Mickey's suggestion.

[sunnypia]

Thank you so much for your replies! They have truly helped me and they are great points about letting the adjustment happen in Kindergarten when it doesn't academically count as much. And I was really planning on doing it for one year.
I have a moms club and we do play dates a couple times a week with it. He was also in preschool up until this winter but found he was still very shy in social situations. My moms club has seemed to have allowed him to blossum more so than school since he had the same group for 2 years.
He would be one of the youngest in his class and I was just afraid that it would be too much to go from home all day to that. This has definitely helped! I think I should just go with it and give him a chance before I assume he won't be mature enough for it. I just wish it was half day!!!!!!!:\