homeschooling preschool and kindergarten seminar help

[EmilyGF]

Hi afterschoolers,

 

I'm going to be giving a seminar for people who are thinking of keeping their kids home for preschool and/or kindergarten. Some may want to homeschool, some may just want to give their kids more of a childhood (kindergarten here is 7.5 hours/day, often has only one recess, and may involve 0.5-2 hours of bussing). 

 

Are there issues I should highlight for those who want to transition into afterschooling after the early childhood years?

 

Thanks for your help.

Emily

[tm919]

I saw your other thread so I won't repeat the items there. Two general things IF they plan to send their children to public/private school in early elementary:

 

1. Try to find out somehow what the screener is for K and what background children are expected to have each year. For example, for the K screening (6 months BEFORE K started, so all 4 year olds and new 5 year olds) my older daughter did, all children were asked to read a book, some were asked to spell a word, plus there was counting and some other items. By the end of K they are expected to write sentences that are capitalized, punctuated, make sense, and are properly spelled (plus a few other criteria).

 

I don't think people have to aim to have their children reading before K or writing full sentences by the end of K unless they feel it's the right thing for their child, but they should go into it with their eyes open. It's great for many, many kids (probably the majority) to delay academics. However, the age at which the parents expect to send their children to a public/private school can have a lot of influence. Or maybe it's the other way around: How long you want to delay academics influences when you should send them to public/private school. Maybe the answer is third grade, not first.

 

2. See if you can find out the curricula that local schools use and line them up with homeschool K options. For instance, our local schools use EnVision which is a (some say vastly inferior) take-off on Singapore math. 

 

Again this doesn't mean that they do the same thing as in the public schools.  I could see a family just quickly going through Singapore essentials before a child started first grade to help them understand the terminology. Or, like me, you could try to do something totally different to see that your child gets as many different perspectives as possible (we do Saxon, LoF at home; my daughter will do EnVision at the public school; she has had Montessori number work for 3 years already).

 

[EmilyGF]

Great points. Our friend's son spent last year in a free school, this year he's going to first at the public school. That basically means everyone else can read, but he can't, though I think that was one reason they skipped PS K!

 

I'm pretty familiar with the math program used around here, so I'll bring that up, too. Thanks!

 

Good point, too, that a child can go when the parent wants; you can easily homeschool for two years and then switch. But people often see things in black and white and think they have to have an all-or-nothing approach.

 

Emily