When did you formally begin schooling your child?

[Homeschoolmom3]

Thanks everyone...very enlightening!  So, if your son wasn't asking to do more "work" would you wait until 5 or 6 or would you have him start at 4 or 5?   :001_huh:  

[ScoutTN]

5 for Dd. She was ready.

We began at 5 for Ds, but he wasn't ready so we did a super light preK year then began again at 6.

Much better the second time. He needed another year and I wasn't sad to let him be little for another year.

[Homeschoolmom3]

If your kid doesn't like veggies, do you never serve them or do you cut them up into tiny pieces and hide them in the "good" food?

Wait until 5 or 6, but sneak "living" activities into his day, IMO

 

Love it!!!  So true too!   :lol:   He used to love book work and request when he was about 2 yrs. old so I indulged him some, but lately all he wants to do is hands on games and that is it.  Some days likes to do school and some days no.  Guess I should just follow his lead at this age...:)  Thanks!

[simplemom]

My son went to ps K at 5 and thrived. I felt sorry for the kids who weren't quite ready for 120 sight words. I did a relaxed K with dd at 5, with some formal math, writing, and reading/phonics. Looking back I would have waited until 6.5 (just recently) to start any formal work with the 3 R's (would had snuck those things in with everyday life like I did before age 5). It was a struggle to get her through basic adding and reading until a few months ago. But now she is thriving with reading and starting to understand math concepts better. What is only taking a few minutes to to teach her in the 3rs now, took weeks for her to grasp a year ago.

[SorrelZG]

I didn't vote.

 

For my firstborn, 4, I think. Maybe three. Yeah, I regret it. I realized only through my own experience that his natural early knowledge and skill did not in itself signal the need to begin formal instruction. I'm thick like that.

 

For my second born, 6. Not because I'd learned by then from my firstborn but from circumstances. On one hand I regret not starting earlier because she wanted to but then maybe she wouldn't have wanted to if her older brother wasn't. I was suffering PPD and she would have wanted anything that gave her more of my attention.

 

My third born is 6 and has had on and off formal lessons. Same with my four year old. I suggest sometimes with the 6yo, he never really asks. My 4yo asks but is easily satisfied. My 6yo has already taught himself to read.

 

In retrospect, I wouldn't insist on anything fromal before at least eight. Maybe nine or ten. But that is based on my own children, not something I would tell others they should do.

[Guest EagleCreek]

I started formal schooling for my older dd at age 6.  We had started OPGTTR at age 4, but that was only about 10 minutes a day.  We also did some informal math with M&M's every day after lunch, but that was only about 10 minutes, too.  Then when she was 6, we started first grade following the recommendations in WTM pretty closely and it was an  easy transition.

 

Will I do the same thing again with dd2? I don't know.  Things worked out well for my older dd, but for some reason, I feel a lot of pressure to start earlier with dd2. I will definitely do OPGTTR again at age 4 and will probably start Saxon K at age 4.  I might add in some hands on science and geography at age 5.  That still may not count as formal school, though.  I tend to think of formal school as starting when I need to start notifying the local school district.

[Seeking Squirrels]

It depends on what you mean by "formal".

 

At 3 we had "school time", but it consisted of Kumon books and hands on fun stuff. I had shelves set up with activities and tried to have a balance of concepts that each activity covered. She had complete say over when and even if we did anything at all.

At 4 I had some formal curriculum for her like Handwriting without Tears Pre-k and Math. We continued with her shelves. But again she said yay or nay to school, I never made her.

At 5 we had curriculum for most subjects and I strongly encouraged doing things regularly, but it still wasn't forced and we didn't stress it if we didn't do anything some days.

Now at 6 we have curriculum for everything and at least the basics are required.

 

I regret stressing over any of it in the early years. I don't regret making it available to her because she really did enjoy it a lot and it gave us something to do with our days. I liked having something different we could do. Her 'school room' was almost like a second play room. It was just a different and more structured set of toys.

[Dramorellis]

When they were ready and so far for my first two, that was at 3-4. We did "school-like" activities that interested them before that but I didn't call it anything or insist on it. At 4 they have both been ready to read so I gently, nudged them in that direction with instruction a few times a week. This year my 4 year old demanded to do Kindergarten. We were all being held hostage by her tantrums and making the decision to have her do "school" daily has changed our entire day. Had she not basically forced me to move her along I would have held out on beginning formally until she was of compulsory age which would be this coming September.

[Hkpiano]

 

More helpfully, mine typically do gentle math, phonics, and penmanship in K, and start a formal WTM-ish load in first grade. I don't really consider them formal students until first grade by age.

)

This is what we do, too.

[FO4UR]

I also cannot vote b/c it has been different for each child.

 

One of mine taught herself to read at age 3. I let her teach herself all she wished until she was about 6yo, and then I began some short formal lessons.

 

One of mine is severely dyslexic, and although I started with him at age 5 nothing "took" until much later.

 

One of mine showed signs of dyslexia from an early age, so I put off formal schooling as long as I felt reasonably possible and spent that time building auditory/visual processing.  He was 7yo when he started formal reading lessons and was reading very well by 8yo.  He's 8.5yo right now and able to read just about anything on our shelves though it might take him a longer time.

 

 

My youngest is 2yo. We are already working on letters & number, though none of it is formal work. The tentative plan is to start at 5yo with gentle (short) lessons.  She is the benefactress of all my guinea pigging with the big three.  Her Real School won't start until she's closer to 7yo and already reading well.