Thank you both.
Indigo,
I spend more time browsing this forum than I do posting in it and I appreciate the information you assemble in your posts. They're great resources. On the vaccine front we have a family member with cancer so we need to be particularly cautious. I am the last unvaccinated adult in the family and luckily I get my first dose next week.
The negative things that happened in my daughter's three-year-old experience at preschool were concerning and remain red flags in my mind. I would not want her elementary school experience to repeat that pattern.
I'm definitely working hard (successfully!) at keeping her immersed in interesting material this year and doing my best to give her attention during the day. My work productivity is taking the hit on that one. My husband is stretched thin working in COVID response but we're both doing what we can. At the moment she's thriving academically but misses being with kids in-person. The extent to which I'm successfully meeting her academic needs makes me wish we could swing homeschool. I'm just feeling very leery of sending her in to a standard classroom next year.
I am not sure what I can realistically request from her school for kindergarten next year but I wish they could do something like offer her appropriately leveled reading and math with other students, either within her class or by letting her visit a higher grade class. If working at her level means working alone while the rest of her class does different activities I am not sure that will be a positive experience for her.
Aquinas,
Childcare is the huge hurdle preventing us from homeschooling. I am fortunate to have a job that is forgiving of my need to duck in and out of work at the moment due to being at home with children during COVID. It's unsustainable in the long run. I would love to have a half-day or half-week school option not just for kindergarten but beyond. I could move a feasible number of work hours into the evening and let her work on her academic level for at least part of the day.
Wishes aside, I'm currently stuck trying to figure out what, if anything, I can ask our neighborhood school to do for my daughter. My husband and I are on the same page in believing that if attending this school appears to be harming her we will do whatever we need to do to pull her out even if it means one of our careers takes a hit. But that would still be Plan B. I think I have to start there and probe for possibilities.
Do you think these questions are in the right ballpark?
--- What would it look like to opt her out of the many hours of letter-sound exercises they apparently engage in?
--- Can we send books to the class that she could sit and read somewhere cozy? Is the teacher able to engage with her on books for hypothetical independent reading? (the second part seems like a big ask)
--- Could she visit first or second grade for some activities?
--- Am I right in assuming a grade skip is a bad fit when her current level of executive functioning means she isn't always ready to just accept and cooperate with assignments and see them to completion?
