I really wanted to homeschool anyway, so public school really had a hard customer with me. Homeschooling gives kids more free time. It doesn't take much work to make a lot of progress when you have your own mom as a private tutor. All your lessons are tailored to your personal development.
I love the teachers and the principal and the kids at the local small town public school I sent my kid to this year for pre-k, not expecting academic progress, but expecting him to be taught "how to do school". I tried to get them to take him early, last year, before he was reading or writing very well. He would have been easier to direct a year earlier, I thought. Our state doesn't allow any early entry into public pre-k.
The pre-k teacher subject accelerated him to kinder for language arts because he was already reading well. At Christmas the kinder teacher told me the acceleration wasn't working. She said the pace of the class was too fast and he wasn't doing his work. I almost believed it might be true until I convinced my son to tell me exactly what work was too fast. It was to write a string of the same letter once across a page before a kitchen timer went off. He said the whole rest of the class could do it. I knew then that the pace of the class was not too fast but that the teacher fell for the boundry testing "I don't know how to do (what I don't feel like doing.)" I call not doing the work your teacher tells you to do a behavior problem. The school says it's not a behavior problem but a maturity issue. I say if I send you to school I expect you to do your work, or what's the point, really? I don't like that lesson he learned this year. I was disillusioned to find out he didn't do his busywork at school which I expect him to do. I can't reconcile with the teachers telling him that's ok. You know that parenting meme that says to make less demands on your young children, but follow through with what you tell them to do?
Besides, where could they really appropriately put him anyway? How many parents send their kid to school without expecting them to be educated? I did. But I did expect him to do what he was told.
I tried to use school for socialization and planned to afterschool. Afterschooling was no fun. I also considered asking for out of district placement in a nearby math and science charter school. It would have been 45 minutes extra on the bus twice a day, but I thought it would be worth the extra time to get both socialization and a good education at the same time. I was recently told not to try. The school used to take the cream of the crop but now it's lottery. They didn't have to finish the sentence because I've read about that problem here. It means they water down the education and add a ton to the workload to make up the difference.
It really seems best to keep my too immature to place kid at home and let him stay immature longer. I found out I am not doing attachment parenting because I spank, but some of it still fits. (besides just the waterbirth, ebf, and cosleeping). I went with the "be there for them while they're little and they'll feel secure enough to be more independant quicker." It's true, they feel very independant and secure. I think it might be the same for immaturity. I'm starting to believe I should expect EF to kick in around 12 yrs. old. I think holding up his academics until he's mature enough to choose not to weasel his way out of busywork doesn't make a lick of sense. I think I'll be the adult, tell him what work he needs to do, let his immaturity take its own sweet time. Maybe that will work in the same way that offering more security made them more independant instead of trying to get him to mature enough to go do school that's below his achievement and academic readiness.
I'll admit that beneath all these reasons I want to keep my little kids home and teach them myself. My sister and husband grant me that is part of it, but they say it's mainly because he's not able to get the education he needs at school. I'll be homeschooling next year.
