My son, at that age, was the only child at home and sometimes bossy around his older cousins, especially the one who is a year older. My son couldn't understand why his cousin wouldn't read directions and would do things like delete his saved files on games or not read signs that he could clearly see. Kindergarten was the first time he was around a lot of kids his age and it was not what he expected. He went to school all excited, thinking he would get to learn new things, and it wasn't long before he told me that school was not very educational. He was the second youngest in his class but the only one reading. He had to do "letter of the week" with all the others when he was reading at about a 5th grade level. The only kids he had been around were the kids in his acting class (ages 4-19) most of whom were gifted, so he had no idea how different he was until he started school. At our school, redshirting is very popular so most of the boys in his class were a year older and bigger and there were a few bullies in his class. I think my son knew better than to be bossy around these boys. He spent most of his time on the playground talking to the teachers.
My son definitely felt more comfortable with older gifted kids because he could be himself around these kids. He didn't have to put on an act or watch what he said around them just to fit in. He just didn't have much in common with the kids his age, so I tried to find multi-age groups for him to be with. Unfortunately, the church groups and everything else we looked at were age segregated. The only thing we ever found was a local community musical theater group for children. This was a good outlet for my son's energy and creativity and he learned to work well in a group where they all depended on each other to put on a good show. Another thing that he learned was how to improvise because during a show, when someone forgets lines or doesn't come out on stage at the right time, you have to make something up well enough that the audience doesn't know. I think this is one of the most important things that he learned because as a twice exceptional child my son will need to improvise, probably for the rest of his life. He made some really good friends there and I think these friendships will continue even when he quits the group.
Our budget was very tight when he was that age, since I don't work outside the home, but we did without some things so he could be in the acting group because not only was it a combination of dancing and singing and acting lessons for only $40 a month, it was time around other kids like him and he really needed this.
I have heard of homeschoolers on very tight budgets who barter for lessons for their kids by babysitting or cleaning or crocheting or whatever they could do.
My son always seemed to not need as much sleep as I do and he didn't like to play by himself. There were times I just needed to be alone and tried to hide in the bathroom and take a long hot bath, but he would sometimes stand by the door and tell me about some interesting thing he just read about online or something on television. He just wanted to talk to me and I felt really bad when I got cranky and sometimes yelled at him to just leave me alone for five minutes because I needed a break too. But the stress of never having any alone time and also being responsible for helping take care of my elderly mother who lives next door, was just too much.
My son is now 10 and he is not as fidgety as he used to be and he does not need as much attention as he used to. I think he was about 8 before I finally convinced him that I needed time to be alone and adequate sleep for health reasons. I used to wonder if it was attachment parenting gone wrong when he wanted to be with me and talk to me all the time but there was just no one else for him to talk to.
I hope school works out well for your son.
