I have an old for grade 5 yr old pre-k boy, and a toddler girl. I think a lot depnds on which teacher wants your kid in their class. I'm just going by what I remember thinking about my own time in school. For someone who's really outside of the box academically really homeschooling/private tutors just makes the most sense.. but, I'm not sure that learning to be at school isn't its own education. Which is necessary, the three Rs, and/or pacing, schedules, and responsibility? I afterschool the three Rs and let the teachers teach him conformity. I want to homeschool. We can do more, in less time, then play in the mud the rest of the day. I think I'm just being greedy and I want my own kids and don't want to share them at all.
He'll probably end up being skipped a time or two. I don't care. I don't know enough to micro manage that part. It's really up to the teachers to fit him into their program however they want. I make sure he's at school every day on time and fed, and he has to do any homework they send. They tried to give him a subject acceleration to kindergarten for language arts, but they said he's too immature and sent him back. I told them I don't care what they teach him at school, he has to listen to the teachers, and also I'm going to keep teaching him at home. It doesn't really line up with each other at all. The way I'm teaching him is called "scaffolding", that whatever a kid can do right now with your help, it means they're developmentally ready and will soon do it independantly. I just started a 3-ring notebook for history, and one for language arts. We're working through the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. I read the page, he summarizes it, I write down the summary, he illustrates it. We're starting pre-book reports. He reads a book. He summarizes it. I write that down. I copy a great sentence from the book. He copied that sentence in his handwriting.
I'm aware that if I want my kid to participate in academic extra curriculars, like the elementary math olympiads, I'm going to have to do all the research and spearhead getting the club started at the school.
I would love for my kids to go to a Waldorf or Montessori school, or be radical unschoolers, or go to one of the handfull of pg charter classes for elementary school... where the first graders do hard work independantly and well. I just want it all for my kids, I guess.
