Hi Aquinas,
Count us in the homeschooling camp too. As you know, my son is almost exactly a year older than yours. However, where we live, he is legally ineligible to start kindergarten until he is almost 6 due to a late birthday (so that would be a year from September).
We have some curriculum, because he likes it, but really just read a lot, take field trips, and watch shows like Nova from PBS. I don't make him do anything academic at any time, but over a week, it evens out to a lot of coverage of material. Sometimes we "play school", but usually learning is just blended into everyday life, like fractions in cooking.
We do a great deal of outdoor play and I work hard to get him play time with other kids who are a good fit by setting up playdates at the park and driving when necessary. I had to overcome my own introvert tendencies and I now get the contact information of any family who seems a good fit when I see my son click with someone out.
Speaking of curriculum burn... On a whim, I bought the Singapore Math Primary Mathematics 1A textbook this week for fun. He was so excited. He did every problem (there are not many in the textbook) and finished it in 2 days (& actually very few hours). I bought 1B from Amazon but it hasn't arrived yet. These are pretty cheap in "Used-like new" condition. I bought 1A for under $7 including shipping. At this stage, I'm only buying the textbook because he doesn't need or like repetition. I knew from our conversational math throughout the day that he was above this when I bought it, but still thought he might like it. I think he'll blow through 1B in a similar timeframe. We are going to try Art of Problem Solving Beast Academy once we hit that level because I think it will be a good fit for him.
The other real curriculum I have is Bernard Nebel's Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding. I highly recommend it. My son loves to watch Nova and my husband finds all sorts of interesting science videos on YouTube. He knows more on certain science subjects than I covered in college classes.
Like you, we spend a lot of time at the library. We go through close to 400-500 pages a day of me reading to him, when he is in the mood. Other days, it is only bedtime stories (Max Axiom, super scientist). My son loves loves the Max Axiom series at bedtime. We go through 1 book a week and he asks to be read each one multiple times a day.
His handwriting is typical of an early writer and he still insists on writing with both hands. He writes with the right until it gets tired and then switches to the left. If he doesn't feel like writing, I'll scribe or just do whatever he is interested in orally. He likes to write notes for his dad. Some days I pull out some hieroglyphic stamps and leave him secret messages to decode (practice handwriting), because he is really excited by secret agents and codes right now.
We aren't really doing a formal language arts program yet. We talk about grammar and the parts of speech. He loves Mad Libs type stories where we ask for a series of nouns, adjectives, etc and then put his words into a silly story. When he is older and his writing output is stronger, we may try the Michael Clay Thompson series.
On some days, he honestly just watches PBS Kids and we play with his toys all day. I really just let him make the call of what to do, unless we have a scheduled commitment or I need to run errands, buy groceries, etc. (I absolutely police content though. Some books and shows are off limits at this age due to behavior I don't want to see at home.)
I was talking to a mom today with a son older than mine in public preschool two days a week. She was complaining about all of the standardized test prep he is doing. Apparently, they had tests in the fall and are prepping for a second set before school ends. I had no idea there were standardized tests in preschool. She was frustrated because her son's teachers were upset that he had done poorly on the how to open a book section. A child is supposed to take an upside down book, turn it right side up, and then open it. Her son likes to take the book, open it, and then turn it right side up. He has been forced to practice this each day in school for a significant amount of time and the teachers have asked them to practice at home. When asked why it mattered, she said the teachers insisted that it was essential to passing the test for him to do it the right way and that there would be dire consequences if he didn't do well. If true, this seems really strange to me. It was also clear from the conversation that the kids in the class are not reading yet and are not doing the typical arts/crafts/play activities I had expected. With the emphasis on circle time and specific rule following (without any explanation of why said rule is necessary), it really wouldn't be a good fit for our family.
I have another friend with a 6 year-old daughter in an expensive private school here with a good reputation. She was frustrated because her daughter started the kindergarten year already knowing how to do long division. She told the teachers this at the beginning of the year (& at several points throughout the year). Even though the year is almost over, her daughter is still bringing home math worksheets and homework with simple addition problems.
I apologize for the length of this message but thought it might be helpful because our sons are close in age. We are taking it year by year.
