Trying to decide for Kindy

[Mopdop]

Hi, this will show how new I am to all this, but I am SO excited by the concept of afterschooling! DH has always wanted to homeschool his kids, since before we were even married. However, I haven't always been so on board about it. In the last few years I have started to come around and agreed to homeschool one year at a time, with Sir B starting K next yr.

Then we adopted our sweet bundle of joy, Sir I, from Korea. He is such a character! We are not sure exactly why, but he has global delays - he has low muscle tone, is delayed cognitively and doesn't have any words. He is receiving a number of different therapies and this is really hard for Sir B. He plays up, wants to be involved etc. I spend more time trying to get him to behave than working with Sir I's therapists. So, I am starting to think about sending him to ps. When I mentioned it to DH he pointed out that we have spent $ on curriculum stuff for next yr, some of which I am already working on with him.

And now, enter the concept of afterschooling! But, here is my question: if I continue doing Right Start and OPG with him in will he be bored and act out in a ps K class? He is very social and talkative and imaginative and energetic.

Why do you do afterschooling? What benefits do you see? Are your children bored at grade level?

Thanks for the input :)

[Katrina J]

Afterschooling has helped, not hindered, my two children at school.

Firstly, I started afterschooling when DD7.5 was about five and a half and I realised that if I wanted her to learn to read I would have to teach her myself. I suspect she is a bit dyslexic because for an otherwise normal, bright child, she has found learning to read quite difficult.

At the end of Year 1 last year, my DD brought home a school report with A grades for all subjects and this would not have occurred if I hadn't taught her to read at home. She's a very conscientious student and isn't bored at school - maybe if she was super bright and way ahead she would be, but that is not the case here.

DS 4.5 started full-time school in February this year and is the youngest in his class. He's reading beginner phonics books and can count and recognise numbers well beyond most, but not all, of his classmates. He's ahead in these areas but in other areas he lags and has some difficulties eg. he finds writing, cutting and drawing quite hard, can be very shy and his speech is still a bit unclear on a few sounds. So for him, the little bit of afterschooling I do helps him to shine and feel confident in a few areas while he catches up in other areas. A year is after all, a very long time when you are only four.

It is possible that your son could be bored at school and play up, it is also possible that the schooling you've done at home will give him confidence at school and help him develop in other areas where he may not be so advanced.

Hope that helps,

Katrina

[mich311e]

I think with after schooling you can focus on the things that don't get thoroughly covered at school.

I wanted to be sure my son could read, since he is the youngest in his class. Plus, I was slightly paranoid because I've read so much about "boys failing" or "falling behind" in schools. My son finished Hooked on Phonics kindergarten prior to starting kindergarten, so I didn't have to worry about his learning to read at school with 19 other kids. His reading has improved so much this year and he doesn't mind working on phonics - we do almost every night. Despite being an early reader he hasn't been bored or acted out at school

My son is interested in so much. We read a lot of American history themed books. My son loves Benjamin Franklin and Abe Lincoln. We read about ancient Egypt, American presidents, the American Revolution and the Civil War. We read about geography and continents, different states in the US. We pick up lots of non-fiction at the library. We read a book about giant Chinese salamanders last night. This is the information they don't get a lot of at school and I'm happy to follow his lead.

We watch PBS (Nova, History Detectives, Nature, Electric Company, Word Girl) and limit mindless programing (don't have cable).

We read great books and stories they don't cover in school. We recently finished listening to(audiobook)and reading EB White's "The Trumpet of the Swan" and we loved it! Most kindergartners aren't getting stories like this yet.

I feel after schooling helps him follow his interests and fill his head with knowledge and great stories. The "What Your Kindergartner (1st grader, etc) Needs to Know" series by ED Hirsch (Core Knowledge) is helpful in giving me a checklist of things he should know at this grade level. Our school isn't a Core Knowledge school so they don't cover all of these concepts.

As we approach 1st grade I'm going to focus more on math and spelling since we've spent most of this year just reading. I was not confident in math growing up and I can't afford Kumon, so I want to be sure my son knows the basics. You hear all these nightmare stories of 6th and 7th graders that don't know their multiplication tables - I just want to make sure that's not my kid.

Back to your concern. Many children entering kindergarten can read and some don't know their letter sounds. So I don't think working on OPGR should be an issue, depending on your son's personality. My son hasn't complained at all about being bored at school and he is also very concerned with staying on "green" all day, every day. (Most kindergarten classrooms have some sort of behavior reward system) Just follow your child's lead. :)

[ktmo]

We are afterschooling preschool (she goes to a play based preschool), if you will, and will continue afterschool when DD starts kindy in the fall. Like the other poster, I didn't want DD to struggle to learn to read with 25 other students, so we started HOP, after trying 100 Easy Lessons. She is now reading well. She loves everything about school, so I don't think that she will be "bored" in school. We will probably continue reading lots and going through Singapore math and throw in whatever she is interested in. She loves learing about history and science. I will try to supplement and go deeper on certain subjects with DD at home.

[dmmetler]

One thing, though-if your DC is doing full-day K, be prepared that it's a hard haul for a little kid, and they may not be up to doing much afterschooling. It's not that it's academically challenging for them-it's simply that 6+ hours of being in that large group, on someone else's schedule, with that activity level is wearing. Which is one reason why we're homeschooling first grade. My DD wasn't learning anything new in K, but was so worn out that she really wasn't capable of exploring and learning on her own after school, either. It was only on the school breaks that I saw that inquisitive, active learning side come out again. I'm looking forward to summer!

[Starr]

My dd had enough with occasional homework and a full day of K. They get tired and need time to run around outside and play. Play, dinner, bath and bed pretty much took care of an evening for us.

[Rosie_0801]

Isn't there a way for your older fella to be involved with younger fella's therapy? I don't know much about therapy, but I was changing my younger brother's nappies when I was six. There was another thread on here about older kids schooling younger sibs behind their mum's back. Maybe he can learn how to help?

Rosie

[Sahamamama]

Just my two cents: When my older nephew did half-day K, my sister was able to bring him home, give him lunch, put his little brother down for a nap, and "do school" with her oldest boy. She did some Abeka and other things with him, and it was a great start for him. His K class was a private, church-run school with a wonderful old-fashioned teacher who made K fun! They did "Circle Time," "Show & Tell," music, raising class pets, read alouds, and so on. The combination of the half-day class with the afterschooling was just right for him.

Two years later, the church no longer had a half-day K program, so my sister put her second son into the public school K -- which was full-day. The poor little kid got on the bus at 8:20 am and got off at 4:20 pm -- a 40-hour "work week" for a 5 year old to do Kindergarten! It was too long for him, and he had absolutely NO energy or patience for anything more at home. Besides that, his K class wasn't actually FUN. The teacher was more like a drill sergeant, and the purpose of the entire year seemed to be to learn to be quiet, stand in line, and color worksheets. He quickly learned to hate school. Not a great beginning, and that still shows today, when he's in 7th grade.

If there's any way that you can find something half-day for your oldest, I'd go for that. If not, maybe think about Rosie's suggestion to incorporate Boy One into Boy Two's therapy. Can you talk to the therapists about this? Ask them, "What can Boy One do to help his little brother?" Ask the therapists to develop a session in which they work with BOTH boys, teaching the older one how to help and what to do and not do with Little Brother. Would that make him feel more a part of what's happening at therapy? Then you could reconsider homeschooling vs. afterschooling him.

HTH.

[Smithie]

I've been to therapy with kids in tow, and I've homeschooled a kindergartner this year. So those are my qualifications for addressing your situation ;)

In our case, it was my now-kindergartner who was going to therapy and his toddler and infant sister who were being dragged along. In all honesty, if your ds isn't under your verbal control during the therapy sessions, then I don't see how you can participate effectively. I can only imagine how frustrating that must be for you.

That said, I decided that full-day kindy (the only public option offered here) was just way too intense for my kid, and that the few half-day private programs around were too intense for our budget. :D If you have an option for a half-day program that you can afford, I think that might not be a bad idea.

If you don't - I think a little behavior modification might not be a bad idea. 5 years old is old enough to to SIT and BE SILENT during a therapy session. This could be a time to watch a portable DVD player, complete an easy independent assignment like coloring, etc. If I had to get my mildly ADHD 5 y.o. to refrain from interrupting me during an important interaction like therapy, I'd probably go with the double-pronged approach: a) a special toy (like my iPad) that he only gets to play with during these times and b) punishment at home if the behavior in public is unacceptable. No dessert or something like that.

The transition from toddler mode (I'll run around causing havoc while my hapless parent chases me) to child mode (I can understand verbal instructions and I generally have the emotional maturity to follow them) can be a tough one. But I'd say that your ds either needs to make it or be elsewhere during therapy.

All things being equal, schooling a kindergartner at home is really the easiest choice - no commute, no busywork, no drama. But the needs of your younger son are throwing a wrench in what would otherwise be an easy decision to make. You might want to ask your dh to attend a therapy session with you so he can see how things are going. Right now he's got an opinion based on incomplete information. Plus, he might be able to straighten your elder son out just by adding the weight of Daddy disapproval to the distracting behaviors.

[Lovedtodeath]

All things being equal, schooling a kindergartner at home is really the easiest choice - no commute, no busywork, no drama. But the needs of your younger son are throwing a wrench in what would otherwise be an easy decision to make. You might want to ask your dh to attend a therapy session with you so he can see how things are going. Right now he's got an opinion based on incomplete information. Plus, he might be able to straighten your elder son out just by adding the weight of Daddy disapproval to the distracting behaviors.:iagree:Sending Emily to K at school was really hard. I had to fight to get her out the door, and by the time she was ready and driven to school we could have been done with our school day at home. She was exhausted by the time she got home, she was emotionally upset by things at school... and the biggest goof-up: they took a good 3rd grade level reader and ruined it with sight reading. I have to remediate now!

You might consider a preschool program. I sent Emily for one semester, 2 days a week for 2 and a half hours each time, and that was a good experience.

[starrbuck12]

Hi, this will show how new I am to all this, but I am SO excited by the concept of afterschooling! DH has always wanted to homeschool his kids, since before we were even married.

I spend more time trying to get him to behave than working with Sir I's therapists. So, I am starting to think about sending him to ps.

And now, enter the concept of afterschooling! But, here is my question: if I continue doing Right Start and OPG with him in will he be bored and act out in a ps K class? He is very social and talkative and imaginative and energetic.

Why do you do afterschooling? What benefits do you see? Are your children bored at grade level?

Thanks for the input :)


Well, I usually stay off the afterschooling board (but I took my kids swimming and they are passed out :D)...but we did something several years ago that resembled afterschooling.

The thing about the kids being in school all day is...by the time they get off the bus and walk through the door, they are EXHAUSTED. And I was exhausted too. There is no way on Earth my kids could do schoolwork after a 10 hour day.

Then...you got Cub Scout meetings, fundraisers, parent/teacher conferences, T-Ball, some weird poster about 100 objects arranged in a pattern that's due tomorrow, hoards of papers that need to be looked through from their Take-Home Folder, their reading log, permission slips, those stupid Box Tops, any homework, etc... Sorry if I sound so pessimistic...the memories are still fresh. :D

Seriously, I thought I was biting the bullet and lowering the standards for my kids when I pulled them from public school. Two years later, I can't believe how relaxed and happy our family is now that we don't deal with that stuff all evening.

If you and your husband REALLY wanna give homeschooling a try, I say just do it!! :001_smile: If the therapy is the issue, I would see if you can't get some help with your other child during therapy or like Rosie said, "try to involve him with his younger sibling's therapy somehow." Find him something special that he can do independently while his brother is working on his therapy (can he work through a special workbook, play Bakugan, get him a Nintendo DS, play Leapster, etc??).

As far as accelerated kids in public school, that was the straw that broke the camel's back for us. I have a gifted kid and I was really starting to wonder what middle school would look like for her-especially from the "social perspective". :001_unsure:

Good luck with whatever you decide to do - go to ps or homeschool. But, that's cool that your husband likes the idea of homeschooling. :tongue_smilie: When I first suggested hsing, mine thought I had conked my head on something while he was at work.

:D