beanmommy2

My six year old has been saying that she wants to go to school, on
and off for several months now. She says she wants homework and to be
around other kids more. She loves to pretend she's at school when
she's home.

I've tried to do things that can help with those desires in other
ways, like playing school with her at home, inviting kids over,
taking her to Sunday School each week. She likes all those things,
but still says pretty adamently that she wants to go to school.

I've told her that it's a long day and there's not a lot of talking
or playing, that it's probably different than what she's picturing.
She says she still wants to go.

So ... we're considering maybe enrolling her in the local public
school just to satisfy this desire of hers, with her being free to
leave at any time.

Has anyone ever done something like that? How long did your child
continue going to school? Did they enjoy the experience? Was school
like what they had pictured?

Any advice, thoughts, or experiences would be appreciated. Thanks!

Jenny

Come visit me and my family at my blog!
http://beanmommyandthethreebeans.blogspot.com/

Joyce Fetteroll

On Nov 7, 2007, at 8:43 AM, beanmommy2 wrote:

> Has anyone ever done something like that? How long did your child
> continue going to school? Did they enjoy the experience? Was school
> like what they had pictured?

Yes, my daughter went to 2nd grade. It lasted 2 months. She found it
great fun at first but eventually the bad points overwhelmed the good
points and she decided to come home.

Overall it was a very positive experience since she found out why
*she* doesn't want to go to school instead of, basically, me deciding
why she doesn't want to go to school. It's ironic. We parents have
seen both sides of school and unschool so can choose from knowledge
but we're raising kids who've mostly only seen one side so they can't
speak about unschooling with the same authority.

Not that I'm advocating sending all unschooled kids to school to
educate them about school! They have the greater advantage of not
being damaged by school. Trying school, is of course, different than
being trapped there for 12 years. When you know you can come home any
time, it's lots easier to see the nonsense rather than finding ways
to adapt and live with it as though it were the truth.

Joyce

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

michmdmama

My 5.5 year old went to three weeks of Kindergarden. This was BEFORE
my unschooling days, so please forgive my specific reasons and skewed
observations of why I took her out, but I did notice that she had
started being mean to her sister around this time (who knows, maybe
she connected going to school with her sister being born and me not
having enough time to spend with her, as I said this was before my
unschooling days) along with wanting to "veg out" in front of the TV
(and no wonder, huh?)

Someone on another list said that I should have dug deeper about why
she wanted to go to school. Maybe she wanted to own a backpack, or
go shopping for school supplies, or ride a bus (which was probably her
favorite part). All of those can be arranged without actually
enrolling in school. Maybe she wants to go to art class or gym class
or recess. Perhaps you can arrange those as well. Perhaps you can
arrange a visit?

Amanda
Mom to Marti (7) and Lilly (who will be 4 tomorrow)

--- In [email protected], "beanmommy2" <beanmommy2@...>
wrote:
>
> Has anyone ever done something like that? How long did your child
> continue going to school? Did they enjoy the experience? Was school
> like what they had pictured?
>
> Any advice, thoughts, or experiences would be appreciated. Thanks!