Homechooling & Public School Kindergarten question (San Mateo, Danville: 2013, how much, homes)

[movingfromFL2CA]

I did post this on another board, but got no response, so I am hoping that maybe someone can help over here. I am trying to figure out if homeschooling is the route for our family.

My Son will be 5 in April 2013.

We plan on moving to CA sometime this year.

1- Is Kindergarten Mandatory?
2- What is the correct age to put your child in Kindergarten
3-What is Transistional Kindergarten? I just don't get it. It seems like it is similar to our VPK system in Florida.


I notice that there was a new law passed about kindergarten and why it's so confusing to me -I don't know why, but I am leaning more toward homeschooling until I can figure out the school system etc.



Any information about homeschooling & anything would especially be helpful.

We will be somewhere in the Bay area(San Mateo, Danville, Belingame, etc. )

[Bulldogdad]

County Office of Education, first place to start for homeschooling.

If you have any choice at all let the excellence of the school district dictate where you live. If you can afford it.

I would put your child into kindergarten as late as the age cut off will allow.

Having served on my kids PTO's, in vaious capacities in their primary schools for the last 18 years, it's my experience that children who are older do much better than their peers on average. It maybe a matter of months but statistically it makes a large difference over the life of primary schooling.

[clongirl]

Perhaps a site like this might get you started? California Homeschooling Information

or ...HomeSchool Association of CaliforniaHome Page

...and this one discusses "transitional kindergarten" (but I've honestly never heard of it before!). Perhaps it's like a public preschool??

[OwlKaMyst]

5 years of age is the typical age for kindergarten - however that is not absolute. I went to school with another who had the exact same birthday as I. She was born in the afternoon, I was born in the evening in December. She was a grade ahead of me. I had never repeated a grade. She said maybe it was because she attended a private preschool. I told her that I had also, turned out it was the same preschool. We never figured out why exactly. We guessed it must have been all about appearance and personality. I was a small, tiny shy & quiet kid, she was much taller and very outspoken.

Kindergarten was not mandatory when my older son was of that age, but that was over 15 years ago and that could have changed. Of all three of my kids, he would have benefitted the most from early schooling. I put my youngest into Head Start (pre-school) and she loved it. My middle child was bored with kindergarten, he already knew everything being taught and he did not go to pre-school.
My point is, what is going to be best for your child. If he already can count to 100 and knows his ABC's pretty well, he might not get a great first impression of school. However, depending on his personality, he may just see this time as a big play date.
If you are going to be in the Burlingame area, the schools there are pretty good. I don't know about Danville, been to the town twice, but seems pretty good. In San Mateo, it depends on what part of San Mateo. I spent the majority of my elementary education in San Mateo (again, it's been a few decades ago) and went to three different schools before middle school.
There were not charter schools at the time, but if there had been, and I had a say as a child, I'd want to attend a charter school. I put my youngest into a charter school (which is still a public school) and she loved it. I feel that even though these schools have a different approach, my daughter learned so much more and retained it. When she returned to traditional high school, she was ahead of the rest, but then again, she entered into a pretty lame HS, but that was the only HS for the area.

Homeschool is great for the right kids and parents, but a child also needs to socialize. If you homeschool, will you have a way for your son to interact with other children?
My SIL homeschooled her kids (6 kids k-5th grade) most did ok with it, others had issues with it.
Maybe since you will be new to the area, put him into kindergarten so be can make friends and then if you find the school is not to your liking, you can do the homeschool thing, or try a charter school. But if you are liking the charter school idea, there are often waiting lists so if you even think you may take this route, get on the list now.

[MtnSurfer]

Here are a couple of good fact sheets on California Homeschooling:

CHN - Preschool

Legal Fact Sheet

"Kindergarten is not mandatory in California. Children who turn 6 years old by December 2nd must enroll that year in a public school or one of the alternatives to public school. Once your child approaches school age, you can read about your different legal alternatives on the CHN Legal Options web page."

Based on this law he will not be required to attend next year since he will only be 5.

We have homeschooled both here in CA and also in CO and it has been great. There are many homeschool groups you can join for field trips, park days and other social activities. And of course there are plenty of other opportunities such as soccer, baseball, karate, boy scouts, 4H, etc... Socialization is not a problem at all, though many who have never homeschooled imagine it as such. Its better to take advice with a 'grain of salt' from those with no experience. Many times its wrong or based on wild speculations rather than fact.

Derek

[Ceece]

The new law is just gradually moving the birthday cutoff so kids can start K when they are 5, and not 4 yrs 9 months or whatever it's been. It's also alloowing for a "transition" class for those who's 5th bd fall between Sept-Dec (the months they are pushing back the K bd cutoff). Think Pre-k in a public school setting. It give a choice to those entering K with a fall bd depending on readiness.

My son (who is 22 now) had a Sept bd and was eligible to start K even under the "old plan", which has always been turning 5 by Dec 2, but even then I knew it was better to wait so he went to Pre-k at the preschool he had been attending. I guess under the new plan I would do the same thing and just not pay for it .

In your case "homeschool" sounds more like "delayed entry" since you plan on enrolling him at some point. Nothing wrong with that and parents are supposed to be teaching their kids stuff at home anyway.

Whatever district you land in they will give him a readiness test when you enroll anyway, and then you can decide where he should be placed. It's way WAY eaiser to delay entry than to hold back at some point. I'm glad I did it.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by Ceece

The new law is just gradually moving the birthday cutoff so kids can start K when they are 5, and not 4 yrs 9 months or whatever it's been. It's also alloowing for a "transition" class for those who's 5th bd fall between Sept-Dec (the months they are pushing back the K bd cutoff). Think Pre-k in a public school setting. It give a choice to those entering K with a fall bd depending on readiness.

My son (who is 22 now) had a Sept bd and was eligible to start K even under the "old plan", which has always been turning 5 by Dec 2, but even then I knew it was better to wait so he went to Pre-k at the preschool he had been attending. I guess under the new plan I would do the same thing and just not pay for it .

In your case "homeschool" sounds more like "delayed entry" since you plan on enrolling him at some point. Nothing wrong with that and parents are supposed to be teaching their kids stuff at home anyway.

Whatever district you land in they will give him a readiness test when you enroll anyway, and then you can decide where he should be placed. It's way WAY eaiser to delay entry than to hold back at some point. I'm glad I did it.

Agreed, if you go the public school route I think starting a bit later will benefit him. Being the 'younger' boy at grade level is not normally recommended due to other older, larger, more developed boys as he grows. Under developed, smaller boys tend to get picked on more and have a harder time with sports among other things.

We actually started our first born in a private preschool only to realize we could easily teach the same material at home minus the bad habits and colds/flus being picked up. No need to go to public school so young unless financially necessary such as when both parents work full-time.

[MamaRed]

I taught in alternative education for 12 years - everything from homeschooling to expelled students. I also have 3 college aged children, one of whom did most of middle school and high school on Independent Study. The students I had, who struggled the most, were boys with October and November birthdays. They made the December deadline, but were in no way mature enough. By 9th grade they were significantly behind academically. An April birthday would tell me your son should be ready age-wise, but it would not be mandatory. Unfortunately, size may play into your decision. My son is now 18 and 6'3". His birthday is May, and he's always been big. He was plenty ready for kindergarten, which was good. Holding him back could have been difficult for him because his size would have been a constant issue. As it was, kids always asked him which grade he "failed" because they assumed he was older. On the other hand, my oldest daughter was a December birthday, we started her at 4, realized it was a mistake, and it took us until 5th grade to get the district to agree to hold her back, even though her teachers recommended it every year. My middle daughter did homeschooling because she couldn't tolerate teenage girl drama. I would encourage you to try kindergarten. Many parents I knew were surprised at how much work was involved in homeschooling. If you decide public school isn't for you, check out all your options. Some districts offer homeschooling with district teacher support. There are also charter school options, where they give you the curriculum and its up to you to figure out/decide how you're going to present it. Then there are online options, which is how my daughter did high school, but I'm not sure if online is available in the younger grades.
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