Before Home Schooling Kindergarten Children - Consider This!!

The benefits/disadvantages of home schooling kindergarten was an issue that came up when I received this question from Lori.

Honey, part of my reason for homeschooling my son was I KNEW he would be benched every other day and miss out on recess. I encourage others to help guide my son towards desired behavior, but was appalled when on his first day of a traditional classroom he was benched for following two other boys and not walking in a straight line.

Not told why, not told for how long, not told what the rule was, or what he had to do next time to avoid being benched. We have since returned to homeschooling. I was going to see if you had any ideas for kinder children misbehavior.

When my daughter was in kinder in a traditional school, I would see three or four boys' names on the board- one with 14 checks, one 16 checks, and one 11 checks- the exhausted teacher would say, well at least it's less than yesterday.

Answer

Lori - You didn't give me a lot of information to go on, but here are some of my view on home schooling kindergarten age kids.

I spoke to a few friends who teach kindergarten and none of them had ever heard of the check mark system and thought it was ridiculous. Up to what number of check marks doe the teacher go up to? A better alternative is to give positive checks marks. Catching a student doing something good is a much more powerful approach.

I am not a big fan of home schooling kindergarten children or children of any age for that matter. Consider the disadvantages of home schooling. Children need to learn how to play and learn socially at an early age. Your son needs to be with children of his age.

There is a lot of social interaction throughout the school day that he needs to be privy to. To me, it's an injustice to the child to deny them that opportunity.

Some other things to consider:

1. Was there more to you son's being benched that not walking in a straight line? Did you speak to the teacher about it?

2. Have you gone to the administration of the school - principal or vice principal?

3. Did you pull your son out of school because of one incident?

4. Have you thought of sending your son to another school?

5. Does your son miss his friends?

Be proactive for your son - speak to the teacher, change schools if need be.

Good luck!

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