My son just started government school (kindergarten). His teacher is awesome. I know this because I have talked with her at length, I have seen her teaching, and an impressive number of other people have told me what a great teacher she is. I know that she is better than any teacher my son would get in private school (and I know what I am talking about).
The curriculum in the public school kindergarten is actually pretty intense. They learn to read and do math at a level that used to be considered normal for first grade or even higher. I am confident that a great deal of my son's learning this year will be taking place in school and it won't all just be "afterschooling".
Are you assuming that learning actually happens inside the institutional-type school? I contend that it doesn't!
I contend that since you home schooled your kids and they are out of the house now, you actually have had no contact with government or any other schools for a long time and this is just an entirely theoretical discussion for you.
My older daughter had the world’s best Kindergarten teacher. She was and is still amazing. My daughter was able to shine!
So then she got to 1st grade and crashed. The teacher sucked, the kids were nasty and I pulled her out.
Your K teacher is wonderful. I hope they all are for you. If not, consider other options.
Wisdom is the reward of many years of experience with my own 4 children,10 grandchildren, and the soon to arrive great grandchild, as well as observation of the growth of children into adulthood from many other families.
The curriculum in the public school kindergarten is actually pretty intense.
Please do a Google on the words: "Finland Starting Age School". You will find many articles that suggest that starting formal studies on very young children is actually detrimental to their later academic success.
I know many homeschooling families that use the rule, "Wait until eight!" While it is OK to introduce children to certain academic materials (in a playful way), if they don't take an interest in it, it is best to wait. These young years are better spent in loosely supervised unstructured **play**. In fact, **play** is a child's most important work, and we should be very careful not to let other activities ( such as institutional schooling) interfere with this important play that is so essential to their mental and physical health and later social adjustment.
They learn to read and do math at a level that used to be considered normal for first grade or even higher.
You seem happy with your government school teacher and your child's adjustment. If he just started kindergarten how many **days** has he been there? My suggestion would be to carefully monitor him over the next 3 or 4 **months**.
Personally, I believe that United States has such a high level of dyslexia due to trying to teach young children academic subjects before they are neurologically and developmentally ready. The frustration can lead to lifelong aversion to reading and permanent dyslexia.
In our area it has been observed that the longer a child stays in the public school system, the worse his scores. The state has a standardized test for academic progress in the basics, and by 11th grade, the results are about 30 points lower than 2nd grade scores.
It’s nice that your kindergartener’s teacher is awesome, though...