Reaching out to this list in hopes that someone can offer some unschooling perspective or experience. The other day my daughter, 3 and a half, asked me, ¡°Mommy, when will I go to kindergarten?¡± I told her that children don¡¯t go to kindergarten until age 5, and asked what she thought would be fun about it. She said, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I just really want to go to kindergarten.¡±
She has never been to daycare or preschool, although as a 1-2 year old she tagged along for drop off and pick up when her brother was at a part time play-based preschool. She doesn¡¯t know anyone in kindergarten (we¡¯ve gone on to unschool her brother, now 6 and a half). The kids she sees most regularly are the other members of our homeschool play group, none of whom has ever been to kindergarten. Her only knowledge of it comes from casual mentions and the many portrayals she¡¯s run across in books and cartoons.
So¡how do I counterbalance the fictional portrayals to give her a meaningful and realistic sense of what school is? When I try to describe it to her, I hear myself sort of talking it down¡ªwhich I actually don¡¯t want to do! When she¡¯s old enough, I do want to give her the choice to go to kindergarten if she wants to¡ªbut not just because Sister Bear had a really fun first day there in a Berenstein Bears book left over from my ¡®80s childhood.
Is anyone willing to share how you prepared a very young child to make a meaningful choice about school?
Many thanks to anyone who takes the time to respond!
sent from phone
