To kinder or not to kinder- that is the question!

My boys simply love kinder. And what's there not to love. There's singing, dancing, painting, mess, chickens hatching, puppet shows, noise and laughter. Elliot and Nate not only love going to kinder, they will ask if they can go even on their non-kinder days. Wow! So what's the problem?

The problem is this... it's kind of getting in the way of homeschooling. For us our boys go to kinder two days a week. The kinder is in a daycare centre and they go there for a full day on the days we choose. The issue is that if we didn't have the boys in kinder we could meet up with a lot of other homeschooling parents and their kids. I like the idea of getting some social circles going before we start the 'real stuff' in 2017. However that's going to be really difficult if the boys aren't 'free' to catch up because they are at kinder.

Then I had the wonderful idea that I could pull them out of daycare kinder and put them into 'real kinder.' You know the ones run by the parent community. I was discussing the issue with another homeschooling friend and she felt that she was in the same position as us... kinder was cramping her homeschooling style. And it was only going to get worse when her daughter goes to four year old kinder in 2016. Four year old kinder is four half days a week with a total of fifteen hours per week. These half days meant that she would find it difficult to participate in homeschooling activities with her eldest child who she has just started homeschooling. This is because many morning homeschooling activities go past 12 o'clock when the daughter would be starting her kinder.

So the question for us is- do we pull them out of kinder all together so that we can establish some solid relationships and friendships (for both the kids and the parents) in the year before we officially start. That way we can focus on the task of educating when we start. Or do we leave them in kinder for as long as they would be if they were going to mainstream schooling. There are plenty of pros and cons for each side but its a matter of what is best for our boys and our family.

We have yet to decide what we are going to do so only time will tell... anyway, Tony Abbott may be making the decision for us. 

Please feel free to share on Facebook and comment at the bottom of this post.

Love Alexis.