My 6-year-old expressed a desire to go to PS during the summer between K and 1. We've homeschooled all along. She had similar reasons, so...
I set up a school room, where she has two desks (a writing desk and a computer desk). We hung up a whiteboard and a corkboard. We bought textbooks and workbooks -- the same ones used in PS (Harcourt, Scott Foresman, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, but varied grade levels to fit where she really was. We got her a backpack and a lunchbox, and packed her lunchbox with whatever I would be sending her to school with. We even set up a strict, PS-like schedule with breaks, snack, lunch, etc.
And our first day of HS this year was a six-hour long day in pretty much the same format the local schools have. She HATED it, but made it through the day, and at the end we discussed what she liked and didn't like. As it turns out, she really disliked the hand-raising, the scheduled breaks and snack/lunch, and most of all, all of the handwriting (e.g., putting her name at the top of every worksheet).
So, I explained to her that's how PS worked, and in PS she would have to hand write her name at the top of all of her papers, hand write all of her answers on worksheets, etc. (Note that she has some handwriting difficulties.) And that in PS she wouldn't be allowed to just pay attention to her body as far as needing a drink, a snack, etc. If she wanted to use the restroom she would have to ask and might be told she had to wait.
Now she's vehemently in favor of homeschooling, where she can take a break when she knows she needs one, have a snack whenever she's hungry, have a cup of water sitting on her desk, leave with just a "I'll be right back!" when she needs to use the restroom, etc. Oh, and while she does have to do a little handwriting every day to work on her fine motor development, which is behind, for the rest of the day she can give either oral or typed answers to questions.
As for recess, we've addressed that with playground time. Most of the time that means an indoor playground because the weather here is extremely hot for nine months out of the year (100-110 F). I like to point out, after she's spent two hours on the playground, that it's the equivalent of *eight days* of recess in PS where we live (1 recess per day, 15 minutes).
She still brings her backpack and lunchbox -- packed with snacks -- to the school room each day, and likes me to use the whiteboard to note down things, but she definitely doesn't want to go to PS anymore and loves the relaxed schooling method we use (just shy of unschooling).
I'm *definitely* in the minority but if she had still wanted to go to PS after our "just like PS" day, I would have enrolled her. My parents allowed me to make big decisions, even as a young child, and I still really appreciate it, though I realize it's a bit unusual. Then again, a lot of DH and I's parenting philosophy is to do what my parents did and not what his did, so...
IMO, six is old enough to discuss the pros and cons of going to PS and to come to a decision with your child's input. I wouldn't just enroll him without making sure he understands all of the downsides of PS that are relevant to *him*.
Also, you can go ahead and run with a lot of the things he wants. Maybe you should have him call you "Mrs/Ms/Miss Lastname" during school time and raise his hand to ask questions if that sounds fun to him! You can get a little desk and a whiteboard pretty inexpensively. I got DD's writing desk online for about $40, and it's way, way nicer than a normal school desk. It has a drawer, a bunch of neat little cubbies and shelves, etc.
Best of luck.
--K
). DS struggles socially, and has a hard time with noise/chaos. We decided public school wasn't the best option. So we are homeschooling. And it's going well.
My son has wondered why Calvin can't just learn at home.
