I've yet to tell my 4 year old ds that we will homeschool.

[Mommy&Will]

I guess its time to start talking about it but I need to make sure I go about this the right way. Our entire block is full of kids and he watches them walk down the street and get on the bus every day. He loves to put on his backpack and pretend that he is going to school.

We are now getting the "what preschool do you go to" questions, but we easily fend them off with either saying we are involved in a Waldorf parent/child program, or I just vaguely say "none" and leave it alone. I don't see the need to get into it all with near strangers.

So any suggestions on how I start explaining that he will never get on the big yellow bus that "Nick" gets to ride every day? My ds is very social, he'd die to ride the bus!

[mccelticmom]

oh, how sweet. I don't know that I would set him and area for *school* start doing some *schooly* things if you want, let him put books in his backpack and bring it to that area..you go even as far to set a time for school.

I have an online friend who's four year old wanted uniforms. So, she bought her uniforms to wear to *school* and she dresses in them everyday, and does *school* while her big brother does *school*.

The ideas are endless to make your son feel like he's going to school, but just at home. My son sometimes says *mom, is school over*...my answer, school is never over..

You might want to go ahead and find a group, since your little man is so social. Maybe some families have children your son's age and they can get to know one another. My son often asks me for a friend who homeschools... I'm looking, I promise and I just can't find a group that fits us...

Have fun!

[Woodchuck]

There is so much school in things we read, too. I've always talked about hsing with my ds. He is 3, but looks older and people are already asking him and he already says he homeschools. We are doing activities with a hs group 3 days a week so he is already having a great time of it. Hopefully he'll never miss the yellow bus. We do talk about it as he has friends who ride the bus and we pick them up sometimes from the bus.

[konamama]

my dd also loves the school buses that pass our home and since i founded the local waldorf school she is very aware of that school - but i have also started to tell her about homeschooling and that in our new home that we are building that she will have a school room and she got very excited about that and then she saw some "school" furniture that she wants to put in her school room - i actually think the younger you bring it up the less "strange" it will feel to them. she did ask to go this year but only if mama could go and i explained that mamas and papas don't go to school with their kids and she was over it real fast, so i said that we could have school at home together and take classes with other kids (music, hula, swimming and horsebackriding) and that sounded good to her.
we are also trying to connect with other homeschooling families so that she sees that others homeschool as well - it seems to be working so far, she now tells friends that we are going to homeschool with a BIG smile!

[UUMom]

Maybe you need to meet other hsers? My youngest has sibs who went to school for a time, but she was clear that she wanted her freedom. She is in 'first grade' and has never been to school, and can't understand why anyone would want to go. Riding the bus is easy to do, but hot and crowded and you have to wait.

Maybe take the child on a city bus ride?

And claim your lives as hsers! Tell her why you hs and why it's best for your family. My child knows it's part of who we are. Make them proud to be outside the box.

[Jaimep]

Hey Julie!!

I was just thinking about all this the other day. We have told Gioia that we do school at home and we have started talking about it with her. I think the ideas of getting him/making him a school desk for home, maybe start doing some work sheets at it, or your Waldorf things would be good.

Also I think he will be totally fine when you tell him that Audrey, Gioia, Avi, Indy all these other people you know are homeschooling and how fun it is. You can emphasize the fun things, like getting to have picinics and more playing outside than Public school.

I have been thinking that at the start of the "school year" when the yellow buses start going we could do a metro bus ride, or a train ride field trip and a "not back to school party". Gioia would love it, as she sees the buses pick up the neighbor kids too.

[sweetpeas]

I've started slowly mentioning things to my girls (3 1/2) to get them used to the idea that they have school at home w/ mommy. It's somewhat easier because at least at the moment they (especially Ashlyn) are quite "clingy" so the fact that they can do school with Mommy, vs. going to school away from Mommy, sounds good to them. They also, at least at this point, don't differentiate "school" from other classes, so when they talk about school/teachers, they'll talk about "mommy's our teacher at home" (which is generally just providing them school type stuff (simple worksheets, or a craft project, or whatever) when they say they want to "do school" and they'll talk about "Miss M" being their teacher at church (the leader of the program for little kids, parents stay w/ the kids & kids are free to participate as much or as little as they want) & we've also done My Gym classes during the winter every year since they were about 18 mo old so they talk about those teachers & about that being "school" too (and so far, those are still parent participation classes, though that will theoretically change next session, not sure what's going to happen then . . . I'm HOPING the "non parent participation" aspect is optional and I can be in the class as needed for the girls to feel comfortable, if not, I think I can get by w/ keeping them in the younger class for at least one session but then we'll see where they're at)

They do talk about riding buses so I think sometime we'll make a point of riding a bus (probably metro bus in the DC area since we're there every so often) and that should satisfy that LOL.

[bwylde]

I've been telling the kids that we're homeschooling since they could understand. DS loves telling people that we homeschool. I tell them how lucky they are they don't have to sit in a class all day and they can be with mommy all the time and do things they want instead of what a teacher wants them to do. When I look at curriculum and books, I always try to show DS and ask what he thinks of it too.

Fortunately the school bus no longer goes by our house but DS has been asking to go on _a_ bus, not _the_ bus so I'm going to get DH to take him on our town bus sometime soon.

I had a "duh" moment last week. DS was asking who his teacher for homeschool was going to be. I thought I had been telling him mommy and daddy but I guess Sunday School and kids there made him wonder. He told me he was glad that we would be his teachers.