Homeschool or kindergarten

Question:
My husband and I are learning about homeschooling and we are trying to decide whether to take the plunge with our 5-year old, who would otherwise start kindergarten next fall. From an academic point of view, kindergarten would be a waste of his time, as he already has mastered everything taught that year.

However, kindergarten is still a fun and social time for most kids his age, and we think he would enjoy it. He has enjoyed his preschool experience, which was very relaxed and developmental in nature. Kindergarten in our town is 2.5 hours a day, 5 days a week. What we are trying to decide is whether there are drawbacks to sending him to kindergarten "just for fun" with the intention of continuing whatever academic stuff (reading, math) he feels motivated to do outside of school. Although there is a homeschooling support group in our area, with some social activities, it certainly can't compare in frequency and intensity with kindergarten. Our main fear about sending him to kindergarten is that our son will become bored with the schoolwork that they do there, and that this will affect his future attitude toward learning.

Are there any homeschoolers out there who have used public school kindergarten this way with the intention of starting homeschooling at first grade, as we would probably do? If so, can you give us the benefit of your experience?

Answer:
Our eldest went to kindergarten. At the beginning of the year the teacher informed me that our daughter already knew all the things she'd planned to teach that year, but she would still have fun, because she would be doing 'enrichment activities.'

Turned out 'Enrichment Activities' was the titile of a collection of very boring worksheets. My child, who could count to a thousand, got to sit at a table with a paper and crayons, doing workbook pages with directions like this, "Draw and color one balloon. Draw and color two balloons. Draw and color three balloons. Draw and color four (then five, six, seven, eight, and nine) balloons..."

Meanwhile, the other children in her class were with the teacher, doing things that looked a lot more interesting to our daughter. She was bored, very bored. She drew her 'nine balloons' by drawing 9 giant 9 figures and laying the crayon on its side and swiping it across the balloons, coloring all nine in one swoop. For this piece of creativity she got in trouble and the teacher called a parent/teacher conference for 'not doing her best work.'

I don't think the so-called social experiences of a kindergarten classroom are all that valuable. I don't agree that children need that much time with other children. I think they need a lot more free time than they get in kindergarten. I think the whole 'child'garden' idea is artificial. When we sent our child to kindergarten, we were not planning on homeschooling. If we had been, we wouldn't have done it. You set your child up with false expectations about what his days will be like later.