8yo asking to go to school
2nd grader asking to go to school. I know there are varying opinions on this. I'm wanting to hear some input. My oldest is only going into 2nd grade. She has never been to school except for a preschool program. But she has been bringing up wanting to "try school". I think it's a curiosity and feeling like she is left out in a way and wanting some autonomy. When i have asked her why she says she is just curious and wants to ride the bus and wants to go and then decide if she wants to keep going or not. She gets excited at the conversation of the cafeteria and going on the playground everyday (we go to the park, hikes, neighborhood walks, and play outside everyday). We are inbetween building a house in another state right now and moving back to where we lived a few years ago. So we are kind of just waiting for the house to be done to move and jump into all the homeschool groups. We were going to join an enrichment program, the library has a homeschool meetup almost every week, there's playground meet ups, and even a board game meet up at a coffee shop once a month, plus attending church, and we were going to let all the kids pick an extracurricular to join. So it's like 3 months until I planned for us to join all of this and get connected. We also just bought the curriculum for 2nd grade.
On one hand i feel she is slightly young to make that decision and should wait one more year, experience the homeschool community where we are moving then make the decision for 3rd. Also we wouldn't be moving most likely until a few weeks after the school year started. So I feel that could hinder her making connections at a school. She is shy and has some anxiety so I'm worried that wouldn't help. Also selfishly I just love homeschooling and knowing what they are all learning and being able to do so many cool learning things with them as a family. So part of me would be really sad to send her but I know this is not about me.
My husband is thinking well we don't want our kids to ever feel like we aren't letting them experience things. I don't want anyone to resent homeschooling. Like we forced them and overly sheltered them. I do want it to be their choice where they see the benefits of it. He also thinks she will do a semester then decide to go back to homeschooling.
The school we could possibly send her to is a charter school that has a classical education model which i really like. We did find out they usually have a wait list but do have room for 2nd grade. Not sure if we can start weeks later though when we move. They also have higher test scores for their students than the public schools in that district.