My 4-year-old 5-year-old hates school

[KenOfNC]

Okay... so he's 4-years old right now (Sep 2012) and won't be starting kindergarten for another year. But any mention of the word "school" provokes a defiant, loud "NO! I WON'T go to school!" Should I be worried? Did any of your kids behave this way? Will he change his mind over the coming year? What should I do to help him?

His history: He's a bright, talkative, friendly 4.25 years old. His mother and I are happily together. She is from S.America and has worked hard to teach our son her native language, and has succeeded. He is bi-lingual. The two language upbringing slowed his verbal development at first. We were worried about this at the age of 2 - 3, and started him in 3-day-a-week preschool at that time, hoping exposure to other kids would help. He didn't like it much. He was one of the youngest in the group... but seemed to adjust after a couple months. It may have helped a little, but after 5 or 6 months, we just weren't very satisfied with the program and pulled him out. Since then he has been home with us - work at home parents. He loves it - gets to play with Mom and Dad all day, and perhaps we overindulge him in that way. Anyway, his speech has much improved. Now he won't shut up. Seems very bright (of course, we think he's a genius). And we're already planning his future as a doctor or an astronaut... but what if we can't get him to go to school? We try to talk about how fun school is, watch fun tv shows about school like "Sid the Science Kid", but nothing helps. He shouts, "I don't want to go to school... I want to stay here with you and Mommy!" Repeating my questions to the helpful parents on this forum:

Did any of your kids behave this way? Will he change his mind over the coming year? What should I do to help him?

[bananapb]

Kids are afraid of change. They like what they think they like and know, which isn't all that much at that age. I wouldn't be too concerned, but stress that you and mommy will always be there for him, and that everybody goes to school to grow up and learn and to become smarter adults.

It may also be because he's afraid of being apart from you guys, his parents. If that's the case perhaps you can try spending some time apart from him -- do you have grandparents or relatives that could spend some time with him? Particularly someone that adores him and shows him a fun time. He may get over some of his fear that way.