me too. My son is 7 he's in second grade at a great public school, been there two weeks after 2 years unschooling. it is a public school none the less. Routine is good for him. Time away is good. bus and free childcare is so nice after so much time togeather. Our biggest obstacle is that i have no driver's liscence wich has really put a damper on beeing able to be invovlved in sooo many great things. He and I are both very buch extroverts and it's often been lonely and confusing at home alone so often. I sent him there for a few weeks till i get liscence. I'll take test tomorrow and so need to decide what to do next. He went to homeschool parteners.. a washington program were kids can take classes 1 to 3 days a week. I like it we attented Skaggit Valley learning center. You can take taekwan doe, quilting, music and drama + more. There are many kinds of homeschoolers there and lots of people for us to meet. The new semester begins next week. There are no buses to bring him there though and i have to be on propety until I meet up with parents who are willing to take turns for guardianship for the day. THis is also considered public school and in grade 3 they do wasl but they have had unschoolers and are fully supportive.
I realised last year I do like routione too. Some not five days all day to weekend.
You could pick one or two things to do regularily for son every week same time.
Alos this year he started playing Lacross. Its soo good for him to have something consistent to look forward to.
So friends are good for him at public school but I don't like somethings they say to each other or the weird unintimate I'm cool we're friends but don't have areal relationship. I've also been committed to child lead reading.. which school is not...he is learning to read and write better wich is what he does alot of the day but doesn't mind too much.
I'm not sure how I feel about all this I do know how every other person a round me feels, Dad, stepdad my mother father grandmother all my inlaws all think it's so great he's finally in real school and why would i dream of taking him out?uhggg

Can you let him help you figure out what that would look like? What does he like about the school day? Can you recreate that at home? Can you sit down together and design what a daily schedule might look like for both of you, one that satisfies both of your needs? Can you have some scheduled activities once a week, or even daily, and then times when things are more loose? If you need time that isn't structured and he needs time that is, what if you helped him find a structure for him that you don't necessarily have to follow? He can make a schedule for the day of things he wants to do and stick to it by consulting the clock and that sort of thing. Or enroll him in some homeschooling activities that don't require him to slog through the day in public school. Your day doesn't have to look like school at home to have structure in it, just look outside the box for unconventional ways to achieve structure. Have lunch at the same time every day and sit together like a cafeteria or something like that.

If he likes structure and you don't, it might also be a matter of you finding ways to thrive within a more structured environment until he is better able to create his own structure. Let your creativity flow into finding ways to meet the needs of everyone in your family without compromising your goals for each other, like autonomy, respect and freedom (which I think are all compromised for kids in the public and even most private school systems). From the outside perhaps it looks like bringing structure into your own life to meet your child's needs looks like a sacrifice that would dampen creativty, but I don't think it has to be that way if it's something you do joyfully and creatively, if that makes sense.