If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
New Here, Q's about Kindergarten - Tips from those who've been there???
Hi. I'm new to this board and I've seen some old posts about
kindergarten readiness, whether to hold/not to hold back, etc. I haven't seen anything newer, though. Forgive me if I glossed over this in FAQs, but I didn't see my questions. (Rambling...) We recently moved to an area where kindergarten is either part or full day. To get full day kindergarten, you pay for it. (I'm originally from New York City and it never occured to me that some areas make parents PAY for kindergarten!!) My question is: what's the difference? Has anyone had experience with a school district where some of the kids go full day and some don't? It smacks of inequity to me (what are the kids doing the other half of the day and won't the kids whose parents can't afford it be at a major disadvantage in the 1st grade??) Or is it basically day care? I've called the school and someone will supposedly get back to me in a couple of weeks. I'm kind of looking for the straight dope, so to speak. Thanks in advance!! P.S. This seems like a really great board. I've been reading for a bit, half afraid to post something silly. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
New Here, Q's about Kindergarten - Tips from those who've been there???
"Jaime" wrote in message m... My question is: what's the difference? Has anyone had experience with a school district where some of the kids go full day and some don't? Our school district has free half-day, and you pay for full-day. It smacks of inequity to me (what are the kids doing the other half of the day and won't the kids whose parents can't afford it be at a major disadvantage in the 1st grade??) Or is it basically day care? There are many opinions about this. I had heard from at-home moms in our area that "of course" the kids that would be in the full-day program would be the rowdy, peer-driven, always-been-dumped-in-day-care-by-neglectful-parent types, where the respectful, future-asset-to-society types would be in half-day. I would regret having my child in a full-day program because when she came out of it, she'd turn into a mouthing-off mini-teen-wannabe. I had also heard that the kids that would be solely in half-day K were those in low income families where the kids were at an aunty's or grandma's place all day watching TV while mom worked, and had never been in any structured program, and so they wouldn't even know their colors, (unless they had picked it up from watching Sesame Street), and would be totally clueless about how to properly behave in group situations. Meanwhile, the kids who were in full-day would be those who parents had placed them in highly educational pre-school programs since they were two, and would already reading and in ready-to-learn shape upon arrival the first day. From my observations, though, the above opinions reflect various parental biases not grounded in reality. All sorts of kids are in full-day and half-day K, for various family reasons and values. Bottom line: I didn't see any difference among all the kids once we hit first grade. Our experience in our school is that the full-dayers had quiet time, recess, and then a specialist (PE, art, music, or library) that the half-dayers didn't get. In other words, it wasn't that they missed out on academics, but they did miss out on sort of the fun extras. -- Warm Regards, Claire Petersky Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com Home of the meditative cyclist: http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at: http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
New Here, Q's about Kindergarten - Tips from those who've been there???
|
#4
|
|||
|
|||
New Here, Q's about Kindergarten - Tips from those who've been there???
In article ,
Elizabeth Gardner wrote: In article , (Jaime) wrote: We recently moved to an area where kindergarten is either part or full day. To get full day kindergarten, you pay for it. (I'm originally from New York City and it never occured to me that some areas make parents PAY for kindergarten!!) My question is: what's the difference? Has anyone had experience with a school district where some of the kids go full day and some don't? It smacks of inequity to me (what are the kids doing the other half of the day and won't the kids whose parents can't afford it be at a major disadvantage in the 1st grade??) Or is it basically day care? Our district does this, too, at least in the largest elementary school. They call the afternoon program "enrichment," and are careful to specify that the kids don't cover any material that the morning-only kids don't. It just gets reinforced. Our program was part daycare (i.e., supervised free play), part planned fun stuff, sometimes reinforcing what happened in the morning class but fairly non-academic as best I could tell. I think it was a lot for the convenience of working parents who could then sync up whatever after-school arrangements they had for their older kids. Our district gives the choice of going three afternoons or five, so that parents who want a mix can get it. Our school had half-day kindergarten until this year, when they went to 3/4 day (ending an hour earlier than the 1st graders). This change to the program was made possible by the School Board's decision to move the sixth graders to the middle school, freeing up 2 classrooms. Previously, with only 2 kindergarten classrooms and 80 kindergartners, only half days were possible. They just this month added after-school care for the kindergartners, paid for by the parents who use it. They got a great teacher for it also, who has had something like 20 years of experience in early childhood education and was looking for a part-time job. My son had had him as one of his preschool teachers for a few months, so I know he's good. There was already an after-school program for the older kids, but the program was not suitable for the kindergartners, and did not start until an hour after their classes ended. Our school has a very wide range of incomes, but I don't think that there is much correlation between income and whether the students do the after-school programs---it has more to do with whether there is anyone to pick the kids up when school ends. Because I was on sabbatical for a couple of months while my son was in kindergarten, he experienced both half-day and full-day kindergarten. Both worked out well for my son. My wife liked the full-day better, as it gave her more time to do other things. -- Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels) Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed) Professor of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics Affiliations for identification only. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
New Here, Q's about Kindergarten - Tips from those who've been there???
Hi - Our school had 1/2 day K when our older son was in, with an optional, pay-as-you-go complement to complete the school day. And full day K for our younger son. We sent our older son to the complement 3 days per week. I spent the other two days with him; we played, rested, had music lessons, that kind of stuff. Comparing the two kids' experiences, I'd say: 1. If you only do half day your child doesn't make as many friends at school. (Our school didn't have recess during the half day; that only happened in the complement.) Since kids go to school primarily to see their friends, the complement was a real boon. But three days was enough for us. 2. THe child who went for a full day learned a LOT more than his brother during kindy. (BUt the older child already knew a lot of the kindy curriculum, so for him it was less of an issue.) The teachers are marvelling at how much more the full day K kids know even by midyear than the 1/2 day K kids did. BUT the complement focused on social skills and play, not on academic skills. So no significant academic difference in the kids in the complement vs. not. 3. I observed little difference among the middle class kids in our neighborhood among those who did the complement and those who didn't. I DID observe a huge academic difference AND social difference among those kids whose parents were poor, or unskilled parents (for whatever reasons) etc. between the full and half day kids, both academically and socially. Our district is gradually implementing full day K, starting with the schools that have the greatest number of impoverished kids and moving towards the wealthier schools. They're already seeing a payoff. In other words: Full day K lets your kids make more friends at school. If you're an active parent, there is probably no other difference between full day and half day results, because as a parent you're filling out the curriculum yourself. For a poor parent (who can't afford enrichment) or an inactive parent, full dayK is a real boon. Hope I'm not too disjointed. --Beth Kevles http://web.mit.edu/kevles/www/nomilk.html -- a page for the milk-allergic Disclaimer: Nothing in this message should be construed as medical advice. Please consult with your own medical practicioner. NOTE: No email is read at my MIT address. Use the AOL one if you would like me to reply. |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
New Here, Q's about Kindergarten - Tips from those who've beenthere???
I'm not sure there's much I can add to the good responses so far. Both DD and DS had full-day kindergarten, DD with I think 16 kids in her class, DS has 14. It was the only choice in the school they go to...had they gone to the school at the church we attend, they'd have had 1/2 day kindergarten (with 24 kids in the class), which we didn't like because it was only 3 hours long, at most. So just about the time the kids settle in, they might start to think it's time to go home. Scott DD 10.5 & DS 7.9 |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
New Here, Q's about Kindergarten - Tips from those who've been there???
|
#8
|
|||
|
|||
New Here, Q's about Kindergarten - Tips from those who've been there???
My question is: what's the difference? Has anyone had experience with a school district where some of the kids go full day and some don't? It smacks of inequity to me (what are the kids doing the other half of the day and won't the kids whose parents can't afford it be at a major disadvantage in the 1st grade??) Or is it basically day care? I've called the school and someone will supposedly get back to me in a couple of weeks. I'm kind of looking for the straight dope, so to speak. I think that whether full- or half-day is best for the child (as opposed to for the parent) will vary a lot by district. Our public school dictrict offers only half-day K, but the state government is trying to raise money to fund full-day K throughout the state. I shudder at the thought. My DD does an awful lot of worksheets and often doesn't even get recess. (School is only 2.5 hours long, but recess is where they get to know the other kids.) If they're going to make the kids go to school full-time at 5 (or 6 or 7!), IMO they need to make it much more creative, fun, social, and relaxed. Other responses on this thread would indicate that many districts that offer full-day K do have better K programs than ours, or at least that they make sure the afternoon is not too academic. So I guess the straight dope is that it'll depend on the program itself, and also on your idea of what a child that age needs most. |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
New Here, Q's about Kindergarten - Tips from those who've been there???
First of all welcome, and I hope you stay around. It's great to see a new
face! As to your question, I echo what others have said. IMO the most important thing about kindergarten is that the child has a good experience that predisposes him/her to feel good about school overall. So I'd take into consideration what the child's friends are doing, what you hear about teachers in both programs, etc. Along the same lines, consider what you know about your child -- will s/he be more comfortable with the transition one way or another? Our child had been in a curriculum-based daycare since infanthood -- it would have been a backward step in some ways for him to go to 1/2 day K. I've read some research (it's been a while, this was 2 or 3 years ago when it was an issue in our district) that there are academic benefits. I'm guessing that's mostly true for kids with less educated, less involved parents. I'm guessing anyone who is involved enough and cares enough to post the question to a newsgroup is going to provide sufficient supplemental learning at home so that it won't make a difference. Go with your gut and whatever you can find out from folks who have been through it at *your* school. Good luck, and again -- welcome to the group! -Dawn Mom to Henry, 11 |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
New Here, Q's about Kindergarten - Tips from those who've beenthere???
Schools have changed. Kindergarten was OPTIONAL in most states when I
was a kid. Now it is required in most states, and the focus is now academic, not social. Study after study has found that 5 year old little boys are not ready to sit down, shut up, and keep both feet flat on the floor. With the change of focus of kindergarten, more little boys are being prescribed Ritalin and other drugs in order to enable them to cope with an academic environment that they are not developmentally ready to handle. My oldest son, now 18 went through a full day program. His 5 year old little brother would NOT be able to deal with a full day of school. (He's a YOUNG 5, having an August birthday, he is in the high risk group, males born late July- early Sept sent to school at 5) There are boys who are ready. There are girls who are not, but as the biggest hurdle to Kinder is the social norming of being able to follow directions consistently throughout the day. Females have more of a knack for social interaction, and that that age are more likely to try to please the teacher. As for my 18 year old who did full day, that was in a private school. I don't know of any public schools in my area that do full day kindergarten. Sandi Jaime wrote: Hi. I'm new to this board and I've seen some old posts about kindergarten readiness, whether to hold/not to hold back, etc. I haven't seen anything newer, though. Forgive me if I glossed over this in FAQs, but I didn't see my questions. (Rambling...) We recently moved to an area where kindergarten is either part or full day. To get full day kindergarten, you pay for it. (I'm originally from New York City and it never occurred to me that some areas make parents PAY for kindergarten!!) My question is: what's the difference? Has anyone had experience with a school district where some of the kids go full day and some don't? It smacks of inequity to me (what are the kids doing the other half of the day and won't the kids whose parents can't afford it be at a major disadvantage in the 1st grade??) Or is it basically day care? I've called the school and someone will supposedly get back to me in a couple of weeks. I'm kind of looking for the straight dope, so to speak. Thanks in advance!! P.S. This seems like a really great board. I've been reading for a bit, half afraid to post something silly. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Kindergarten, Open House -- Opinions?...Long | Tina | General | 38 | May 13th 04 03:38 AM |
Five Free Anger Management Tips | Catherine | General | 0 | May 8th 04 12:10 AM |
Teacher asks child to repeat kindergarten, Please help | Galbo | General | 15 | March 21st 04 01:39 PM |
redshirting long but Q's first :-) | Nikki | General | 69 | February 24th 04 08:25 PM |
New nanny needs tips | Traci | General | 1 | September 30th 03 07:01 AM |