Kindergarden question

[RCT]

where we are now they have full day kindergarden....where we are moving ..... 1/2 day...kindergarden...YIKES 8o (and here I was looking forward to her having the whole day to learn new things ;)) so my question is.....what is your schools policy...
1/2 day kindergarden...or full? was I just way lucky here or what?

[MaryL]

I teach 1/2 day Kindergarten, and my school dks are just as prepared for 1st grade as the children in our city who attend full day kindergarten. All of my kids (well most) leave my class reading...we do journals...we use theme units...we have all of the curricular subjects you'd expect...go on field trips...have phy ed., music, library, and computer classes each week... etc. We have an on site day care at our school, so the parents who wanted their child in school all day have the option of using that program for the other half of the day (if they needed childcare, etc). My ds's both attended 1/2 day Kindergarten. As a parent, I'm happy with the amount of "learning" they received during their Kindergarten year. They were used to going to a home day care for a full day, so they probably would have been prepared for a full day of Kindergarten. But I don't regret their 1/2 day experience one bit. Here in WI there are still many more 1/2 day programs, than full day ones. The big push here is the K4 (Pre-K) programs which most schools are implementing. I teach K4 3 afternoons/week.

I think Kat teaches full day Kindergarten, and I'm sure that it's a matter of preference and what you're used to. But I bet if we boiled it all down...our classes would be equally matched...wonderful groups of 5 and 6 year olds learning to love school! That's really what matters. :)

(From a teacher's point of view...I'm so used to the 1/2 day format that I'm not sure what it'd be like to have my classes for a whole day! LOL I'm sure the full day teachers wonder how in the world the 1/2 day teachers fit it all in! LOL)

Karla...your ds is going to Kindergarten in the fall, isn't he??? How is he doing with that? Is he going to be in 1/2 day or full day Kindergarten?

[littlesista06]

Full day, here. (VA)
I think some of the private schools do 1/2 day programs....

[KathyT]

Full day here, 8:25-1:55, however I would have liked 1/2 days. I think 5 is young to be at school for the full day, they are pretty tired when they get home.

[Amy]

In CO, it is half day for public schools, NC it was full day and back in NY it is half day. I think half day is still the norm, but some districts are slowly moving to full day.

[AnnW]

When ds was in K, it was half day. He was prepared for 1st also. In many ways it was more fun cause they really needed parent volunteers since they were covering so much in a short time, so I got to really know the kids in his class. By the time dd started it had changed to all day.

[KarlaB]

Originally posted by MaryL
Karla...your ds is going to Kindergarten in the fall, isn't he??? How is he doing with that? Is he going to be in 1/2 day or full day Kindergarten?

Ds is going to kindergarten in the fall. The school is our district is full day, but we are open enrollling him across town so he will be in half day which is what we wanted. Plus he'll be in dh's district, so dks will go to his hs when they are older. There is a waiting list for all day kindergarten here, so I am sure there will be someone excited that we are giving up our spot. :)

Ds is nervous about school in the fall. He is on a t-ball team with other kids going to kind. at his school, so hopefully that will help. He just gets so worked up about being in the "spotlight" and having other people watching him. :\ Hopefully we'll work thru this soon!

Thanks for asking Mary! :)

[Lynda-WA]

Both kids had 1/2 days. DS in CA and DD in WA. DS's teacher was amazing. He went in only able to identify about 1/2 of his letters and left reading. Not just easy reading either. In 1st he could muddle his way through Harry Potter and his comfort zone was 3rd grade books. Like Ann said, the parent support was amazing. She had 32 kids in the class. Everyday there was at least one parent if not two or three for the entire time as well as another parent that came in for part of each day. Plus the morning teacher would come in and help for things like testing. I helped about 3 days a week. I think one of the differences was how she had the parents helping. She was very effective at time management. Anything that could be done at home was handed over to parent volunteers that couldn't come into the classroom. I suspect DS's teacher got more accomplished in 1/2 day then many teachers do in a full day.

DD went in knowing a little less. She hasn't had the rapid growth that DS did either. DS and I will be working with her this summer.

[kat]

I teach full day 8:25 - 3:15 (when car riders leave, but the last bus doesn't pull up till 3:40). It makes for a long day. We have 3 20 minute recesses, a 60 minute nap and plenty of other unscheduled down time. But I'm sure the time spent on academics is all the same. Looks like we've all got them reading and writing in journals no matter whether it's a half day or a full day program.

[Sandy Stevens]

I'm on a school board which debated going to a full day kindergarten two years ago. Some parents were concerned that their children needed a nap time after lunchand that full-day school would not work for them. We considered this, but also looked at the fact that with many families there were two parents who worked outside the home. Often children who were not in school full day went from school to a sitter for the afternoon (sometimes a different one each day). We felt these kids deserved to be in the same place every day. So we went to full day kindergarten with a block of time after lunch for quiet work or napping. Children who didn't nap were given quiet and solitary activities to do. This seems to work for our school. I also teach at a full-day Head Start preschool. Our program is structured so that the morning is teacher directed learning time and free play, interspersed. After lunch some children go home and the rest nap for a while, then do various projects for the rest of the afternoon. They are picked up by their parents at the end of the work day.