What do you think about all-day kindergarten?

In My Humble Opinion
1

So my daughter is going to kindergarten in the fall. There are two options available: “alternate” and full-day. Alternate kindergarten is all day on Tuesday and Thursday and every other Friday. Full day is all day every day. Full day costs 70 bucks a week.

We already signed her up for the alternate schedule because she goes to physical therapy on Mondays, plus with little brother getting to preschool age, with full-day kindergarten we would have been paying close to $400 a week for both of them, which would be quite a burden. So I thought it was settled.

Then my wife’s mother decided that she really needs to go to full-day kindergarten or else she will be behind when she gets to first grade. She also offered to pay for it. After talking to several educators I guess I am going to go along with it, even though I don’t like it. Apparently they will begin giving her standardized tests in third grade, and if she doesn’t pass them she will be held back. They started full-day kindergarten to give kids a head start on these standardized tests.

Any teachers here have any opinions on full day kindergarten? Any parents have any thoughts?

2

I went to “all-day” kindergarten; it was the only option. By all-day I mean a normal school day, so we got out before 4 or something (3? it was a long time ago). Not all day like the 0645-2030 that I often go to “school” now :slight_smile: .
I learned a ton. And it was fun. Kindergarten is waaay too early for the kid start stressing about learning, so a full day of that would be no good. A full day of enjoyable learning will only be beneficial.

3

I wish it had been available for my son. With half-day, by the time they get there, have their little snack, listen to a story and go to the bathroom, it’s time to go home. In other words, they learn nothing, especially if they’ve already been to daycare/preschool.

4

I realize I didn’t explain myself about what daycare has to do with it. IMO, the only thing kids learn in half-day kindergarten is how to be with other kids and how to listen to the teacher. Kids who’ve been to daycare or preschool know how to do these things, so there’s nothing in half-day kindergarten that they haven’t done already.

This is my opinion, based on my own experiences. YMMV.

5

Mom of three fully functional adults who survived 12 years in Decatur School District #61.

All three of mine did full-day, five-day-a-week kindergarten. The eldest was only two days past her fifth birthday when she started, and she did just fine.

And yeah, they teach them things in kindergarten that my generation only got around to in the first grade, so if your kid basically doesn’t “do” kindergarten (and “full-time” is what counts as “doing” kindergarten), then yeah, she’s going to be behind in first grade.

I was actually shocked that they had my eldest copying entire sentences off the blackboard into journals by the second semester. In my day, kindergarten was for doing wooden puzzles and learning the alphabet and learning how to use scissors and glue, but nowadays the assumption is that preschool is the place for that, and generally the kids have to know their alphabet, colors, and how to use scissors and hold a pencil before they even enter kindergarten. In kindergarten nowadays they have them reading out of books (“Fun In The Mud”) by January, whereas in my day, you were still working on your ABCs.

So if she’s only going to be there a couple days a week, you’re going to have to tutor her at home so she won’t be totally lost when she does show up.

Kindergarten is also where you learn valuable social skills, such as what to do about the kid next to you who copies off your paper, and how to survive in a lunch room. If she’s only there part-time, she’ll miss out on a lot of that.

Kindergarten is where you learn to make new friends, too. It’s like at Army boot camp, you’re all n00bs together. But if she’s only there part-time, she’s not going to fit in the same way, being essentially a “visitor” every time she shows up. And when first grade starts, all the other girls will be greeting old buddies from kindergarten, and she’ll be, in essence, the New Kid, all over again. But if she’s there all the time, she gets to be an Insider.

And the all-day-every-day regimen of school is physically demanding if you’re accustomed to only going to school a couple days a week. If she’s not used to it, her first week of first grade is going to be brutal.

So all in all, if she spends her kindergarten year basically doing another year of two-day-a-week preschool, albeit very advanced preschool, she’s going to be totally swamped the first few months of first grade: new schoolwork that she can’t do or is unfamiliar with, being a stranger, being physically more tired than she’s ever been in her life, not understanding the unwritten ground rules and niceties of lunchroom, gym class, bus, hallway and locker etiquette, and recess.

She may also not be challenged much, mentally, by doing another year of preschool. IME, age 5 is the age of beginning to explore boundaries, not quite as much as a Four or a Six, but still, it’s the beginning of the formative borderline years of Five and Six between Preschooler and Big Kid. So spending a couple days a week at school is probably going to bore somebody who’s ready for much more.

So yeah, I’d definitely get her into the all-day-every-day kindergarten. Let Grandma pay for this. Her granddaughter needs it.

And yeah, if your daughter doesn’t pass those tests in third grade, she will be held back. It’s the whole “no child left behind” accountability thing. IME school districts don’t do automatic social promotion anymore, because they’re fearful of having it come back to bite them later.

6

Both my girls went to all day kindergarten. They both had gone to preschool part-time leading up to the school year so they worked their way up to it. My youngest finishes kindergarten on the 9th. I don’t think that I would have opted for the full day unless they had some exposure to schooling before the start of the school year.

7

I did all day JK and SK in Ontario (That’s 4 year olds in JK and 5 year olds, standard Kindergarten in the US for SK) in the early 80s. I turned out totally warped. I don’t think the warping had anything to do with the schooling – in fact, I’m pretty sure that if it hadn’t been for the all day K, I’d have died of boredom. Note, however, that I was in a school for demented children (I’m only slightly kidding) and that the program I was in was not a regular JK/SK, curriculum-wise. We were pushed ahead, which may have contributed some to the warping.

If you have the opportunity, I say do it. :slight_smile: If your kiddo is ready and eager to learn? Do it. :slight_smile:

8

My son will probably go to all-day kindergarten both because I want him to learn and be prepared for later but also because I work all day. That said, I a) wish I could work part time and spend more of the day with him and b) (even more importantly), I think it’s really shitty that they’re teaching to a test.

Yeah, that’s not all of it and it’s obviously not your fault or the teachers’ fault and I’m betting most of them do a fantastic job, but I hate that public schools instead of remaining learning institutions appear to have become to some extent funding organizations, whether because of No Child Left Behind or rising costs. In other words, it’s more of a philosophical dislike than assuming it’s all the schools’ fault. I’m sure that whatever the kids learn to pass that test is important, but the idea that a test drives what my kid might learn bothers me. I always felt that you learn, then you test. You don’t develop a test, then learn.

That said, my kid will probably go to private school if we can afford it.

My advice to the OP would be to find out what’s expected later on for yourself instead of relying on your MIL for the information, get the opinions of your child’s educators and the educators of whatever school she might go to later (it sounds like you’re pretty certain which one she’ll be going to based on your district) and base your decision off what you know about your child (is she ready for all-day daycare or is it just that you don’t like it? what’s her temprament like? can you provide the same information they do in a more comfortable setting, etc.) and what your child needs to know to be successful socially and in school.

9

The alternate program you describe sounds like the Kindergarten at the preschool where I teach. Ask about the program and curriculum. That will give you a better idea of what she’s going to be doing.

At my school, the mornings are where the actual structured learning takes place, and the afternoons are more fun stuff. There’s always a theme for each week or month, and time for playing, but they do learn things, too.

It’s more like a little lesson disguised as fun. For example, one month they’ll do a Spanish theme. Theyll cook a couple of foods from that culture (maybe tacos one day), and learn about recipe cards (reading) and measuring (math), and the basics behind cooking (science).
They all get a Spanish name, and learn some simple words and phrases in Spanish. Kids that age are like little sponges. They just soak it up.
I’ve had kids that were in my 4-year-old class see me and yell, “Hola, Senorita Biblio! Mi nombre es Isabel! That’s Spanish! I can speak Spanish!” They get so excited about it.
As elenfair said, if you kid likes school and seems eager to go, then go for it.

Off the top if my head, other themes are geography, space, and archeology. They’ll make bones out of plaster, and the teacher buries them in the sandbox for the kids to ‘excavate.’

10

I’m always a bit surprised to encounter hesitation over initiating learning experiences in kindergarten. Pressure, punishment, stress, making kids feel stupid…all of those things are very bad. But why do people assume that those negatives have to be associated with educating a kindergartner? Why not bring on the learning and make it fun? Kids at that age are sponges, aching to learn. We ought to take advantage of the opportunity.

Think about it this way: imagine that in a couple of years you are going to be expected to know a rather sophisticated, specialized skill that may or may not come easily to you. What do YOU choose - start learning now, or wait until nearer the time you’ll need the skill and just hope you can learn quickly?

11

I don’t approve of full-day kindergarten. I also don’t approve of standardized testing for children under, say, 10.

I got around this stuff by homeschooling–2 hours, 3 days a week was plenty for a high-quality K program. I’m an academic junkie, but I don’t believe in pressuring small children. Not all of them are ready for reading at age 5. And guess what–that’s OK! By the time they’re 10 or 12 you can’t tell who read first, assuming the love of learning hasn’t been crushed out of them by inappropriate forcing or Accelerated Reader.

I realize that hardly anyone is going to consider homeschooling, that was just my solution to what I see as a ridiculously overpressurized school system. But I don’t believe that it’s necessary to put 5-yos in school all day in order for them not to “fall behind” two years later. I think that in many children it can be downright counterproductive.

BTW it seems to me that a lot of parents are getting around this new academically-heavy kindergarten by keeping their kids back a year. Almost everyone I know whose child hasn’t turned 5 by June keeps them out of K (our cutoff is somewhere around 12/1). The result is that a lot of kindergarteners are the same age as 1st-graders used to be.

It also seems to me that if large amounts of full-day K are for fun, that’s something that can often be done at home, with family and friends. That doesn’t need to be institutionalized.

12

Yep - just like that. All day -v- full day is about an extra 2.5 hours a day. Still leaving PLENTY of time for a kid to be a kid. DDG, you and I went around on a bus thing a while back, this time I fully got your back. The district I work in is offering it beginning this year. At risk kids are mandated, the rest of the spaces are available by lottery at $250 for the year. About 40% of the non at-risk kids are entered into the lottery for about 80 spots.

13

I don’t understand why people are debating all-day kindergarten now like it’s something new :confused:. It’s the only option I’ve ever known, only option my parents knew, only option my grandparents knew.

I learned the sign language alphabet and the names of all the popular dinosaurs in kindergarten and haven’t forget either of them since then, so that alone made it worth it. The sign language has been very useful, even though it’s time-consuming to spell things out, it’s better than nothing.

14

I went to a private, all-day kindergarten. The alternative was the district’s half-day kindergarten, which was a logistical nightmare, seeing as my parents both worked in an area that was nowhere near our house.

Honestly, I don’t remember much of it. The kindergarten was at the daycare center, so the lines between “learning time” and “not learning time” were kinda blurred. It makes more sense to me than half-day kindergarten, which is what my sister did. I mean, really. . .our elementary school ran from eight to two. That’s only six hours. I think the actual kindergarten classes were, like, 8-10:45 and 11:15-2. That’s almost no time.

15

My daughter had half day K, because that was all the district offered. My daughter, who turned 6 in Oct, was already reading (the cutoff is Sept 1 here). She was mightily bored, but emotionally and socially, she was in the right class. The K teacher advocated for her and one other boy to get into a reading program so she wasn’t bored out of her mind academically.

2 years later, #1 son also had half day (Jan Bday), but the district offered full day at one of the school (not the one we attended). I didn’t want to pay to bus him there, so he went half day. He was also reading prior to K.

#2 son–6 years later–the district is full day K, except for one school that offers half day (which you have to pay to bus). He throve in full day (May bday). He didn’t read well until 3rd grade.

As you can see, it’s all over the map as to how a kid will respond and progress. I am not so sure that the school’s are “gaming” to meet test standards–I think that occurs more in the higher grades when it comes to teaching the test and practicing the test etc. I know they do it in 3rd and 4th grade.

One thing that I haven’t seen mentioned in either thread about this: all of my kids made friends in Kindergarten that they still have today. My daughter’s best friend moved away in 6th grade, but they are still BFs and visit one another every year. They are graduating tomorrow (from their respective HS). Daughter is going to BU; her BF is going to Harvard–they plan on seeing one another often.

#1 son is still BFs with a boy he went to preschool with–and now they even work at the same place (not planned).

#2 son is only in 4th, but again, he is friends with a boy whom he has known since age 3. They play soccer together.

Obviously, it helps not to move around, but longterm, deep friendships can and do start in K or earlier.

16

All three of my kids (aged 20, 17 and 8) went to all-day Kindergarten, and I think it’s a good idea. K is a lot of fun, learning dressed up as play, etc. But it seems like an awful lot to expect a kid to go from a K that’s half a day, three days a week, to 1st grade, where it’s all day, five days a week.

Better to accustom them to the all day M-F schedule, IMHO.

17

A lot of places don’t even have public kindergarten still, nevermind an all-day option. I went to a half-day kindergarten, since that’s all that the public school system in my area offered in the early 80s. I think it’s only been within the last 10 years or less that I’ve even heard all day kindergarten that wasn’t private.

18

My mother was a kindergarten teacher and I am certified to do so (although I’m a software engineer now). There is no reason why your daughter needs full-time kindergarten. Also, I think your school system is really off track with its 3 full-day schedule. Kindergarten should be a half day every day. If someone WANTS to place their child in a full-day program then that’s fine as long as there’s a lot of “play” time. Your mother-in-law is full of BS.