Can't decide about full day kindergarten

[Elisete]

Our town offers full day kindergarten. We have to pay for it and the fee is based on our yearly income. The amount comes out to a little bit more than what we were paying to send Teddy to pre-school. Sam will be going to pre-school 3 part time days a week. At first I was all set to send Teddy full time but now I'm not sure. I'm thinking that I would rather use that money and put the boys in activities like skate, swim, gymnastic, karate, music lessons. These are all things that they have asked for but we couldn't afford to do with both of them in pre-school.


What would you do? Full time or let them take the lessons?

[Michele]

What do they do in full day kindergarten? I know the towns around here (and I'm assuming it is the same for you since we're both in MA) aren't allowed to teach new material to the full day kids b/c the morning kids would miss out. So if that is the case, I would do the lessons, I wouldn't want to pay extra just to review stuff.

:dunno:

[Elisete]

We have asked to have a meeting with the teacher or director or any one who can answer a few questions for us. No one has gotten back to us yet. That is one of the questions we have. Is the afternoon session just a repeat of the morning? Are they playing catch up with the children that did not attend a pre-school? Those are the questions we want answers to. We sent Teddy to a very good pre-school. He is more advanced than most children his age. Plus I do a lot of "homework" time with him at home. That is why I think he might be bored going full day.

[Michele]

Yeah, if that's the case I would definitely use the money for other things. You don't want to spend money for him to be bored.

[Alyssa]

My two cents is that it's also about socialization and learning to spend a full day in class before the more structured life in 1st grade.

[Michele]

My two cents is that it's also about socialization and learning to spend a full day in class before the more structured life in 1st grade.

I agree with this too. I think the socialization is really important, as important as the academics at this point. I do think that doing half day Kindergarten (in addition to however many years of preschool) and sports/classes does leave a good amount of time for socialization.

I also think that it is good to get used to a full day in school, however, there is part of me that thinks "they'll be in school for 12 years, let's have one more year to have fun..."

I also feel like if your child is bored, then they could act out and/or have negative connotations with school that could effect their attitude about school for years to come.

Anyway, I'm interested in this thread b/c this is always a hot topic at our playgroup, and we'll be facing a similar situation (well, in 2 years :shuffle: ). From what I understand, in our district, it is about $4000/year to do full day Kindergarten, and that no new material is allowed to be taught during the afternoon session. I'm considering sending Jackson to private Kindergarten (which would be about $5000) to avoid this.

It is a tough decision - sorry that I'm no help!

[Brandi]

Based on what you said, I would lean towards only going a half day.

[Elisete]

IFrom what I understand, in our district, it is about $4000/year to do full day Kindergarten,

HOLY $#@!&!!!! It will be $1550 for us and I think that is a lot! YIKES!

[Girlo]

I'm in the same boat with Michele. :) It's a consideration here as well and we'd also have to pay and we have 2 more years to decide.
Right now, we're leaning toward keeping him in for a half day and spending the afternoons doing other stuff. It sounds like you'd just be paying for a half day of sort-of daycare. :disbelief No thanks! They really can't give the kids who are paying for a full day an academic leg-up over kids who are in for a half-day. Here, there is NO consideration for family income, although some scholarships are being given. So, all they'll really be doing is playing for a few more hours. :dunno: I'd rather pay for karate lessons. :aok:

Our school district offers an alternative through junior high called Options. It's more free-form and lets kids explore their learning at their own pace. We're considering heavily to put Alex in this program instead of the traditional classroom setting. I think he'll get bored with it, quite honestly. The great thing about this program is that they've recently started accepting kids in kindergarten!

[Cami]

I'd probably base my decision at least partly on how many others in the class are doing full-day. I'd figure I'd want him going with the crowd. And while I do agree that he'll have to get used to full-day eventually, I'd also agree that the extra half day is a lot of "fun" and social time that isn't totally necessary when there are other things you'd like to spend that time doing, especially because you wouldn't be able to next year.

Would you be able to do half days now and full days for the second semester?

[Brooke]

Full day Kindergarten is mandatory here (as of last year, all the schools had to switch from 1/2 day to full day).

If there isn't anything new taught in the afternoon, then I would probably keep him at 1/2 day.

[Jayne]

I am sorry but what floors me more then anything is that you have to pay at all for Kindergarten. I could understand if it was a private school but to me Kindergarten is part of the education program and should be part of what the State pay's the school. I have heard Alyssa talk about how K is not manditory where she is and I think that is crazy. Kids here who don't go to preschool are really lagging behind. Take a child who doesn't go to either and enters at the 1st grade level and your talking about teachers who have to spend half their time getting those few to catch up. Just isn't right..but that is for another thread.

I think I would od that 1/2 day thing. If you honestly are going to put him in extra activities he will get the socialization that he would have gotten in school with a great focalizataion on a skill where at K he might only be getting little dibs into things. Granted it is great for them to experience all sorts of things but they will do that every year for the next 12 so he won't be looseing out by not haveing art for 20 minutes a day or music or gym. (AND I AM A MUSIC PERSON). I do agree with Cami to though. I would see what the majority of the other kids were doing too so that my child wasn't the only child not going the whole day.

Here..granted we are free and public but when Tylor was going to K it was still an option of all day or 1/2 day. In fact it was the 1st year of all day. I was worried that it was just to much for my 5 year old and signed him up for 1/2 day. There was a parent meeting discussing it and I found out that Tylor was 1 of 5 signed up for 1/2 day and that the school had made the decision to do away with 1/2 day K. IN the end..I am so happy that he went all day and I am so looking forward to Alyssa going all day. It is a huge adjustment in the beginning as both my kids nap at this stage (Meaning Ty when he was 5) and Alyssa now but they make it work and Alyssa can't wait to spend the whole day with friends :lol:

[Connie1222]

I agree with Jayne, I think it's crazy you have to pay for K at all. Here in NYC we even have Universal Pre-K which is free 1/2 day of Pre-K.

Personally, I'd put him in full day K. He'll get used to being in school and you'll have a little more free time.

[Elisete]

Thank you all for the advice!

We decided to send him half day and use the extra money to send him to the lessons he has been asking for. Music is #1! He has been wanting to learn to play piano.

[Alyssa]

I have heard Alyssa talk about how K is not manditory where she is and I think that is crazy. Kids here who don't go to preschool are really lagging behind. Take a child who doesn't go to either and enters at the 1st grade level and your talking about teachers who have to spend half their time getting those few to catch up. Just isn't right..but that is for another thread. Crazy, stupid, backwards...yep! But that said, as far as I can tell/from what I hear nearly all of the kids do not only go to K but also preschool for years. So the bigger issue isn't lagging, it's merging the previous learning styles.

Glad you made a decision you're happy with, Elisete.

[Jayne]

I am glad you made a decision your happy with!

Piano is great. Alyssa has been taking for over a year now and she loves it! I hope you find a great piano teacher for him!

[Melissa]

I'm glad you came to a decision you like! I was going to say pretty much what Jayne said. If he was behind his classmates in ability, I would consider doing full day, but that doesn't sound like the case with you. I'm sure it will work out well!

[Lora]

Christopher is going to a Catholic school for kindergarten and we had the option of full-day or half day. It is my understanding that they do most of the heavy learning in the morning while the half day kids are there and then in the afternoon they work on special projects. We held Christopher back a year from starting kindergarten so we felt that he was ready for an all day program. It is a little more for the tuition but we felt that it was worth it in order to prepare him for 1st grade.