issues in half-day vs full-day kg

[richella]

We are in a small district with one elementary school, one KG class. We have an option to choose half or full day. Half day is AM only. I don't see a need for full day. Every parent I've talked to says their kid was dead exhausted at the end of a full day of kg, and every homeschooler (except some with special needs kids) I've talked to says they can cover the material in usually 2 hours/day. We do lots of stuff as a family, and already the ballet, soccer, and music are getting to be challenging, and next year dd2 will be in preschool and starting those things too . . .

Dd is one of the oldest kids in her class, but even taking that into consideration, she is mostly a grade/year ahead in academics. We really aren't worried about academics for her. Socially, she does just fine, and rarely gets in trouble. But, she loves school and being with the other kids. I might homeschool under other circumstances, but she loves it so much, I'm not going to take it away from her.

Recently a parent of an older kid told me, "You can choose half day, but they want the kids to be acclimated to a full day by around Christmas, so they'll be ready by 1st grade." Another parent, whose kid is in preschool with dd, approached me and asked which we were doing. Apparently she was told by someone at the school that the schedule will be arranged so that the AM will be all academics, and all the PE, recess, music, etc will be in the afternoon. They didn't think the half day kids were that relevant, as "only" 5 kids would be doing that. (She suspected it would be more, which was why she was asking me. We didn't go to KG roundup, so they don't know about us.)

So, it looks like if we do half day, she will get lots of the stuff we don't think she will need, while the only way for her to get the parts of school we want for her would be to be there in the afternoon. Dh is starting to wonder if we could homeschool and push for the school letting her participate in the extra activities. We don't know all the rules. Wondering if any of you have any thoughts, suggestions, relevant info. tia

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by richella

Dh is starting to wonder if we could homeschool and push for the school letting her participate in the extra activities. We don't know all the rules. Wondering if any of you have any thoughts, suggestions, relevant info. tia

it totally depends on the state and district where you live.

We've moved around a lot and what you are saying jives with what I've seen. When K is a half day, it is core academics and may not even have recess every day. When K is a full day, it includes a lot of the fun stuff but generally no more time is spent on reading, writing, and math.

I don't buy into the idea that kids need tons of time to get used to being at school, but we homeschooled when the kids were that age. It took my typically developing child only a little while to get used to going to school when she did start -- I think about 90% is just readiness and only 10% is really about getting used to it.

Have you talked to the school about what they do for reading writing and math for kids who are ahead?

[richella]

Oh, that's a good question. I know of an online school (next county over! that'll rile up some people . . .) that has a statement about not holding kids back to keep them at grade level.

[peaceful_mama]

I don't know. I know that when we were all kids (assuming everyone here is roughly 20 or over I guess ) half day kindergarten was the NORM and we all did fine in first grade!

I *think* i even remember going to gym and music but it might have been only one day a week rather than two like the kids in full day do in my district now.

I would talk to the school and kind of 'push' for them getting one day of PE/Music/Art in the morning and one in the PM for the kindergarten so *all* the kids get the experience and get to know the teachers. (assuming your schools are like the ones here, they have the same "special class' teachers for all elementary.)

I kind of wish I had the half day option but we have been full-day only for like probably 10 years or so now. I know when I started working in daycare here about 12 years ago they were transitioning to it by doing full days but only two or three days a week....

[richella]

Apparently it's some kind of issue where the think they have to have the same schedule every day. It doesn't make any sense to me, but there is a lot of weird stuff going on with severe budget cuts, and they're down to 1 PE teacher for the whole district, with 2 schools in 2 towns, and I think they still have 2 music teachers, but that's for K-12. It's a huge mess. So I think they're just trying to keep it as simple as possible. But I also think it's kind of punitive in a way, to push the kids to go to full day, because some teachers think they need that in order to be ready for full day 1st grade. I personally don't think forcing kids to do stuff makes them ready for it, and I don't see why they can't just be ready for 1st grade when it's time to go to 1st grade, rather than having to be ready 6 or 8 months earlier. It just seems stupid to me.

Art is taught by volunteers once a month.

Talked to another parent today who . . . not sure how connected she is, but she talks like she is , and she said that the KG teacher next year is good with kids at different levels, uses music in lots of subjects, and does lots of "hands on" activities. So that's reassuring. She also said that if we wanted to do PM only that they are so desperate for every kid they can get that they will probably let us do anything, if we enroll her. So I'm feeling a little better, still don't know what we'll do. Still welcome any thoughts/insights/etc.

[aslyn]

Well when we went from homeschool to public school we lived in another district. It took my son about a week to adjust to a full day schedule, he was fine after that. When we moved to this district, he is now going 2 and 1/2 days a week. They split it up by zones certain areas go m-w and am friday, and ours goes th/th and pm friday. They do alot of artwork and academics on their full days.

The schedule though is a PITA! His sleep schedules get wacked out because hes tired on tuesday/thursday when he comes home but mon/wed/fri he wants to stay up later because he has no school (8pm bedtime on school nights, 10 on no-school nights) also my ft job and scheduling activities for the other kids has become a nightmare. My 4 yr old has been wanting to do this library group and we cant do it because my 7yr old has to be on the bus to go to school while thats going on; So it looks like we wont be able to do that until summer When he had an ear infection I had to keep him off on tuesday, so he basicly missed a 1/2 week of school because of 1 day. Appointments in general are really hard to keep because of his schedule and having 2 kids at different schools with all the various activities they have going on is a huge production! DD's Field day is 5/21 and they want the parents to be there but the rain-out day is 5/28 which is the same day as DS field day. I cannot be both places at once (unless someone can clone me!)

Now in all fairness, we have no car and there is no public transportation in our area. So I my have a slighted point of view on the matter. But juggling 3 kids, and their needs plus a ft job, plus my own prenatal visits the whole thing is a huge pain in my tush. I cannot wait til next year when the 2 older kids are in school full time!

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by richella

She also said that if we wanted to do PM only that they are so desperate for every kid they can get that they will probably let us do anything, if we enroll her.

that cracks me up! Our state is late on payments to school districts and things are kind of a mess. At this point, the school here will agree to almost anything -- if it doesn't cost them any money (because they just don't have it).