All Day Kindergarten

[punkrawkmama27]

I was reading some of the posts here and it appears that most kids still do the half day of school when they start kindergarten. At the school dd goes to, it is all day kindergarten. We had the option of going for half days, but the secretaries and teachers told me that she would only be one of 3 children out of about 90 to do half days, and she would miss out on the fun stuff like arts and crafts, recess, lunch with friends ect. Sometimes it just seems like such a long day for a dc that age. I was thinking of switching her to half days, but dont want to mess her up, since we are almost a month in to the school year. Is there anyone else that has kids in all day kindergarten? Just wondering.

[alegna]

Basically all kindergartens here are full day.

-Angela

[CarrieMF]

They have all day K here, but they go every other day. The Catholic schools go every day but full day.

I love full day K.

[EFmom]

They are still half day where I live, unless you have a child who has special needs.

I would have loved to have had full day K. My kids were totally ready for it, and half day is a joke. By the time the kids got off the bus, got their coats, etc. off and got settled in, it was time to reverse the process and go home.

[miss_nikki]

My dd is in all day kindergarten as well. We weren't given the option of part day. In a lot of ways I feel like all day is just way too much. I would rather be homeschooling her, but Dh isn't on board with that. It's rough seeing her come home tired and I miss her because she is gone all day. Especially on the days when she has gymnastics or cheer in the afternoon. So I just try and focus on the positives. She's already starting to do a lot more than she was just a couple weeks ago and she's having fun and has made some friends. It's given me one on one time with dd#2 too.

[emmasmommy]

Originally Posted by CarrieMF

They have all day K here, but they go every other day. The Catholic schools go every day but full day.

I love full day K.

This is how K works here too. Full day, but not every day. DD just started K this fall too and loves being there all day, but she is pretty tired by the time she comes home.

[mommy68]

I don't know of any half day programs in my area. I had no idea they existed any longer until I came on boards like these. I only know of the preschools that are half day and the kindergarten readiness that is still half day.

Even if half days were offered I'd still prefer my child be there all day since she is in school with her older brothers and it's quite the drive to drop off/pick up all three kids each day. Plus, I don't see how they can get enough done in 2-3 hours in order to prepare them for 1st gr.

The K class my DD is in runs from 8:20-2:45 daily. They have a snack time, nap/quiet time and recess daily and PE three days per week, music, art and computer classes. There's no way all of that routine stuff could be done in less than 6 hours.

[Alyantavid]

This was a big decision for me. The district we currently live in is half days. The district will be moving to is full days. He is in the full day school. They have lots and lots of activities to fill the day. They have a music class, computers, PE, recess.

I was against the full day because I thought it would be too much for him, but he is thriving there.

[s_kristina]

We have full day kindergarten here. It's not all sticking their noses in books either which I would be very against. They have plenty of time every day to just play and wiggle. There is also a time period where they can go see the counselor and take a nap after lunch if they need it. We just had a meeting at this morning to adjust her IEP and I really can't say enough about how much I love her school. I hear so much about how bad public schools are, but I really do love her school.

[lilylove]

Dd just started all day k. She goes Tuesday and Thursday and half a day on Friday. I actually wish it was still half a day, or that we have the option. I know of more then a couple kids in Dd's class, including her, that are having a hard time adjusting to being away from home for 8 hours a day (including bus ride). That is a really long day for a five year old in my opinion.

[aniT]

My oldest daughter was in full day K. My 8 year old was in half day K.

My oldest was reading by the time she got out of K. My 8 year old didn't start reading until first.

My oldest was in the office constantly. She had three referrals in K. She was sent for things like, calling the teacher stupid, (I didn't call the teacher stupid mom, i said what we were doing was stupid.) She barking cause her and another child was playing dogs. And honestly I can't remember the other reason but I am sure it was equally as stupid.

They sent home a note with her every day telling me how she behaved.. (because she was a problem child.) It had X amount of starts on it instead of words so she knew what the teacher thought of her. All in all it was a horrible experience. I transfered her out of that school six weeks into the first grade when the principal told me if I didn't like the way they did things, I could go elsewhere.

DD2 was in a fun class. They learned, they played, and it was a wonderful K experience. So she wasn't reading until first instead of K. Big whoop. She is probably reading more, and longer books than some of the other kids her age that did learn to read in K.

DD3 is three. When I had a meeting with the new super of our district about my high schooler last week, she mentioned all day K. I said NO!!! I don't agree with it. IT IS HORRIBLE! But she seems to think it was the program and doesn't care about my opinion. I think DD3 might actually be reading before K so I might skip it and just send her to first. Or maybe I will homeschool her until they are willing to put her in whatever grade she is academically instead of chronologically.

[TiredX2]

Our school has three classes of all day and one of half day. DS was in half-day last year and it was just right for us. I just didn't want him to be gone that long and consider kinder a chance to get used to the idea/rules of school.

Now he is in 1st grade and I really don't think it hurt him at all. The kids who were in 1/2 day are doing great (the one child having a really hard time going all day was in all day kinder last year) and don't seem to be at a disadvantage academically or socially.

I am really glad I had that "extra" time with DS now that he is in school full time and I think the extra time out of school was more beneficial for him than the extra couple hours of school would have been.

Oh yes, also, in our all day kinders they have "rest time" and I was not sure how that would go over with DS

[blizzard_babe]

Our kinders here have an almost-full-day. They go home at 2. It seems like a good compromise... they get a little after-lunch experience but aren't expected to make it as long as the big kids. We also have half-days for the first two weeks... but that's one of the advantages of teaching in a village with no roads... no roads equals no buses equals a greater flexibility of scheduling.

[Lingmom]

Full day here too... In neighboring (richer) towns, it's all half-day.

[Viola]

All the public school kindergartens here are only half day--2.5 hours. Fullday kindergarten is available at private schools. I had my daughter enrolled in half day kindergarten at a private school. Half the children only went for half day, but she was in a class with most of the ones who were full day. After a couple of months, I changed her to full day because she always wanted to stay longer. There was a lot of fun stuff for her to do, and she didn't want to come home most days. Half day at the public school was 9-11:30, at the private school half day was 9-1 and full day was 9-3, but you could leave them even longer, although at that point it was after school care with different teachers. But that is the part my daughter actually liked the most, so sometimes I would leave her.

[jazzharmony]

Originally Posted by punkrawkmama27

I was reading some of the posts here and it appears that most kids still do the half day of school when they start kindergarten. At the school dd goes to, it is all day kindergarten. We had the option of going for half days, but the secretaries and teachers told me that she would only be one of 3 children out of about 90 to do half days, and she would miss out on the fun stuff like arts and crafts, recess, lunch with friends ect. Sometimes it just seems like such a long day for a dc that age. I was thinking of switching her to half days, but dont want to mess her up, since we are almost a month in to the school year. Is there anyone else that has kids in all day kindergarten? Just wondering.

Our town used to be half day until parents pushed and pushed for full day so they didn't have to pay for so many hours of after school care while they worked. Now they only have to pay for a few hours.


We started out full day because we were also told that basically nobody does half day, yeah it's available but....... We switched (and had to fight) to half day mid year and WISH we had done it sooner.

This was last year. We have switched schools.

ETA - forgot to mention that full day Kindergarten is $1800 for the year so not only are parents pushed into sending their kids full day but they also have to pay for it.

[LauraLoo]

It is my understand that you don't necessarily get more accademics with full day K, but you do get more group socialization and the ability to do other projects. There's only so much that you can cram into a 5 - 6 year old's head.

We started out with full day K with ds, but he struggled. He was a young 5 year old, so he was a little younger than most of his class. He needed some down time in the afternoon to do his own thing, and by Dec. we had made the decision to switch him into 1/2 day K. He did great after the switch and was much, much happier. Academically, it didn't make a difference for him.

BTW - I'm not sure if the child who was 1 out of the 3 in the class of 90 that didn't go all day would really notice, but maybe I'm wrong. I'm wondering what the intent of telling you that was. Perhaps a little guilt trip? I think it's more important by far to do what you think will work best for your child and your family.

[rabrog]

North Dakota is going to full day K next year state wide - some school districts started it this year.

I don't know what our Catholic school does. If our church gets a Lutheran school up and running in time, DD will do full day K. Heck, she's ticked preschool is only half day!

Jenn

[amis2girls]

9-4 kindergarten here. My 5yo is not so fond of it yet.

[aniT]

9-4!!!!! My fourth grader doesn't even go to school that long! She gets out at 3:20. What are these people thinking!