Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Whatever they are doing in the afternoon, it is my personal opinion that it is not necessary in kindergarten. If you do the studies, you'll see that getting "ahead" in kindergarten bears no relation at all to how students do in later grades. Many prep schools only do 1/2 day kindergartens and yet their students go on to top universities.
I don't think anyone here sounds upset, as has been suggested. Nor do I think anyone here said they would opt out of kindergarten for their child. Some, me included, just do not think that full day is necessary or putting a child at some sort of advantage.
My child can do all those things too (read, counting, etc) but I taught him that myself. Plus, again, there are plenty of kids who don't learn to read until 1st grade who turn out to be excellent students. People are just very focused on doing things earlier, when studies consistently show that has no long-term benefit. In fact what HAS been shown to have a long-term benefit is more play at that age...children learn how to their world in order through freeplay and less time for that is really unfortunate. There are also studies showing that this whole "ADD/ADHD" epidemic may be in part related to expecting too much from kids too young (plus too much media exposure).
I think full day K is not a huge deal and my kids were in it. That said, I would have preferred 1/2 day. However the school breaks up the day, they certainly aren't being taught academic stuff 7 hours a day at that age--it would never work. So a big part of their day is the "other stuff" I'd rather be doing myself with the kids. And I surely hope they don't expect kids to be sitting learning for that long as time goes by and the pressure continues for earlier academics.
In the 2 years my kids were in K in Chapel Hill, the standards changed quite a bit with much higher expectations for reading and math. Although my kids were able to do it, again, I don't think there would have been anything wrong with keeping the expectations at that age lower, including more freeplay (or giving a 1/2 day option).
Many countries with higher academic standards than ours don't teach reading until age 8-9!
Anyway...this is all opinion and the kids will all be fine. There are far worse things that could happen than full day kindergarten. Just a forum where we can post our own thoughts!!
I have friends here from Germany who find placing such an emphasis on reading at this age very funny as their system does not teach it until they reach what would be our 2nd grade.
Other friends, from Scandanavia, will be putting their children in a Waldorf school primarily b/c they don't understand why the US puts all this pressure on early academics (and then lags behind other nations in the long run!). Waldorf schools don't start teaching it til 1st grade, and that is only basic knowledge. It isn't emphasized til 2nd grade. Of course some kids read earlier, and that's fine, but it is required until then.
Whatever they are doing in the afternoon, it is my personal opinion that it is not necessary in kindergarten. If you do the studies, you'll see that getting "ahead" in kindergarten bears no relation at all to how students do in later grades. Many prep schools only do 1/2 day kindergartens and yet their students go on to top universities.
I don't think anyone here sounds upset, as has been suggested. Nor do I think anyone here said they would opt out of kindergarten for their child. Some, me included, just do not think that full day is necessary or putting a child at some sort of advantage.
My child can do all those things too (read, counting, etc) but I taught him that myself. Plus, again, there are plenty of kids who don't learn to read until 1st grade who turn out to be excellent students. People are just very focused on doing things earlier, when studies consistently show that has no long-term benefit. In fact what HAS been shown to have a long-term benefit is more play at that age...children learn how to their world in order through freeplay and less time for that is really unfortunate. There are also studies showing that this whole "ADD/ADHD" epidemic may be in part related to expecting too much from kids too young (plus too much media exposure).
I think full day K is not a huge deal and my kids were in it. That said, I would have preferred 1/2 day. However the school breaks up the day, they certainly aren't being taught academic stuff 7 hours a day at that age--it would never work. So a big part of their day is the "other stuff" I'd rather be doing myself with the kids. And I surely hope they don't expect kids to be sitting learning for that long as time goes by and the pressure continues for earlier academics.
In the 2 years my kids were in K in Chapel Hill, the standards changed quite a bit with much higher expectations for reading and math. Although my kids were able to do it, again, I don't think there would have been anything wrong with keeping the expectations at that age lower, including more freeplay (or giving a 1/2 day option).
Many countries with higher academic standards than ours don't teach reading until age 8-9!
Anyway...this is all opinion and the kids will all be fine. There are far worse things that could happen than full day kindergarten. Just a forum where we can post our own thoughts!!
My daughter didn't read until first grade and has turned out to be an excellent student.. not genius level but excellent just the same - particularly in Language Arts. She was still five when first grade started , while many of her kindergarten reading classmates with fall birthdays either missing the K cutoff or had been held back a year were a whole year older.. it did make a marginal difference in the early grades - but by 3rd grade you didn't know the "early" vs the "late" kids ranked academically - actually some of the kindergarten readers were a bit behind as the younger ones caught up... so sometimes it really does all even out at the end of the day (or school year).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
