Seeking Advice Kindergarten.

My sister is sending her daughter OS right now and she is going into Kindergarten next year. She is in the before and aftercare right now while going to preschool. I may be wrong but I thought she told me they gradually move them to whole days for Kindergarten to make it an easier adjustment for them. (I can't remember if it was her telling me this or someone else) My daughter is going to a public Kindergarten in another town and they still have naps....my worry is my daughter won't like that because she gave up naps a long time ago. But I think ultimately it will be a good rest time for her.

If it was me, I would probably choose to send all my kids to one school as to not have to worry about sending them to different ones and to keep my child from having yet to start another school all over again. Ultimately though, kids are resilient he should be fine if you go the other way too. Good luck with your choice.

Personally I would pick the half a day kindgarten. Were we reside we only have half a day in our school but close by many schools have switched over to full day.
The reason I would pick half day is soon enough he will be gone all day and you will NOT get that time back with him. My middle son is currently in afternoon kindgarten. While my older child was attending school and my little one was attending nursery school he shared lots of special time together this year. We went out to lunch together just the two of us. We biked to school. I would keep my nursery school in school some days until 2 pm so we could have some one on one time.
You wouldn't get that time back. Relish it.Savior those moments.
Maybe you could join a karate class or join a family gym and sign him up for classes. My middle child was defintely my most reserved child ...outside of our house. He has made so many friends this year.
Another great thing about afternoon kindgarten since my son was so reserved I decided I would have as many playdate as much as possible for him. I would have playdates in the morning and afterschool. After about 3 months in school his teacher said he seemed much more confident with himself. She could tell he had many friends in class. Many times a friend would come over in the morning eat lunch with us and catch the bus with my son. Hope this helps.

There's actually no evidence that starting kids in an "early start" program or making them go to full-day kindergarten has ANY effect on their future education or intelligence. They did studies where they had teachers evaluate thousands of upper-el students and and the by 3rd or 4th grade, teachers couldn't tell who had been through the more rigorous programs and which had just gone to preschool and then half-day kindergarten in a public school. It wasn't worth the money or the extra time the children had sit in a classroom. Do what you feel is best for your child right now, not what you think *might* benefit him later.

My son was in daycare all day with naps, then switched to an all day Kindergarten without naps. He was tired the first week or two, but seemed to adjust ok.

Personally I would pick the all day program at the school with your other children. That way you could drop them all off and pick them all up at one time. One school schedule to keep track off.

M.

During all day kindergarten they have a couple of hours set aside as rest time. The ones who don't nap do very quiet activity's and the others crash and sleep. They work all year towards staying awake longer and longer. I always vote for all day but you need to do what fits in your schedule better. Only going a couple of days a week won't prepare a child for the rigors of 1st grade. They learn to read, do addition, subtraction, and a lot more in depth math now in kindergarten. The more hours they can spend working and learning the better.

The neat thing M. is that it is up to you and you have choices. I certainly applaud your researching all this as well. I don't know but when I hear a kindgergartner possibly missing 9 classes, I start thinking, "who knew there were even 9 classes for a little guy?" I am sitting here wondering about the potential pressure / expectations for a young 5 yr old. With all that, personally, I like the idea of starting school slowly. Among other things, this may help your son with his being shy and any angst as well, he gains time at school as well as keeping some of the time and comfort of home. Curious to know what he thinks as well. Good luck! S. A. K., MFT

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